From: Petter Reinholdtsen Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2018 06:58:47 +0000 (+0100) Subject: New post. X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/commitdiff_plain/9e90e71a7333929fb518c182a491b72768be6468?ds=inline New post. --- diff --git a/blog/data/2018-02-14-vlc-bittorrent.txt b/blog/data/2018-02-14-vlc-bittorrent.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..f1085ac580 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/data/2018-02-14-vlc-bittorrent.txt @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +Title: Using VLC to stream bittorrent sources +Tags: english, video, verkidetfri +Date: 2018-02-14 08:00 + +

A few days ago, a new major version of +VLC was announced, and I +decided to check out if it now supported streaming over +bittorrent and +webtorrent. Bittorrent is one of +the most efficient ways to distribute large files on the Internet, and +Webtorrent is a variant of Bittorrent using +WebRTC as its transport channel, +allowing web pages to stream and share files using the same technique. +The network protocols are not identical, so a client supporting one of +them can not talk to a client supporting the other. I was a bit +surprised with what I discovered. Looking at +the release +notes did not help answering this question, so I started searching +the web. I found several news articles from 2013, most of them +tracing the news from Torrentfreak +("Open +Source Giant VLC Mulls BitTorrent Streaming Support"), about a +initiative to pay someone to create a VLC patch for bittorrent +support. To figure out what happend with this initiative, I headed +over to the #videolan IRC channel and asked if there were some bug or +feature request tickets tracking such feature. I got an answer from +lead developer Jean-Babtiste Kempf, telling me that there was a patch +but neither he nor anyone else knew where it was. So I searched a bit +more, and came across an independent +VLC plugin to add +bittorrent support, created by Johan Gunnarsson in 2016/2017. +Again according to Jean-Babtiste, this is not the patch he was talking +about.

+ +

Anyway, to test the plugin, I made a working Debian package from +the git repository, with some modifications. After installing this +package, I could stream videos from +The Internet Archive using VLC +commands like this:

+ +

+vlc https://archive.org/download/LoveNest/LoveNest_archive.torrent
+

+ +

The plugin is supposed to handle magnet links too, but since The +Internet Archive do not have magnet links and I did not want to spend +time tracking down another source, I have not tested it. It can take +quite a while before the video start playing without any indication of +what is going on from VLC. It took 10-20 seconds when I measured it. +Some times the plugin seem unable to find the correct video file to +play, and show the metadata XML file name in the VLC status line. I +have no idea why.

+ +

I have created a request for +a new package in Debian (RFP) and +asked if +the upstream author is willing to help make this happen. Now we +wait to see what come out of this. I do not want to maintain a +package that is not maintained upstream, nor do I really have time to +maintain more packages myself, so I might leave it at this. But I +really hope someone step up to do the packaging, and hope upstream is +still maintaining the source. If you want to help, please update the +RFP request or the upstream issue.

+ +

I have not found any traces of webtorrent support for VLC.

+ +

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