blog/data/2018-07-12-kodi-linux-desktop-gstreamer.txt

   1 Title: Simple streaming the Linux desktop to Kodi using GStreamer and RTP
   2 Tags: english, debian, video, kodi
   3 Date: 2018-07-12 17:55
   4
   5 <p>Last night, I wrote
   6 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html">a
   7 recipe to stream a Linux desktop using VLC to a instance of Kodi</a>.
   8 During the day I received valuable feedback, and thanks to the
   9 suggestions I have been able to rewrite the recipe into a much simpler
  10 approach requiring no setup at all.  It is a single script that take
  11 care of it all.</p>
  12
  13 <p>This new script uses GStreamer instead of VLC to capture the
  14 desktop and stream it to Kodi.  This fixed the video quality issue I
  15 saw initially.  It further removes the need to add a m3u file on the
  16 Kodi machine, as it instead connects to
  17 <a href="https://kodi.wiki/view/JSON-RPC_API/v8">the JSON-RPC API in
  18 Kodi</a> and simply ask Kodi to play from the stream created using
  19 GStreamer.  Streaming the desktop to Kodi now become trivial.  Copy
  20 the script below, run it with the DNS name or IP address of the kodi
  21 server to stream to as the only argument, and watch your screen show
  22 up on the Kodi screen.  Note, it depend on multicast on the local
  23 network, so if you need to stream outside the local network, the
  24 script must be modified.  Also note, I have no idea if audio work, as
  25 I only care about the picture part.</p>
  26
  27 <blockquote><pre>
  28 #!/bin/sh
  29 #
  30 # Stream the Linux desktop view to Kodi.  See
  31 # https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html
  32 # for backgorund information.
  33
  34 # Make sure the stream is stopped in Kodi and the gstreamer process is
  35 # killed if something go wrong (for example if curl is unable to find the
  36 # kodi server).  Do the same when interrupting this script.
  37 kodicmd() {
  38     host="$1"
  39     cmd="$2"
  40     params="$3"
  41     curl --silent --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  42          --data-binary "{ \"id\": 1, \"jsonrpc\": \"2.0\", \"method\": \"$cmd\", \"params\": $params }" \
  43          "http://$host/jsonrpc"
  44 }
  45 cleanup() {
  46     if [ -n "$kodihost" ] ; then
  47         # Stop the playing when we end
  48         playerid=$(kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.GetActivePlayers "{}" |
  49                             jq .result[].playerid)
  50         kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.Stop "{ \"playerid\" : $playerid }" > /dev/null
  51     fi
  52     if [ "$gstpid" ] && kill -0 "$gstpid" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  53         kill "$gstpid"
  54     fi
  55 }
  56 trap cleanup EXIT INT
  57
  58 if [ -n "$1" ]; then
  59     kodihost=$1
  60     shift
  61 else
  62     kodihost=kodi.local
  63 fi
  64
  65 mcast=239.255.0.1
  66 mcastport=1234
  67 mcastttl=1
  68
  69 pasrc=$(pactl list | grep -A2 'Source #' | grep 'Name: .*\.monitor$' | \
  70   cut -d" " -f2|head -1)
  71 gst-launch-1.0 ximagesrc use-damage=0 ! video/x-raw,framerate=30/1 ! \
  72   videoconvert ! queue2 ! \
  73   x264enc bitrate=8000 speed-preset=superfast tune=zerolatency qp-min=30 \
  74   key-int-max=15 bframes=2 ! video/x-h264,profile=high ! queue2 ! \
  75   mpegtsmux alignment=7 name=mux ! rndbuffersize max=1316 min=1316 ! \
  76   udpsink host=$mcast port=$mcastport ttl-mc=$mcastttl auto-multicast=1 sync=0 \
  77   pulsesrc device=$pasrc ! audioconvert ! queue2 ! avenc_aac ! queue2 ! mux. \
  78   > /dev/null 2>&1 &
  79 gstpid=$!
  80
  81 # Give stream a second to get going
  82 sleep 1
  83
  84 # Ask kodi to start streaming using its JSON-RPC API
  85 kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.Open \
  86         "{\"item\": { \"file\": \"udp://@$mcast:$mcastport\" } }" > /dev/null
  87
  88 # wait for gst to end
  89 wait "$gstpid"
  90 </pre></blockquote>
  91
  92 <p>I hope you find the approach useful.  I know I do.</p>
  93
  94 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
  95 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
  96 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>