Switch VLC screens using python-vlc

Question

I have multiple live streams running which I'm playing with python-vlc.

So something like this:

stream1 = vlc.MediaPlayer("rtsp://...")
stream2 = vlc.MediaPlayer("rtsp://...")
stream1.play()
stream1.audio_toggle_mute()
stream2.play()
stream2.toggle_fullscreen()

I can use toggle_fullscreen to display one but how can I switch between multiple streams and bring a specific one to the foreground? Would I just have to stop and start it again or is there an easier way?

How would you trigger it? If the video is foreground, your app doesn't have focus to get keystrokes, right? — Tim Roberts, Jul 29 '23 at 00:28
Let's say it's based on a timer. There's going to be logic to determine which stream to play in the foreground. I'm not worried about that, just trying to figure out if I can even switch it — asm, Jul 29 '23 at 00:31
You can call `toggle_fullscreen` on both to switch them. It will turn 2 off and 1 on. — Tim Roberts, Jul 29 '23 at 00:33
I tried that but it doesn't bring it to the foreground. It just toggles it and I have to manually switch to see the other one — asm, Jul 29 '23 at 00:34
Hmm. On Windows, you could use `stream1.get_hwnd()` and pass that to `win32gui.SetForegroundWindow`. — Tim Roberts, Jul 29 '23 at 00:45
I just checked the documentation and it looks like `get_hwnd()` will return the value we've set when we call `set_hwnd()`. I'll check it out once I understand how to properly use `set_hwnd()`. Thanks! — asm, Jul 29 '23 at 01:27

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 30 '23 at 18:58

I ended up using PyQt5 to create a window and embed the vlc media player in it and then switch using that. The code I used to define the stream is:


class Stream(QtWidgets.QMainWindow):

    def __init__(self, url: str, title: str, parent=None):
        super(Stream, self).__init__(parent)
        self.setWindowTitle(title)

        # creating a basic vlc instance
        self.instance = vlc.Instance()
        self.media_player = self.instance.media_player_new()
        self.video_frame = QtWidgets.QFrame()

        if sys.platform.startswith("linux"):  # for Linux using the X Server
            self.media_player.set_xwindow(self.video_frame.winId())
        elif sys.platform == "win32":  # for Windows
            self.media_player.set_hwnd(self.video_frame.winId())
            print(self.media_player.get_hwnd())
        elif sys.platform == "darwin":  # for MacOS
            self.media_player.set_nsobject(self.video_frame.winId())

        central_widget = QtWidgets.QWidget()
        self.setCentralWidget(central_widget)
        lay = QtWidgets.QVBoxLayout(central_widget)
        lay.addWidget(self.video_frame)
        self.video_frame.setStyleSheet("border: 0px")
        central_widget.setStyleSheet("border: 0px")
        self.setStyleSheet("border: 0px")

        youtube_url = pafy.new(url).getbest()
        media = self.instance.media_new(youtube_url.url)
        self.media_player.set_media(media)
        self.media_player.audio_set_volume(0)
        self.media_player.play()
        self.showFullScreen()

    def bring_to_foreground(self):
        self.window().activateWindow()
        self.media_player.audio_set_volume(100)

    def mute(self):
        self.media_player.audio_set_volume(0)

Switch VLC screens using python-vlc

1 Answers1