blog/data/2018-10-21-vlc-bittorrent-browser.txt

   1 Title: Web browser integration of VLC with Bittorrent support
   2 Tags: english, video, verkidetfri
   3 Date: 2018-10-21 09:50
   4
   5 <p>Bittorrent is as far as I know, currently the most efficient way to
   6 distribute content on the Internet.  It is used all by all sorts of
   7 content providers, from national TV stations like
   8 <a href="https://www.nrk.no/">NRK</a>, Linux distributors like
   9 <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> and
  10 <a href="https://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a>, and of course the
  11 <a href="https://archive.org/">Internet archive</A>.
  12
  13 <p>Almost a month ago
  14 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/vlc-plugin-bittorrent">a new
  15 package adding Bittorrent support to VLC</a> became available in
  16 Debian testing and unstable.  To test it, simply install it like
  17 this:</p>
  18
  19 <p><pre>
  20 apt install vlc-plugin-bittorrent
  21 </pre></p>
  22
  23 <p>Since the plugin was made available for the first time in Debian,
  24 several improvements have been made to it.  In version 2.2-4, now
  25 available in both testing and unstable, a desktop file is provided to
  26 teach browsers to start VLC when the user click on torrent files or
  27 magnet links.  The last part is thanks to me finally understanding
  28 what the strange x-scheme-handler style MIME types in desktop files
  29 are used for.  By adding x-scheme-handler/magnet to the MimeType entry
  30 in the desktop file, at least the browsers Firefox and Chromium will
  31 suggest to start VLC when selecting a magnet URI on a web page.  The
  32 end result is that now, with the plugin installed in Buster and Sid,
  33 one can visit any
  34 <a href="https://archive.org/details/CopyingIsNotTheft1080p">Internet
  35 Archive page with movies</a> using a web browser and click on the
  36 torrent link to start streaming the movie.</p>
  37
  38 <p>Note, there is still some misfeatures in the plugin.  One is the
  39 fact that it will hang and
  40 <a href="https://github.com/johang/vlc-bittorrent/issues/13">block VLC
  41 from exiting until the torrent streaming starts</a>.  Another is the
  42 fact that it
  43 <a href="https://github.com/johang/vlc-bittorrent/issues/9">will pick
  44 and play a random file in a multi file torrent</a>.  This is not
  45 always the video file you want.  Combined with the first it can be a
  46 bit hard to get the video streaming going.  But when it work, it seem
  47 to do a good job.</p>
  48
  49 <p>For the Debian packaging, I would love to find a good way to test
  50 if the plugin work with VLC using autopkgtest.  I tried, but do not
  51 know enough of the inner workings of VLC to get it working.  For now
  52 the autopkgtest script is only checking if the .so file was
  53 successfully loaded by VLC.  If you have any suggestions, please
  54 submit a patch to the Debian bug tracking system.</p>
  55
  56 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
  57 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
  58 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>