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