OutOfProcess for vlcj > 1.1.5 about vlcj

[caprica]

I need a lot of things too.

http://berry120.blogspot.com/2011/07/using-vlcj-for-video-reliably-with-out.html

[dyorgio]

Thank you, I used this to base my class.
But the problem is: The vlcj Api changed.
Sorry for "I need", my English is not so good. :(.
Can I send to you my implementation?
This use sockets, vlcj 2.0, and works in Mac, maybe you can use it.

[caprica]

Ah, I forgot that the linked article was for an earlier version, sorry about that. The same principles apply though, you pass your native component id to your remote process and your remote process creates a media player with that id in a ComponentIdVideoSurface, instead of a CanvasVideoSurface.

Out of process players is an advanced concept, it can be difficult to do it properly, and unfortunately I do not offer any open source solution for it.

[dyorgio]

I know :(.

so... to use ComponentIdVideoSurface I did it:
factory.newVideoSurface(canvasId).attach(LibVlc.INSTANCE, player);

But it didn't works.

EmbeddedPlayer don't have any method to works with ComponentIdVideoSurface.
Any class use it really...

[caprica]

OK, this might be an API problem. I will re-open this.

[dyorgio]

Thank you again! :)
I will watch the project, if you change your mind I give to you my OutOfProcess code :),
it´s so Beautiful :D.

[caprica]

Thank you, but I have my own solution for out-of-process.

However, you are free to fork the vlcj github repository and include your beautiful code if you so wish.

[dyorgio]

Give me! :D,
Is it only for commercial clients? :(

[caprica]

Out of process is provided under commercial terms only via a consultancy arrangement.

It's just too dependant on particular client requirements, understanding the required error handling (like automatically restarting crashed processes) and so on.

In short, it's a very tough problem and very hard to do it properly, it's a lot of work - and I have no need or incentive to give that away. I already gave you vlcj without any consideration.

[caprica]

OK, after investigation... this is not a vlcj API issue.

I will tell you the basics...

1. You need to pass a ComponentidVideoSurface to your out of process media player, constructor, setter, whatever.
2. You need to override the onBeforePlay() template method in your out of process media player.
3. In onBeforePlay() you call componentIdVideoSurface.attach(libvlc, this);

That's all you get. vlcj does not provide this for you.

[caprica]

Some high-level guidance is provided here: http://www.capricasoftware.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Vlcj_Out_Of_Process_Media_Players

[jkschoen]

@caprica I don't mean to beat a dead horse here, and I apologize if it seems that way, just trying to clarify. Are you saying to accomplish the Out of Process setup we should extend DefaultMediaPlayer or implement the EmbeddedMediaPlayer interface. Or am I missing something.

I understand that you do this as consulting work also, so I obviously understand if you decline to answer. I am sure I will figure it out eventually. This is just for a open source pet project of mine anyways, so it is not like I have a deadline. And thanks for the great library, it is pretty impressive.

Edit: Could by chance do you mean to override the method "attachVideoSurface" in DefaultEmbeddedMediaPlayer as the onBeforePlay method is final and cannot be overriden. But all it does is call attachVideoSurface.

[caprica]

What you ultimately need to do is get the native component id for your video surface - and send that somehow to your "remote" out of process player. You can do that all sorts of ways but you need some sort of interprocess communication, you can use sockets, process streams, REST, whatever you want.

Once your out of process wrapper has the native component id, it needs to set it on the media player it contains. How you do that is up to you.

I mention overriding onBeforePlay in the DefaultMediaPlayer as that is the correct place to set the video surface. The actual HOW of it is up to you, but as long as you have the native component for your video surface you can do it.

[jkschoen]

Thanks for taking the time to respond. That cleared things up for me.