Your Home Theater
Deserves a Marquee
Transform a Raspberry Pi 5 into a gorgeous 4K smart movie poster display. Automatic slideshows, media server sync, trailer playback, and smart home integration.
Features
Everything you need for the ultimate movie poster experience.
Dynamic Poster Slideshow
Three display modes — IDLE for ambient slideshows, ACTIVE for now-playing sync, and MANUAL for direct control. All rendered in stunning 4K.
Web Control Panel
Manage everything from a mobile-friendly web interface — works on any device, no app install needed.
Playlists & Scheduling
Create curated playlists and schedule them for different times — movie night, holidays, or seasons.
Trailer Playback
Play movie trailers between poster slides. Trailers play automatically as part of your slideshow rotation, just like the pre-show at a real cinema.
Animated Posters
Short video files that play in place of a static poster for a moving, cinematic feel. Upload your own clips in the app, or generate them from any movie using our PostAnimate scripts on GitHub.
Custom Slides
Insert interstitial slides between posters — use them for "Feature Presentation" bumpers, theater rules, trivia, ads, or custom announcements for your home theater.
Your Posters & Trailers, Your Way
Upload your own poster art, pick a favorite from every version TMDB lists, or let htMarquee rotate through them automatically. Trailers work the same way — pull the full TMDB list or drop in a YouTube link of your own.
Media Server Sync
Auto-sync with Plex and Jellyfin. Display what's currently playing in real time via webhooks.
HDMI-CEC TV Control
Automatically turn your TV on and off on a schedule. Set a daily power-on time for your lobby display and power-off for bedtime — no remote needed, no smart plugs required.
Smart Home Integration
Full Home Assistant integration with auto-discovery as a light entity — weave htMarquee into your existing automations for poster rotation, power state, and scene control.
LED Ambient Lighting
Drive up to 1,000 addressable RGB or RGBW LEDs directly from the Pi's SPI bus — works with 8 popular chipsets across both 5V and 12V strips (WS2812B, SK6812, WS2815, and more) without an external controller. 15 effects, 10 built-in palettes plus fully custom gradients, and auto-lighting tied to your display state.
How It Works
Up and running in three simple steps.
Get a Raspberry Pi 5
Grab a Raspberry Pi 5 with at least 4GB RAM, a 16GB microSD card (U3), and connect it to any 4K TV via micro-HDMI.
Install htMarquee
Flash our image or run the install script. The setup wizard guides you through configuration in minutes — just have your free TMDB API key ready.
Enjoy the Show
Your movie posters rotate beautifully. Add your library, create playlists, and let htMarquee handle the rest.
Pricing
Start free, upgrade when you're ready. One-time purchase — no auto-renewal.
Matinee
- Basic poster slideshow
- Up to 50 movies
- Up to 3 playlists
- Single poster per movie
- Fade transition only
- Basic web control panel
- Manual mode
Premiere
Everything in Matinee, plus:
- Unlimited movies & playlists
- Trailer playback
- Custom slides (interstitials)
- Multiple posters per movie
- All transitions (fade, crossfade, slide, zoom, wipe)
- Plex / Jellyfin sync
- HDMI-CEC TV control
- WLED / LED strip sync
- Home Assistant integration
- REST API access
- Poster-based web themes
- Backup & restore
- Priority support
Downloads
Get htMarquee running on your Raspberry Pi in minutes.
Hardware Requirements
- Raspberry Pi 5
- 4GB RAM minimum
- 16GB microSD card (U3 speed class, 32GB recommended)
- Micro-HDMI to HDMI cable or adapter
- 4K TV (60Hz or higher recommended)
API Keys (free)
htMarquee fetches movie posters, trailers, and metadata from online databases. You'll need to sign up for free API keys before running the setup wizard.
- TMDB (required) — provides posters, backdrops, trailers, and movie metadata. Get your free API key →
- OMDb (optional) — adds Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores to the info row. Get your free API key →
Download image coming soon. In the meantime, install via the command line:
Quick Start
curl -sSL https://htmarquee.com/install.sh | bash
Run this on a fresh Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit) installation. The setup wizard at http://htmarquee.local will guide you through configuration. Have your TMDB API key ready — it takes about 2 minutes to sign up.
Prefer to review the script before running it?
Download and inspect it first:
curl -sSL https://htmarquee.com/install.sh -o install.sh && less install.sh && bash install.sh
The script is open source — you can also read it on GitHub.
Community
Join fellow home theater enthusiasts.
Discussions
Ask questions, share setups, request features, and connect with other users.
Join Discussion →GitHub
Report bugs, contribute code, and check out the project roadmap.
View Repository →Home Assistant Integration
Add htMarquee to your Home Assistant setup with our custom integration. Auto-discovered as a light entity.
View Integration →Subreddit
Join r/htMarquee to share your setup, swap poster collections, and chat with the community.
Visit r/htMarquee →