Smart movie poster display for home theater lobbies
Turn any 4K TV into a gorgeous, automated movie poster slideshow powered by a Raspberry Pi 5.
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htMarquee transforms a Raspberry Pi 5 and a 4K TV into a theater-quality movie poster display. It automatically cycles through movie posters with trailers, syncs with your Plex or Jellyfin server during playback, and provides a web-based control panel accessible from any device.
- Automated poster slideshow with smooth GPU-accelerated transitions
- Trailer playback between poster reveals
- Plex & Jellyfin integration — auto-switches to "Now Playing" during playback
- Web control panel — manage everything from your phone or desktop
- TMDB-powered — automatic poster, backdrop, trailer, and metadata fetching
- Customizable banner — text, font, size, color, or custom image
- LED strip sync (WS2812B/SK6812) — ambient lighting that matches the display
- HDMI-CEC — auto power on/off your TV on schedule
- Custom slides — interstitial images and videos between movies
- OTA updates — one-click updates from the app
- Works out of the box — ships with a demo poster + trailer so the display works immediately, even before you set up TMDB
htMarquee comes in two tiers:
Everything you need to get started:
- Poster slideshow with fade transitions
- Up to 50 movies and 3 playlists
- Playlist scheduler
- Custom banner text and images
- Format badge icons (Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, etc.)
- Info row customization
- Backup & restore
- Spotlight mode — lock the display to a specific movie
Unlock the full experience:
- Unlimited movies and playlists
- Trailer playback with pre/post poster timing
- Animated posters (MP4/WebM loops)
- All transitions — crossfade, slide, zoom, dissolve, plus directional and radial wipes
- Multiple posters per movie with auto-rotation
- Plex & Jellyfin sync — live "Now Playing" mode
- HDMI-CEC TV control with scheduled on/off
- LED strip sync — WS2812B, SK6812, and more via SPI
- Custom slides — interstitial images and videos
- Home Assistant integration
- REST API for advanced automation
- OTA updates — stay current with one click
- Priority support
- Raspberry Pi 5 — 4GB+ recommended; 2GB works (great for a dev unit or smaller libraries). Pi 4 and earlier are not supported.
- 16GB+ microSD card (U3 speed class, 32GB recommended)
- Micro-HDMI to HDMI cable
- 4K TV (60Hz recommended)
curl -sSL https://htmarquee.com/install.sh | sudo bashRun on a fresh Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit) installation. The setup wizard at http://htmarquee.local guides you through configuration.
You'll need a free TMDB API key (takes 2 minutes to sign up).
| Service | Required | Provides |
|---|---|---|
| TMDB | Yes (free) | Posters, backdrops, trailers, metadata |
| OMDb | Optional (free) | Rotten Tomatoes & Metacritic scores |
htMarquee checks for updates automatically (Premiere tier) or manually via the web dashboard. Updates are downloaded, verified (SHA-256 + Ed25519 signature), and installed with a single click. Rollback to the previous version is always available.
htMarquee is proprietary software. See htmarquee.com for pricing and terms.