Better recipe.

diff --git a/blog/data/2018-07-12-kodi-linux-desktop-gstreamer.txt b/blog/data/2018-07-12-kodi-linux-desktop-gstreamer.txt
new file mode 100644 (file)
index 0000000..58275da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/blog/data/2018-07-12-kodi-linux-desktop-gstreamer.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+Title: Simple streaming the Linux desktop to Kodi using GStreamer and RTP
+Tags: english, debian, video
+Date: 2018-07-12 18:00
+
+<p>Last night, I wrote
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html">a
+recipe to stream a Linux desktop using VLC to a instance of Kodi</a>.
+During the day I received valuable feedback, and thanks to the
+suggestions I have been able to rewrite the recipe into a much simpler
+approach requiring no setup at all.  It is a single script that take
+care of it all.</p>
+
+<p>This new script uses GStreamer instead of VLC to capture the
+desktop and stream it to Kodi.  This fixed the video quality issue I
+saw initially.  It further removes the need to add a m3u file on the
+Kodi machine, as it instead connects to
+<a href="https://kodi.wiki/view/JSON-RPC_API/v8">the JSON-RPC API in
+Kodi</a> and simply ask Kodi to play from the stream created using
+GStreamer.  Streaming the desktop to Kodi now become trivial.  Copy
+the script below, run it with the DNS name or IP address of the kodi
+server to stream to as the only argument, and watch your screen show
+up on the Kodi screen.  Note, it depend on multicast on the local
+network, so if you need to stream outside the local network, the
+script must be modified.  Note, I have no idea if audio work, as I
+only care about the picture part.</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# Stream the Linux desktop view to Kodi.  See
+# http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html
+# for backgorund information.
+
+# Make sure the stream is stopped in Kodi and the gstreamer process is
+# killed if something go wrong (for example if curl is unable to find the
+# kodi server).  Do the same when interrupting this script.
+kodicmd() {
+    host="$1"
+    cmd="$2"
+    params="$3"
+    curl --silent --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
+        --data-binary "{ \"id\": 1, \"jsonrpc\": \"2.0\", \"method\": \"$cmd\", \"params\": $params }" \
+        "http://$host/jsonrpc"
+}
+cleanup() {
+    if [ -n "$kodihost" ] ; then
+       # Stop the playing when we end
+       playerid=$(kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.GetActivePlayers "{}" |
+                           jq .result[].playerid)
+       kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.Stop "{ \"playerid\" : $playerid }" > /dev/null
+    fi
+    if [ "$gstpid" ] && kill -0 "$gstpid" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+       kill "$gstpid"
+    fi
+}
+trap cleanup EXIT INT
+
+if [ -n "$1" ]; then
+    kodihost=$1
+    shift
+else
+    kodihost=kodi.local
+fi
+
+mcast=239.255.0.1
+mcastport=1234
+mcastttl=1
+
+pasrc=$(pactl list | grep -A2 'Source #' | grep 'Name: .*\.monitor$' | \
+  cut -d" " -f2|head -1)
+gst-launch-1.0 ximagesrc use-damage=0 ! video/x-raw,framerate=30/1 ! \
+  videoconvert ! queue2 ! \
+  x264enc bitrate=8000 speed-preset=superfast tune=zerolatency qp-min=30 \
+  key-int-max=15 bframes=2 ! video/x-h264,profile=high ! queue2 ! \
+  mpegtsmux alignment=7 name=mux ! rndbuffersize max=1316 min=1316 ! \
+  udpsink host=$mcast port=$mcastport ttl-mc=$mcastttl auto-multicast=1 sync=0 \
+  pulsesrc device=$pasrc ! audioconvert ! queue2 ! avenc_aac ! queue2 ! mux. \
+  > /dev/null 2>&1 &
+gstpid=$!
+
+# Give stream a second to get going
+sleep 1
+
+# Ask kodi to start streaming using its JSON-RPC API
+kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.Open \
+       "{\"item\": { \"file\": \"udp://@$mcast:$mcastport\" } }" > /dev/null
+
+# wait for gst to end
+wait "$gstpid"
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>I hope you find the approach useful.  I know I do.</p>
+
+<p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
+activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
+<b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>