[FEATURE] Sync playback time and controls over the internet

[darkNIGHTS]

This would be a really neat feature. Basically, it would sync the playback time and controls over the internet so that if you and your friend have the same video on your computer, you can watch it at the exact same time together without ruining the quality by streaming. If one person pauses it, it pauses on the other person's computer too. That way me and my friends across the US could catch up on TV shows together and talk about it as it happens. That would be really cool! Maybe this could be done as a plugin?

Thanks for reading and I hope someone is willing to take this up!

[VLC_help]

There is already a netsync module that should allow this.
http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/netsync

[darkNIGHTS]

Thanks! I'm sure I completely understand the command though.

vlc udp://@239.255.1.1 --control netsync --netsync-master

What is the 239.255.1.1?

[VLC_help]

Replace the udp://@239.255.1.1 with file/stream you want to play.

[darkNIGHTS]

Alright, and what if it's a local file on both of the computers?

[VLC_help]

Then put something like c:\folder\movie.avi (or /mnt/sda1/movie.avi)

[darkNIGHTS]

So it must be in the same directory then?

[VLC_help]

No. You can use different startup command on all computers.

[darkNIGHTS]

Ohh, I got it, thanks!

[darkNIGHTS]

So I've been trying to get this work and reading around the forums and it doesn't look like even ONE person has gotten this working.

[Casemon]

Would very much like to get this working as the OP described.

A friend and me watch the same content in 2 locations often, but we do it manually. We both have access to the same file and time the start via Skype ("1, 2, 3... play!")

Would be more useful and simply awesome to be able to sync via VLC! (without streaming 1 to the other, instead sync the same file that exists local to each)

Seems this thread is several years old Is there no way to get this work?

[darkNIGHTS]

Unfortunately not. The documentation is stupid and still thinks the netsync feature is there, but it was taken out a long time ago apparently.

[VLC_help]

What command-line options you used?

[Casemon]

Similar to that given in the documentation:

http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/netsync

Except passing a file that is local to both master & slave, instead of UDP stream.

[VLC_help]

And what is the issue? (no sync at all, too fast playback or ...)

[darkNIGHTS]

It doesn't work. Like I said, I searched around the forum a long time and there wasn't one person who got it working. It just doesn't connect with the other client.

For example:
http://pascal.nextrem.ch/2008/08/17/how ... c-netsync/
"Update: The NetSync module seems not to be included in VLC 0.9.x!"

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=67192
Here you even said that it doesn't work on Windows.

[VLC_help]

That was for earlier Windows versions. With Windows it was included again in 1.1.x and it does work (I only tested with localhost with single video, but it should work).
Server

Code: Select all

vlc video.avi --control netsync --netsync-master

Client

Code: Select all

vlc video.avi --control netsync --netsync-master-ip 127.0.0.1

Windows firewall should ask permission when you first start the server. You can use tool like Wireshark to see if the UDP traffic reaches the destination.

[Casemon]

Trying the above on Mac, using Terminal and program path /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC, with the same file local to both systems, and using the server's LAN IP in lieu of 127.0.0.1, resulted in this:

Server) video started playing immediately, Terminal reported single error: [0x1002994e8] main interface error: socket bind error (Permission denied).
Client) video opened but did not play.

Pausing then Playing on Server yielded no change. On client, trying to Quit hung VLC, had to Force Quit.

Is the netsync feature not supported?

[VLC_help]

I haven't tested that on Mac. But it seems there is a permission issue
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=95170

[Casemon]

So how to determine a permissible port?

The given example 8554 gives the same permission error; am not using any wrapper.

[Mindey]

So, I had written this: http://mindey.com/vlcirc - works on Linux/Mac/Win - you can invite as many people as you want to an IRC channel, and the script will start the video automatically from the desired place. I hope someone writes an IRC plugin, so that a VLC player could be controlled over IRC commands directly... (btw., I used VLC player API, which allowed to synchronize all controls, including keylogging a space button to pause, but since it requires installing additional software on all computers, so I gave up using it. This simple script works with minimal requirements on Linux/Mac/Win computers. However, it is still open to improvement to avoid ping delays though.)