play audio and video from separate sources

[ninapaley]

Is it possible to develop a free open-source media player that lets you listen to audio and play video from separate sources at the same time?

I'm an independent filmmaker, not a coder. I guarantee if such a player is developed I will promote the heck out of it with my award-winning feature film, which I will release specifically to play on it.

If such a player catches on, the opportunities for Free Culture are huge. Please see
http://blog.ninapaley.com/2008/09/05/th ... e-rainbow/

Thanks,

--Nina

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

You mean, like in VLC ?

Seriously, VLC can do that, but maybe not with all sources... What are your inputs ?

[dionoea]

It can with all sources ... but with some it's easy (input slave) while with others it's a bit more complex to configure (bridge modules in VLM).

[Arite]

Moved to General VLC media player discussion.

Arite.

[ninapaley]

Seriously, VLC can do that, but maybe not with all sources... What are your inputs ?

Great! I am thrilled videoLAN can theoretically already do that. But it has to be easy enough for a monkey to use.

The audio source will be an 82-minute soundtrack on audioDVD (CD only holds 74 minutes). Said audio disc will be released with a free bonus video disc - probably a regular DVD. The bonus video disc could/would also include the player. No DRM anywhere. I assume the audio files would be .wav or .aif, whatever CD players like. The Video file would be DVD - not my favorite video format, but the most compatible with the most players. But no additional DRM.

Users would be encouraged - perhaps prompted - to copy the contents of the audio disk onto their hard drives. (The audio disc could/should also play on a regular CD player or DVD player.)

Users would be encouraged to play the video on the free player, included on the DVD. (The video disc could/should also play on a regular DVD player.

Ideally, upon insertion of the video disc in a computer, the free player (videoLAN) would offer to install itself. Upon launch, the free player would automatically look for the soundtrack on the user's hard drive, and automatically play that audio when the video is played. This wouldn't be compulsory; like all DVDs, the DVD will have its own synched soundtrack that would automatically play in existing players. But in the case of this particular release, the player should facilitate the user's playing of the video with the audio tracks from the soundtrack disc. If the user has 2 optical drives, with the audio disc in one and the video disc in the other, the player would ideally just launch and play them together.

Why am I doing this? To raise awareness of a huge problem with US copyright law: "synch rights." Synch rights are the reason Fair Use has to be invoked at all. Synch rights, as they exist now, are a clear obstacle to speech. As you know, US copyright law is very convoluted, but my attempt to explain the problem is here:
http://blog.ninapaley.com/2008/09/05/th ... e-rainbow/

[ninapaley]

If VLC can already play audio and video from separate sources at the same time, can someone please explain to me how to do that?

I opened a DVD in the player (an unprotected VIDEO_TS file on my hard drive), and while that was open, opened an audio file (.aif, same hard drive), and predictably lost the video when the music loaded.

Please help me, I'm new to videoLAN.

Thanks,

--Nina

[dionoea]

please don't double post.

[ninapaley]

please don't double post.

I don't have the power to move the post from one part of the forum to another. I just wanted it moved to the "request features" section, where I believe it is more appropriate, because I am in fact requesting a feature. Sorry; can someone please move this over there and delete what I just posted?

Thanks,

--Nina

[Arite]

No need to merge topics really since this forum is the best place for general support questions. The ability to play video and audio from different sources simultaneously exists, and so if a topic should be moved it should be the other.

As dionoea wrote:

You can try: "vlc <some input> --input-slave <some other input>" command line. VLC 0.9 has an option in the GUI to add a slave input. In 0.8.6 you can edit the MRL in the open dialog and append :input-slave=<some other input>.

VLC 0.9.x (development version that will be released in a few days) has that option in the GUI.

Download a copy of e.g. 0.9.2-test or 0.9.2-preview:
http://people.videolan.org/~jb/Builds/0.9.2-test/
http://people.videolan.org/~jb/Builds/0.9.2-preview/

And go to:
Media >> Open File...

And select your video file. Then at the bottom-left of the window tick "Show more options" and then "Play another media file synchronously..." and select your audio file.

If the video has audio and is playing that track/the audio is not playing at all go to "Audio >> Audio Track" and select the last track which should be the additional audio file.

Cheers, Arite.

[ninapaley]

Thank you, Arite!

Unfortunately I only have a Mac. But I'll ask some of my windows-using colleagues to test it.

[Arite]

Hmm yes the OS X version does not use the Qt4 interface so only on Windows/Linux ATM.

Using the commandline isn't difficult. As dionoea said open up a terminal and enter:

Code: Select all

vlc <main_input> --input-slave <slave_input>

Where <main_input> and <slave_input> are the file locations of the two files. You should be able to drag and drop a file there as you write it as well.

Cheers, Arite.