Repeating single movie using Python bindings for VLC: what is a psz_name

Question

I'm trying to write an little application that dynamically plays a single movie file repeatedly. I wrote it in Python, using these VLC-Python bindings

I would say that this wouldn't be so hard and even though the very sparse documentation I can get a movie fullscreen without anything else on the screen and even change the file I want to play. What I cannot is simply let a single movie repeat.

I use the following code:

self.media = []

A --repeat-tag here:

self.vlc_inst = vlc.Instance('--mouse-hide-timeout=0', '--fullscreen', '--repeat')

And a '--repeat' tag here:
self.media = self.vlc_inst.media_new(NEW_VIDEO_NAME + str(currentVideoN) + VIDEO_EXTENSION, '--repeat')

    self.player = self.vlc_inst.media_player_new()                  
    self.player.set_fullscreen(True)    
    self.player.set_media(self.media[currentVideoN])
    self.player.play()

These repeat tags don't seem to do anything. The Instance class does have a function vlm_set_loop(self, psz_name, b_loop) but I have no idea what mrl should be. In the original code I figured out it should be a char-array (String), but I have no clue what kind of String this should be.

Anyone who does have a clue?

Did you ever figure this out? I'm trying to do the same thing. — Steven J Owens, Feb 16 '21 at 07:09
I managed to get it working using "--input-repeat=999999" as suggested below. However, "--input-repeat=-1" did not work. — Steven J Owens, Feb 18 '21 at 04:34

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 10 '13 at 12:57

5

well, this question is pretty old, but anyways... i think instead of using '--repeat' (which only works with a medialist rather than a single mediafile afaik) in your vlc.Instance you could use somthing like '--input-repeat=999999' it's not really a loop, but as close as it gets (again: afaik ;-) )

edited Dec 10 '13 at 12:57

answered Nov 09 '12 at 09:49

flo

51
1
2

Or you can do : `vlc.Instance('--input-repeat=-1', '--no-video-title-show', '--fullscreen', '--mouse-hide-timeout=0')` – Feb 12 '14 at 09:52

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 31 '20 at 19:10

I was able to make the media replay by setting the media to it's current media and calling play. Is the code trash? Yes, it is: the back function may not be called inside the onEnd function, else i won't full fill by some reason. Does it work? Yes

import vlc


doTrashCode = False
player = vlc.MediaPlayer("C:/Users/benj5/Videos/2019-04-29 22-14-55_Trim.mp4")


def start():
    player.set_fullscreen(True)
    em = player.event_manager()
    em.event_attach(vlc.EventType.MediaPlayerEndReached, onEnd)
    player.play()


def onEnd(event):
    global doTrashCode
    if event.type == vlc.EventType.MediaPlayerEndReached:
        doTrashCode = True


def back():
    player.set_media(player.get_media())
    player.play()


start()

while True:
    if doTrashCode:
        back()
        doTrashCode = False

The code works for me (I'm using it on a RaspberryPi). Problem is that, this way, when the movie ends, just before restarting it from the beginning, I see the desktop as the background :( Is there a way to prevent this from happening? (I don't want to use, say, tkinter, opencv or pygame, just to print a fullscreen black image as a background under VLC) — orestino, Oct 19 '22 at 11:45

Fabrizio Catinella · Answer 3 · 2023-04-12T14:49:14.267

Looking at the source code I found this works to be a working solution.

Once you define a media list, you add the media list to a media_list_player, to which you can set a playback mode on the player. In the documentation this is an enum.

class PlaybackMode(_Enum):
    '''Defines playback modes for playlist.
    '''
    _enum_names_ = {
        0: 'default',
        1: 'loop',
        2: 'repeat',
    }
PlaybackMode.default = PlaybackMode(0)
PlaybackMode.loop    = PlaybackMode(1)
PlaybackMode.repeat  = PlaybackMode(2)

All you need to do is set the mode in the list player:

listPlayer.set_playback_mode() to be listPlayer.set_playback_mode(vlc.PlaybackMode(1)) or listPlayer.set_playback_mode(vlc.PlaybackMode().loop)

import vlc
from pathlib import Path
import time
import os


class Player:

    def __init__(self):
        self.player = vlc.Instance()

    def addPlayList(self, localPath):
        self.mediaList = self.player.media_list_new()
        path = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), localPath)
        self.mediaList.add_media(path)
        self.listPlayer = self.player.media_list_player_new()
        self.listPlayer.set_media_list(self.mediaList)
        self.listPlayer.set_playback_mode(vlc.PlaybackMode(1))

    def play(self):
        self.listPlayer.play()

    def stop(self):
        self.listPlayer.stop()


play = Player()
play.addPlayList("test.mp4")
play.play()
while True:
    time.sleep(4)

This answer is the only one that worked correctly for me. Thanks!! — Tomer Shemesh, Aug 24 '23 at 18:00

Mohammad Azka · Answer 4 · 2020-12-16T07:19:51.770

0

you can use subprocess

p = subprocess.Popen('cvlc', 'fullscreen', 'home/pi/demo.mp4', '--loop')

I used VLC instead of CVLC earlier but it wasn't working fine for me, it was reloading and resizing the VLC player when the loop end

edited Dec 16 '20 at 07:19

answered Sep 21 '19 at 10:41

Mohammad Azka

1
1

Repeating single movie using Python bindings for VLC: what is a psz_name

4 Answers4