Is it possible to setup a remote VLC media player in HA. I Know local VLC is supported , but what about a remote VLC player. Can I specify the HOST and password option in the VLC setting the .yaml file to set the ip of the remote VLC installed.
Currently not supported
Hi guys,
I ran into this issue too.
I decided to write my own VLC Remote plugin that I added to the media_players component directory. It works for basic functionality like play, pause, volume changes and mute/unmute. But it’s really rough code.
If there’s interest in this from the community, I’d be happy to clean it up and finish it off:
Disclaimer: I’m not a programmer and this code is rough and ready. Tested working under 0.42.0
"""
Interfacing with VLC's HTTP API for controlling VLC on a remote box.
Borrowed heavily from Squeezebox setup. No documentation yet. Simply:
1. Enable HTTP interface in VLC, taking note of user/pass and port.
2. Add the following under "media_player":
- platform: vlc_remote
host: 192.168.0.2
port: 8080
name: "HTPC VLC" # Optional
username: "something" # Optional
password: "xyz" # Optional
To Do:
- Async
- Syncing
- More media info and typing
- Handle closing/stop states better
"""
import logging
import xmltodict
import requests
import json
import voluptuous as vol
from homeassistant.components.media_player import (
SUPPORT_PAUSE, PLATFORM_SCHEMA, SUPPORT_SEEK,
SUPPORT_VOLUME_SET, SUPPORT_PLAY, ATTR_MEDIA_ENQUEUE,
SUPPORT_VOLUME_MUTE, SUPPORT_STOP, MediaPlayerDevice)
from homeassistant.const import (
STATE_OFF, STATE_PLAYING, STATE_PAUSED, STATE_UNKNOWN, STATE_IDLE,
CONF_NAME, CONF_HOST, CONF_PORT, CONF_PASSWORD, CONF_USERNAME)
import homeassistant.helpers.config_validation as cv
from homeassistant.helpers.aiohttp_client import async_get_clientsession
REQUIREMENTS = ['xmltodict==0.10.2']
_LOGGER = logging.getLogger(__name__)
DEFAULT_NAME = "VLC Remote"
DEFAULT_USERNAME = ""
DEFAULT_PASSWORD = ""
TIMEOUT = 10
SUPPORT_VLCREMOTE = SUPPORT_PAUSE | SUPPORT_VOLUME_MUTE | SUPPORT_PLAY \
| SUPPORT_VOLUME_SET | SUPPORT_STOP
PLATFORM_SCHEMA = PLATFORM_SCHEMA.extend({
vol.Required(CONF_HOST): cv.string,
vol.Required(CONF_PORT): cv.string,
vol.Optional(CONF_NAME): cv.string,
vol.Optional(CONF_USERNAME): cv.string,
vol.Optional(CONF_PASSWORD): cv.string
})
def setup_platform(hass, config, async_add_devices, discovery_info=None):
"""Setup VLC Remote."""
async_add_devices([VlcServer(config.get(CONF_NAME, DEFAULT_NAME),
config.get(CONF_HOST), config.get(CONF_PORT),
config.get(CONF_USERNAME, DEFAULT_USERNAME),
config.get(CONF_PASSWORD, DEFAULT_PASSWORD))])
class VlcServer(MediaPlayerDevice):
"""Representation of a VLC server."""
def __init__(self, name, host, port, username, password):
"""Initialize the VLC device."""
self._status = {}
self._name = name
self._port = port
self._host = host
self._username = username
self._password = password
self._volume = None
self._muted = None
self._state = None
self._media_position = None
self._media_duration = None
self._media_metadata = {}
def fetch_data(self, command=None, value=None):
"""VLC HTTP interface."""
url_stem = "http://{}:{}/requests/status.xml"
if command is None:
url = url_stem.format(self._host, self._port)
else:
url_stem = url_stem + "?command={}"
url = url_stem.format(self._host, self._port, command)
_LOGGER.debug("URL: %s", url)
try:
req = requests.get(url, auth=(self._username, self._password))
if req.status_code != 200:
_LOGGER.error(
"Query failed, response code: %s Full message: %s",
req.status, req)
return {}
data = xmltodict.parse(req.text, process_namespaces=True).get("root")
except Exception as error:
_LOGGER.error("Failed communicating with VLC Server: %s", error)
return {}
try:
return data
except AttributeError:
_LOGGER.error("Received invalid response: %s", data)
return {}
def update(self):
"""Get the latest details from the device."""
status = self.fetch_data()
self._status = status
if 'information' in self._status:
try:
for info in self._status['information']['category']:
if info.get('@name') == 'meta':
self._media_metadata = info['info']
except:
pass
if status.get("state") == "playing":
self._state = STATE_PLAYING
elif status.get("state") == "paused":
self._state = STATE_PAUSED
else:
self._state = STATE_IDLE
self._media_position = int(status.get("time"))
self._media_duration = int(status.get("length"))
self._volume = int(status.get("volume"))/256
self._muted = (int(status.get("volume")) == 0)
return True
@property
def name(self):
"""Return the name of the device."""
return self._name
@property
def state(self):
"""Return the state of the device."""
return self._state
@property
def media_title(self):
"""Title of current playing media."""
filename = 'None'
try:
if self._media_metadata != {}:
for item in self._media_metadata:
if item['@name'] == 'title':
title = item['#text']
if item['@name'] == 'filename':
filename = item['#text']
return title
except:
return filename
@property
def media_artist(self):
"""Artist of current playing media."""
try:
if self._media_metadata != {}:
for item in self._media_metadata:
if item['@name'] == 'showName':
artist = item['#text']
return artist
except:
return 'None'
@property
def volume_level(self):
"""Volume level of the media player (0..1)."""
return self._volume
@property
def is_volume_muted(self):
"""Boolean if volume is currently muted."""
return self._muted
@property
def supported_features(self):
"""Flag media player features that are supported."""
return SUPPORT_VLCREMOTE
@property
def media_duration(self):
"""Duration of current playing media in seconds."""
return self._media_duration
@property
def media_position(self):
"""Position of current playing media in seconds."""
return self._media_position
#def media_seek(self, position):
# """Seek the media to a specific location."""
# track_length = self._vlc.get_length()/1000
# self._vlc.set_position(position/track_length)
def mute_volume(self, mute):
"""Mute the volume."""
mute_numeric = '0' if mute else '256'
self.fetch_data(command="volume&val={}".format(mute_numeric))
self._muted = mute
def set_volume_level(self, volume):
"""Set volume level, range 0..1."""
new_volume = str(int(volume * 256))
self.fetch_data(command="volume&val={}".format(new_volume))
self._volume = volume
def media_play(self):
"""Send play commmand."""
self.fetch_data(command="pl_pause")
self._state = STATE_PLAYING
def media_pause(self):
"""Send pause command."""
self.fetch_data(command="pl_pause")
self._state = STATE_PAUSED
def media_stop(self):
"""Send stop command."""
self.fetch_data(command="pl_stop")
self._state = STATE_IDLE
3 Likes
I would say keep going , particularly if you can get TTS to work on it.
Thanks @faspina - TTS should work with it currently but only for basic functionality, like play/pause.
can i send an TTS mp3 to this media_player with your code in HA?
@bphermansson yes, it is. I switched to Kodi a long time ago.
The calls to VLC are just HTTP requests, so it’s an easy plugin to write for HA. Without any need for VLC, it’s not something I’m willing to spend more time on, though.
@kingo55 - I searched your github repository but didn’t see a vlc_remote integration there, so I copied your code from above and created a new one here - https://github.com/gambalaya/vlc_remote
I also added the play_media url option (required for HA text to speech). Up till now I have been using the equivalent vlc_telnet - https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/vlc_telnet/ - however that integration suffered from an unrecoverable broken socket if the remote vlc needed rebooting or other network interruption, requiring HA to be restarted as well. Your http integration seems much more robust, thanks!
3 Likes
Thank you for having done something related to VLC. The telnet component is buggy and very annoying related to the broken sockets.
Just wanted to add that you need to rename MediaPlayerDevice to MediaPlayerEntity inside the file config/custom_components/vlc_remote/media_player.py
MediaPlayerDevice is deprecated.
Thanks - I renamed MediaPlayerDevice to MediaPlayerEntity, and also added the version to manifest.json
Is this integration dead? I noticed on the GitHub page that the Universal Media Player plug-in can do the same thing, but I can’t find any information on how to set it up with a remote instance of VLC. I currently have automations that trigger depending what is playing in VLC for my holiday lights/projection show, but as mentioned by others the Telnet woes are pretty bad. I’d love to use this method instead.