problems with dvd navigation

[paulhuber]

I work on an open source smarthome/media server product (plutohome.org). We're based on Debian, 2.6 kernel VLC media player 0.8.1.

We let the user play movies and bookmark scenes with Xine, and we switch automatically to VLC when the user wants to play the same thing in multiple rooms. The problems I'm having are:

1. VLC's time code seems to be way off, so it never returns to teh right point. It varies greatly from one movie to the next, but at this moment, for example, I'm using iRobot. According to xine and our hardware players, chapter 11 is at 25min 11sec into the movie. According to VLC, it's at 19:26 into the movie.

2. VLC is ignoring the title/chapter commands. I run the server with:
vlc --intf rc 'dvd:/home/public/data/movies/i robot.dvd' --sout '#duplicate{dst=standard{access=udp,mux=ts,url=192.168.80.2,sap,name="s2"},dst=standard{access=udp,mux=ts,url=192.168.80.1,sap,name="s2"}}'

but then when I try to send it to title 0, chapter 10, I type in the rc console:

title 0
title: returned 0 (no error)
chapter 10
chapter: returned 0 (no error)

and then to see what title it's at:
title
Currently playing title 3/15
title: returned 0 (no error)

If I let the movie play in the Windows version locally with the GUI (not streaming) I can navigate there--so I know the title/chapter values are good (btw, VLC uses zero based, Xine and the h/w players are 1 based).

3. If I stream the movie with dvdsimple:/filename, it plays the 'making of'--not the movie. If I use dvd:/filename and stream on udp (rather than playing locally), it gets stuck at the dvd menu and I cannot navigate.

4. The 'X' window/window class are unnamed, making it impossible to select the playback window repeatedly and bring it to the foregroud if something else pops up on top.

Any suggestions on how to resolve these problems would be greatly appreciated!

[totallymaxed]

We are also working with Pluto (Debian 2.6 & VLC 0.8.1) and have been using VLC 0.8.2 under WinXP independantly of Pluto.

If we use VLC 0.8.2 and use the GUI interface in Windows we can jump to the beginning of Chapter 11 in "I Robot" accurately. But the following command line fails:

vlc --intf rc 'dvd:/D:' --sout '#duplicate{dst=standard{access=udp,mux=ts,url=192.168.80.2,sap,name="s2"},dst=standard{access=udp,mux=ts,url=192.168.80.1,sap,name="s2"}}'

Below is a console dump of the failure:

[00000267] rc interface: VLC media player - version 0.8.2 Janus - (c) 1996-2005
VideoLAN
[00000267] rc interface:
Warning: if you can't access the GUI anymore, open a dos command box, go to the
directory where you installed VLC and run "vlc -I wxwin"

Remote control interface initialised, `h' for help
[00000183] main module debug: using interface module "rc"
[00000267] main interface debug: interface initialized
[00000267] main interface debug: thread 3392 (manager) created at priority 0 (sr
c/interface/interface.c:196)
[00000261] main playlist debug: creating new input thread
[00000269] main input debug: waiting for thread completion
[00000269] main input warning: sout-keep true
[00000269] main input debug: thread 3416 (input) created at priority 1 (src/inpu
t/input.c:230)
[00000270] main stream output debug: using sout chain=`std{mux="",access="",url=
"'#duplicate{dst=standard{access=udp,mux=ts,url=192.168.80.2,sap,name=s2},dst=st
andard{access=udp,mux=ts,url=192.168.80.1,sap,name=s2}}'"}'
[00000270] main stream output debug: stream=`std'
[00000271] main private debug: looking for sout stream module: 1 candidate
[00000271] main private warning: missing value for option mux
[00000271] main private warning: missing value for option access
[00000271] main private debug: set sout option: sout-standard-url to '#duplicate
{dst=standard{access=udp,mux=ts,url=192.168.80.2,sap,name=s2},dst=standard{acces
s=udp,mux=ts,url=192.168.80.1,sap,name=s2}}'
[00000271] stream_out_standard private debug: creating `(null)/(null)://'#duplic
ate{dst=standard{access=udp,mux=ts,url=192.168.80.2,sap,name=s2},dst=standard{ac
cess=udp,mux=ts,url=192.168.80.1,sap,name=s2}}''
[00000271] stream_out_standard private debug: extention is 1,sap,name=s2}}'
[00000271] stream_out_standard private debug: extention -> mux=(null)
[00000271] stream_out_standard private error: no access _and_ no muxer (fatal er
ror)
[00000271] main private warning: no sout stream module matching "std" could be l
oaded
[00000271] main private debug: destroying chain... (name=std)
[00000271] main private debug: destroying chain done
[00000270] main stream output error: stream chained failed for `std{mux="",acces
s="",url="'#duplicate{dst=standard{access=udp,mux=ts,url=192.168.80.2,sap,name=s
2},dst=standard{access=udp,mux=ts,url=192.168.80.1,sap,name=s2}}'"}'
[00000269] main input error: cannot start stream output instance, aborting
[00000269] main input debug: thread times: real 0m0.125000s, kernel 0m0.000000s,
user 0m0.015625s
[00000269] main input debug: thread 3416 joined (src/input/input.c:386)
[00000261] main playlist: nothing to play

Has the command line syntax changed in VLC 0.8.2? If anyone could help with this problem I'd appreciate it greatly. Thanks

Totallymaxed

[BigBen]

I work on an open source smarthome/media server product (plutohome.org). We're based on Debian, 2.6 kernel VLC media player 0.8.1.

We let the user play movies and bookmark scenes with Xine, and we switch automatically to VLC when the user wants to play the same thing in multiple rooms. The problems I'm having are:

1. VLC's time code seems to be way off, so it never returns to teh right point. It varies greatly from one movie to the next, but at this moment, for example, I'm using iRobot. According to xine and our hardware players, chapter 11 is at 25min 11sec into the movie. According to VLC, it's at 19:26 into the movie.

Problems with time in VLC are a known issue. They'll hopefully evbentually be fixed... (requires some coding...)

2. VLC is ignoring the title/chapter commands. I run the server with:
vlc --intf rc 'dvd:/home/public/data/movies/i robot.dvd' --sout '#duplicate{dst=standard{access=udp,mux=ts,url=192.168.80.2,sap,name="s2"},dst=standard{access=udp,mux=ts,url=192.168.80.1,sap,name="s2"}}'

but then when I try to send it to title 0, chapter 10, I type in the rc console:

title 0
title: returned 0 (no error)
chapter 10
chapter: returned 0 (no error)

and then to see what title it's at:
title
Currently playing title 3/15
title: returned 0 (no error)

If I let the movie play in the Windows version locally with the GUI (not streaming) I can navigate there--so I know the title/chapter values are good (btw, VLC uses zero based, Xine and the h/w players are 1 based).

Well, I guess channel navigation hasn't been tested in a while with the rc intf. That may be a bug indeed (please try with dvdsimple://, see below)

3. If I stream the movie with dvdsimple:/filename, it plays the 'making of'--not the movie. If I use dvd:/filename and stream on udp (rather than playing locally), it gets stuck at the dvd menu and I cannot navigate.

Well, you need to use dvdsimple:// instead of the dvd:// when streaming, in order to use libdvdread instead of libdvdnav (and then no to try to stream menus). (That must be in the documentation...)

4. The 'X' window/window class are unnamed, making it impossible to select the playback window repeatedly and bring it to the foregroud if something else pops up on top.

Any suggestions on how to resolve these problems would be greatly appreciated!

An option has been added in the trunk to name the video window.