From: Petter Reinholdtsen Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2018 07:43:28 +0000 (+0200) Subject: New post on VLC plugin. X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/commitdiff_plain/92b9fd0b35e532ab3f9f2c52f503f3d469c3ff05?ds=inline;hp=7247ce5adb0085ee1be9305f0e78396c73d5ed21 New post on VLC plugin. --- diff --git a/blog/data/2018-10-21-vlc-bittorrent-browser.txt b/blog/data/2018-10-21-vlc-bittorrent-browser.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..1c8c20576e --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/data/2018-10-21-vlc-bittorrent-browser.txt @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +Title: Web browser integration of VLC with Bittorrent support +Tags: english, video, verkidetfri +Date: 2018-10-21 09:50 + +

Bittorrent is as far as I know, currently the most efficient way to +distribute content on the Internet. It is used all by all sorts of +content providers, from national TV stations like +NRK, Linux distributors like +Debian and +Ubuntu, and of course the +Internet archive. + +

Almost a month ago +a new +package adding Bittorrent support to VLC became available in +Debian testing and unstable. To test it, simply install it like +this:

+ +

+apt install vlc-plugin-bittorrent
+

+ +

Since the plugin was made available for the first time in Debian, +several improvements have been made to it. In version 2.2-4, now +available in both testing and unstable, a desktop file is provided to +teach browsers to start VLC when the user click on torrent files or +magnet links. The last part is thanks to me finally understanding +what the strange x-scheme-handler style MIME types in desktop files +are used for. By adding x-scheme-handler/magnet to the MimeType entry +in the desktop file, at least the browsers Firefox and Chromium will +suggest to start VLC when selecting a magnet URI on a web page. The +end result is that now, with the plugin installed in Buster og Sid, +one can visit any +Internet +Archive page with movies using a web browser and click on the +torrent link to start streaming the movie.

+ +

Note, there is still some misfeatures in the plugin. One is the +fact that it will hang and +block VLC +from exiting until the torrent streaming starts. Another is the +fact that it +will pick +and play a random file in a multi file torrent. This is not +always the video file you want. Combined with the first it can be a +bit hard to get the video streaming going. But when it work, it seem +to do a good job.

+ +

For the Debian packaging, I would love to find a good way to test +if the plugin work with VLC using autopkgtest. I tried, but do not +know enough of the inner workings of VLC to get it working. For now +the autopkgtest script is only checking if the .so file was +successfully loaded by VLC. If you have any suggestions, please +submit a patch to the Debian bug tracking system.

+ +

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.