media/vlc/ VlcTelnetInterface

UsingExpectWithVlc

$ telnet myhost 2048
Trying 192.168.0.50...
Connected to myhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
VLC media player 3.0.18 Vetinari
Password:
Welcome, Master
> volume
26

Help is obtained in the obvious way

> help
... see below

The script is useful for getting transcripts from things like telnet sessions. (This saves from the need for each and every application to implement its own transcription facilities.)

Helper scripts

Auto login

tvlc logs you in with a know password (low security since this is a home network and it's just VLC). I allocate telnet ports in the range 5000–5999 and often have multiple instances, each with its own playlist, so that instead of clearing/loading new playlists, I simply alt-tab between them.

#!/usr/bin/expect
set timeout 1

set host "[lindex $argv 0]"
set tport "[lindex $argv 1]"
puts "tport '$tport'"
if { $tport == "" } {
  set tport 0
}
set port "[expr 3000 + $tport]"
set password "boingboing"

spawn gtelnet $host $port
expect {
  timeout { puts "timeout" ; exit 1 }
  "Password:"
}
send "$password\r"

expect {
  timeout { puts "timeout welcome" ; exit 1 }
  "Welcome, Master"
}

interact

Command Sender

I'm not an expert in Python's subprocess module, so I don't know how to capture the output. Anyway, use it like

tvlcmd hostname 15 next

to advance the VLC player to the next item in the playlist. The script:

from subprocess import run, Popen, PIPE

a = r"""set timeout 5

set host "[lindex $argv 0]"
set tport "[lindex $argv 1]"
puts "tport '$tport'"
if { $tport == "" } {
  set tport 0
}
set port "[expr 4000 + $tport]"
set password "random_flumpy_thing"

spawn gtelnet $host $port
expect {
  timeout { puts "timeout pw" ; exit 1 }
  "Password:"
}
send "$password\r"

expect {
  timeout { puts "timeout welcome" ; exit 1 }
  "Welcome, Master"
}

sleep 0.1
"""

import sys
args = sys.argv[1:]
try:
  host, port, *args = args
  if len(args) == 0:
    raise ValueError()
except ValueError:
  print(f"{sys.argv[0]} <host> <rport> [<cmds>...]")
  exit(1)

b="sleep 1"

args = [arg.replace('"','\"') for arg in args]
args = [f"send \"{arg}\\r\"" for arg in args]
scr="\n".join([a]+args+[b])

proc = Popen(["expect","-f","-",host,port],stdin=PIPE,stdout=PIPE)
m = proc.communicate(input=scr.encode())

VLC Telnet help

This is the output of the help command with my current version of VLC (3.0.18).

+----[ VLM commands ]
|help
|    Commands Syntax:
|        new (name) vod|broadcast|schedule [properties]
|        setup (name) (properties)
|        show [(name)|media|schedule]
|        del (name)|all|media|schedule
|        control (name) [instance_name] (command)
|        save (config_file)
|        export
|        load (config_file)
|    Media Proprieties Syntax:
|        input (input_name)
|        inputdel (input_name)|all
|        inputdeln input_number
|        output (output_name)
|        option (option_name)[=value]
|        enabled|disabled
|        loop|unloop (broadcast only)
|        mux (mux_name)
|    Schedule Proprieties Syntax:
|        enabled|disabled
|        append (command_until_rest_of_the_line)
|        date (year)/(month)/(day)-(hour):(minutes):(seconds)|now
|        period (years_aka_12_months)/(months_aka_30_days)/(days)-(hours):(minutes):(seconds)
|        repeat (number_of_repetitions)
|    Control Commands Syntax:
|        play [input_number]
|        pause
|        stop
|        seek [+-](percentage) | [+-](seconds)s | [+-](milliseconds)ms
+----[ CLI commands ]
| add XYZ  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . add XYZ to playlist
| enqueue XYZ  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . queue XYZ to playlist
| playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . .  show items currently in playlist
| search [string]  . .  search for items in playlist (or reset search)
| delete [X] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . delete item X in playlist
| move [X][Y]  . . . . . . . . . . . . move item X in playlist after Y
| sort key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sort the playlist
| sd [sd]  . . . . . . . . . . . . . show services discovery or toggle
| play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . play stream
| stop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . stop stream
| next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  next playlist item
| prev . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  previous playlist item
| goto, gotoitem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  goto item at index
| repeat [on|off]  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  toggle playlist repeat
| loop [on|off]  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  toggle playlist loop
| random [on|off]  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  toggle playlist random
| clear  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  clear the playlist
| status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . current playlist status
| title [X]  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . set/get title in current item
| title_n  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  next title in current item
| title_p  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  previous title in current item
| chapter [X]  . . . . . . . . . . . . set/get chapter in current item
| chapter_n  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  next chapter in current item
| chapter_p  . . . . . . . . . . . .  previous chapter in current item
|
| seek X . . . . . . . . . . . seek in seconds, for instance `seek 12'
| pause  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  toggle pause
| fastforward  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . set to maximum rate
| rewind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . set to minimum rate
| faster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  faster playing of stream
| slower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  slower playing of stream
| normal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  normal playing of stream
| rate [playback rate] . . . . . . . . . .  set playback rate to value
| frame  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . play frame by frame
| fullscreen, f, F [on|off]  . . . . . . . . . . . . toggle fullscreen
| info [X] . .  information about the current stream (or specified id)
| stats  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  show statistical information
| get_time . . . . . . . . .  seconds elapsed since stream's beginning
| is_playing . . . . . . . . . . . .  1 if a stream plays, 0 otherwise
| get_title  . . . . . . . . . . . . . the title of the current stream
| get_length . . . . . . . . . . . .  the length of the current stream
|
| volume [X] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  set/get audio volume
| volup [X]  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  raise audio volume X steps
| voldown [X]  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  lower audio volume X steps
| achan [X]  . . . . . . . . . . . .  set/get stereo audio output mode
| atrack [X] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . set/get audio track
| vtrack [X] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . set/get video track
| vratio [X] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  set/get video aspect ratio
| vcrop, crop [X]  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  set/get video crop
| vzoom, zoom [X]  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  set/get video zoom
| vdeinterlace [X] . . . . . . . . . . . . . set/get video deinterlace
| vdeinterlace_mode [X]  . . . . . . .  set/get video deinterlace mode
| snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . take video snapshot
| strack [X] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  set/get subtitle track
|
| vlm  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  load the VLM
| description  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  describe this module
| help, ? [pattern]  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  a help message
| longhelp [pattern] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a longer help message
| lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  lock the telnet prompt
| logout . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  exit (if in a socket connection)
| quit . . . . . . . .  quit VLC (or logout if in a socket connection)
| shutdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  shutdown VLC
+----[ end of help ]