Alert `Server Error: global name 'mplayer' is not defined` appears when adding a RTSP URL asset.

[nicomiguelino]

Overview of the Issue

Web UI

Alert Server Error: global name 'mplayer' is not defined appears when adding a RSTP URL asset. (See screenshot below for details.)

Logs

From the srly-ose-server service...

screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | Traceback (most recent call last):
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |   File "server.py", line 672, in api_view
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |     return view(*args, **kwargs)
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/flask_restful_swagger_2/swagger.py", line 219, in inner
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |     return f(self, *args, **kwargs)
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |   File "server.py", line 1002, in post
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |     if not asset['skip_asset_check'] and url_fails(asset['uri']):
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |   File "/usr/src/app/lib/utils.py", line 228, in url_fails
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |     run_mplayer = mplayer('-identify', '-frames', '0', '-nosound', url)
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | NameError: global name 'mplayer' is not defined

Reproduction Steps

Steps to reproduce this issue, eg:

• Press Add Asset
• Enter the Asset URL rtsp://wowzaec2demo.streamlock.net/vod/mp4:BigBuckBunny_115k.mp4.
• Leave "Skip asset check" unchecked.
• Click "Save".

Environment

• Raspberry Pi Hardware Version: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B
• Raspberry Pi Network Setup: Built-In Version
• Screenly OSE Version: master, c785f75ce39518b4680373756ef3bb176d256a33

[vpetersson]

Good filing. So I guess we have two options available:

• reinstate 'mplayer' in the server container
• rework all 'mplayer' references to use 'vlc' instead

The downside with the first option is that we would rely on a completely different software for checking that the feed works (which I presume what the server code does), versus the actual playback.

I don't have a super strong option either way, but the second option seems purest, but 'vlc' is likely more limited for these kind of programmatic tasks than 'mplayer'.

[akkie70]

Hi is there an working workaround for this issue?

[vpetersson]

Good question. I think @nicomiguelino might have temporarily disabled RTSP while debugging video playback on pi 4. In theory it should work but clearly needs more testing.

[akkie70]

Actually i have set up an new rpi3B+ with screenly master@f6311f9. And i got the same error message. So i thought it is a bug in the latest version of screenly ose

[akkie70]

In mediaplayer.py found i one reference to mplayer? Is there any other reference i didnt see? i changed it to vlc but is gives me the same error as mentioned above.

Is the master version using python2.7 or python3.9?

[akkie70]

@vpetersson Can you mark this as bug ?

[nicomiguelino]

@vpetersson, I think I didn't disable RSTP. RSTP playback isn't working beforehand, even if I add the line from sh import mplayer inside lib/utils.py. Here's what I got:

screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | Traceback (most recent call last):
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |   File "server.py", line 672, in api_view
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |     return view(*args, **kwargs)
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/flask_restful_swagger_2/swagger.py", line 219, in inner
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |     return f(self, *args, **kwargs)
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |   File "server.py", line 1002, in post
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |     if not asset['skip_asset_check'] and url_fails(asset['uri']):
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |   File "/usr/src/app/lib/utils.py", line 237, in url_fails
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |     run_mplayer = sh.mplayer('-identify', '-frames', '0', '-nosound', url)
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/sh.py", line 726, in __call__
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |     return RunningCommand(cmd, call_args, stdin, stdout, stderr)
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/sh.py", line 291, in __init__
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |     self.wait()
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/sh.py", line 295, in wait
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |     self._handle_exit_code(self.process.wait())
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/sh.py", line 309, in _handle_exit_code
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |     self.process.stderr
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | ErrorReturnCode_1:
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |   RAN: '/usr/bin/mplayer -identify -frames 0 -nosound rtsp://wowzaec2demo.streamlock.net/vod/mp4:BigBuckBunny_115k.mp4'
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |   STDOUT:
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | MPlayer 1.3.0 (Debian), built with gcc-8 (C) 2000-2016 MPlayer Team
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | Terminal type `unknown' is not defined.
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | Playing rtsp://wowzaec2demo.streamlock.net/vod/mp4:BigBuckBunny_115k.mp4.
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | Resolving wowzaec2demo.streamlock.net for AF_INET6...
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | Resolving wowzaec2demo.streamlock.net for AF_INET...
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | Connecting to server wowzaec2demo.streamlock.net[34.227.104.115]: 554...
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | libavformat version 58.20.100 (external)
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | libavformat file format detected.
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | ID_AUDIO_ID=0
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | [lavf] stream 0: audio (aac), -aid 0
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | ID_VIDEO_ID=0
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | [lavf] stream 1: video (h264), -vid 0
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | VIDEO:  [H264]  240x160  0bpp  24.083 fps    0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |   STDERR:
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | do_connect: could not connect to socket
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | connect: No such file or directory
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | Couldn't resolve name for AF_INET6: wowzaec2demo.streamlock.net
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | A single media stream only is supported atm.
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | rtsp_session: unsupported RTSP server. Server type is 'Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.20+1 build20220919162035'.
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | vo: couldn't open the X11 display ()!
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | vo: couldn't open the X11 display ()!
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | vo: couldn't open the X11 display ()!
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  | Error opening terminal: unknown.
screenly-srly-ose-server-1  |
^Ccanceled

[nicomiguelino]

Haven't tried this yet, but we can make use of the VLC Python bindings, If we're to use VLC instead. I did a quick research. Here's a link for reference – https://stackoverflow.com/a/21052684/5114090.

[vpetersson]

Alright, it shouldn't be that much effort to reinstate RTSP support. For Pi 4, we just need to verify that it works with VLC and it should work out-of-the-box on Pi 1/2/3 with omxplayer.

Relevant code:

• https://github.com/Screenly/screenly-ose/blob/master/viewer.py#L49-L52
• https://github.com/Screenly/screenly-ose/blob/master/lib/media_player.py

[akkie70]

@vpetersson So to confirm that i understand it correctly. Changing mplayer to omxplayer in

• https://github.com/Screenly/screenly-ose/blob/4bbf8c0c9a3e3a0c98338997ee85a0e66e99cb72/lib/media_player.py#L80

Would reinstate RTSP support for PI3 ? In viewer.py is already defined that only model 4B uses VLCMediaPlayer.

[vpetersson]

It has been a while since I touched this so I think @nicomiguelino simply need to do an audit of all of this before we draw any conclusions.

[lexalexalexa]

Hi, is anybody know how to solve this issue?

[lexalexalexa]

how i solved the issue: viewer.py: 1) change 'media_player' definition (line 73): `try:

media_player = OMXMediaPlayer()

media_player = VLCMediaPlayer()

except sh.ErrorReturnCode_1: media_player = OMXMediaPlayer()`

2) change 'view_video' function:

def view_video(uri, duration):
    logging.debug('Displaying video %s for %s ', uri, duration)
    media_player.set_asset(uri, duration)
    media_player.play()

    view_image('null')

    timeout = 0
    try:
        while media_player.is_playing():
            watchdog()
            sleep(1)
            timeout += 1
            if timeout > int(duration):
                break
    except sh.ErrorReturnCode_1:
        logging.info('Resource URI is not correct, remote host is not responding or request was rejected.')

    media_player.stop()

lib/utils.py 1) change start of function 'url_fails' (comment out checking of file with mplayer:

def url_fails(url):
    """
    If it is streaming
    """
    if urlparse(url).scheme in ('rtsp', 'rtmp'):
        #run_mplayer = mplayer('-identify', '-frames', '0', '-nosound', url)
        #for line in run_mplayer.split('\n'):
        #    if 'Clip info:' in line:
        #        return False
        return True

    """
    Try HEAD and GET for URL availability check.
    """
    ...

Now when I adding rtsp stream in Web interface I am setting checkbox 'Skip asset check' and adding stream works succesfully.

[nicomiguelino]

@lexalexalexa, thank you so much for this! While I haven't tested the changes yet, I encourage you to create a pull request, so that we can review your changes. This repository can help you get started on doing open-source contributions – firstcontributions/first-contributions.

Please don't hesitate to ask questions or ask for help.

[ismailakincom]

rtmp://...... link, mplayer gives an error. It does not play streaming video. Could you help ![Uploading Screenshot at Dec 06 11-47-22.png…]()

[nicomiguelino]

@lexalexalexa, I just created a new PR (#1890) regarding this matter, but there are still bugs. There is a noticeable transition (black screen) before displaying the videos. Feel free to give comments on the PR, and thanks for your snippet posted months ago.

[CRSBenson]

Alright. Here's what I have so far...

Previously when running scripts on Buster using the 64-bit Lite OS, I had some specific options loaded into a python script which i will share here with details omitted. The options included were -q (for quiet mode) and --no-osd (to hide the IP address upon launch).

#!/usr/local/bin/python

from termcolor import colored
import subprocess
import time
import os

# VLC stream URL
rtsp_url = "rtsp://administrator:*******@10.xx.xxx.xxx/rtsp/defaultPrimary-1?streamType=m"
camera_ip = "10.xx.xxx.xxx"  # Camera IP address
# Function to start VLC stream
def start_vlc_stream():
    subprocess.Popen(["cvlc", "-q", "--no-osd", rtsp_url])  # Include -q flag for quiet mode

# Function to check if camera is reachable
def camera_reachable():
    cmd = ["ping", "-c", "1", "-W", "1", camera_ip]
    try:
        subprocess.check_output(cmd, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL)
        return True
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
        return False

# Function to check if VLC process is running
def vlc_running():
    process_name = 'vlc'
    cmd = ["pgrep", process_name]
    try:
        subprocess.check_output(cmd, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL)
        return True
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
        return False

try:
    # Main loop to continuously check camera status and VLC stream
    while True:
        if not camera_reachable():
            print(colored("Camera is not reachable. Retrying...",'light_yellow'))
            if vlc_running():
                subprocess.Popen(["pkill", "vlc"])  # Kill VLC process
                print(colored("Stopping VLC...", 'light_red'))

        if camera_reachable() and not vlc_running():
            print(colored("Camera is reachable. Starting VLC stream...", 'green'))
            start_vlc_stream()

        time.sleep(10)  # Check every 10 seconds

except KeyboardInterrupt:
    time.sleep(1)
    print(colored("\nScript terminated by user.", 'light_red'))

Now when adding those commands into the media_player.py script, I'm getting a black screen, but I am seeing that we do have a connection to the target camera (see below). I'm not sure if this is because I was using CVLC with a dummy interface in my previous script vs Anthias, which I assume is vlc_python, or if it has to do with something else. I'll work on getting Anthias to actually display the rtsp after the connection, but I'm guessing it's the HDMI group/mode, kms/fkms, or interface issues.

If anyone has any ideas or would like to point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

media_player.py adjusted [Lines 50-52]:

class VLCMediaPlayer(MediaPlayer):
    def __init__(self):
        MediaPlayer.__init__(self)

        options = self.__get_options()
        self.instance = vlc.Instance(options)
        self.player = self.instance.media_player_new()

        self.player.audio_output_set('alsa')

    def __get_options(self):
        options = []

        if lookup_raspberry_pi_version() == 'pi4':
            if settings['audio_output'] == 'local':
                options += [
                    '--alsa-audio-device=plughw:CARD=Headphones',
                ]

            options += [
                '-q',
                '--no-osd'
            ]

        return options