Added new media article

markdown/Play-all-media-everywhere.md

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+[//]: # (title: Play all media, everywhere)
+[//]: # (description: Use Platypush to watch YouTube, Facebook and more on your favourite media player.)
+[//]: # (image: https://platypush-static.s3.nl-ams.scw.cloud/images/media-ui-1.png)
+[//]: # (author: Fabio Manganiello <fabio@platypush.tech>)
+[//]: # (published: 2024-08-18)
+
+Platypush 1.2.3 [is
+out](https://git.platypush.tech/platypush/platypush/src/branch/master/CHANGELOG.md#1-2-3),
+and the main focus of this release is on the #media side.
+
+In particular, Platypush now supports streaming/playing/downloading any media
+compatible with youtube-dl / yt-dlp, even if the upstream audio/video files are
+split - yay!
+
+This means that it's again compatible with #YouTube URLs (the integration broke
+recently after YouTube migrated all of its media to split video+audio tracks),
+and a lot of other sources that have been using this practice for a while -
+Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok etc.
+
+It means that you can play anything that yt-dlp can digest to any supported
+media plugin - VLC, mpv, mplayer, gstreamer, Kodi or Chromecast/Miracast.
+
+Note however that mileage may vary depending on the player.
+
+Things work fine out of the box if you use `media.mpv`. MPV comes with native
+youtube-dl support, and the right stuff will be used to play the video smoothly
+if youtube-dl or yt-dlp are present on the system.
+
+[`media.vlc`](https://docs.platypush.tech/platypush/plugins/media.mpv.html) and
+[`media.gstreamer`](https://docs.platypush.tech/platypush/plugins/media.gstreamer.html)
+now provide two different play modes for YouTube-compatible content: _play on
+the fly_ and _play with cache_. In play-on-the-fly mode (default) audio and
+video content will be mixed on the fly over ffmpeg and piped to the player
+process. This means shorter load times, it's a good fit for live streams and
+large files, but it also means potentially lower media quality, high chances of
+media jitters in case of gaps in the stream being transcoded, and reduced
+ability to seek through the media. In play-with-cache mode the transcoded
+content will be cached to disk instead. It means waiting a bit longer for the
+video to load, and higher disk usage in case of large streams, but also a more
+robust and smooth playback experience.
+
+![Screenshot of the media playlist UI, showing a context menu with the existing
+"Play" option and the new "Play (With Cache)"
+option](https://platypush-static.s3.nl-ams.scw.cloud/screenshots/media-ui-screenshot-1.png)
+
+However I'm investigating a way to pass both an audio and a video URLs to
+GStreamer (it doesn't seem to be easily feasible with VLC), so the player can
+do its own tuned mixed playback without me having to reinvent the wheel. If I
+can sort it out, and manage to avoid big audio offsets in the playback process,
+then this could be the default mode for GStreamer.
+
+[`media.mplayer`](https://docs.platypush.tech/platypush/plugins/media.mplayer.html)
+only supports play-with-cache mode. The plugin already uses the player's stdin
+to communicate commands, and AFAIK MPlayer doesn't support sending both
+commands and media bytes to the player. Same goes for
+[`media.kodi`](https://docs.platypush.tech/platypush/plugins/media.kodi.html).
+
+[`media.chromecast`](https://docs.platypush.tech/platypush/plugins/media.chromecast.html)
+mileage may vary depending on the model of Chromecast. I haven't had much luck
+playing audio+video simultaneously when Platypush streams YouTube content to
+1st-gen Chromecasts because the new video codecs used by YouTube videos
+apparently aren't available on those devices. I've had mixed results by forcing
+the container to transcode the video track to H264 (and that is also the new
+default configuration for `ytdl_args` for the `media.chromecast` integration),
+but there's still a 50/50 chance that the Chromecast will only play the audio.
+I've had better luck with more recent Chromecast models though. And I believe
+that things should work just fine if you use any modern
+Miracast/DLNA-compatible device/dongle. Given the deprecation status of the
+Chromecast, and the dubious compatibility with whatever the Google TV folks are
+planning next, I'm not even sure if it's worth investing further energies in
+for the Chromecast compatibility. `media.chromecast` now also provides a
+`use_ytdl` configuration flag - it's set to true by default, but you can
+disable if you want to stream YouTube/Facebook/TikTok etc. URLs to your
+Chromecast bypassing the Platypush streaming service. This means higher chances
+that the content will play fine, but it also means that it'll be played by
+whatever compatible app (if available) runs on your Chromecast (i.e.
+ads/tracking/account limitations/geo limitations etc.).
+
+Stay tuned!