Embed VLC rather than floating window?

[erikherz]

This project launches a new window for VLC. Can we embed the VLC player inside another GUI toolkit, like GTK rather than spawning a new window?

[adrg]

Hi @erikherz. Thank you for your interest in the library. It should work if you're on Linux. I have to add another binding for setting the window for the player on Windows.

Here's a quick test I made using https://github.com/mattn/go-gtk:

package main

import (
    "log"

    vlc "github.com/adrg/libvlc-go/v3"
    "github.com/mattn/go-gtk/glib"
    "github.com/mattn/go-gtk/gtk"
)

func main() {
    // Initialize libVLC module.
    if err := vlc.Init("--quiet"); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    defer vlc.Release()

    // Create GTK window.
    gtk.Init(nil)
    window := gtk.NewWindow(gtk.WINDOW_TOPLEVEL)
    window.SetPosition(gtk.WIN_POS_CENTER)
    window.SetTitle("libVLC embed test")
    window.Connect("destroy", func(ctx *glib.CallbackContext) {
        gtk.MainQuit()
    }, "test")

    window.SetSizeRequest(600, 600)
    window.ShowAll()

    // Create a new player.
    player, err := vlc.NewPlayer()
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    defer func() {
        player.Stop()
        player.Release()
    }()

    media, err := player.LoadMediaFromPath("test.mp4")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    defer media.Release()

    // Set window for the player.
    player.SetXWindow(uint32(window.GetWindow().GetNativeWindowID()))
    if err = player.Play(); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    gtk.Main()
}

[erikherz]

Thank you. How can I attach the player object to a GTK widget? Ideally like so: grid.Attach(player, 1, 1, 3, 1) Can I map it to the GtkImage widget or GtkGLArea?

[adrg]

@erikherz Yes, the player can be attached to a GTK widget. I added a sample GTK player example which hopefully addresses your issue. In this case, I attached the player to a gtk.DrawingArea.

Let me know if the example helps: https://github.com/adrg/libvlc-go/blob/master/v3/examples/gtk_player.go

EDIT: You can also render to a gtk.Image.

playerWidget := gtk.NewImage()
// instead of:
// playerWidget := gtk.NewDrawingArea()

[adrg]

@erikherz I added bindings to set the player window for Windows and macOS. Also updated the GTK player example. Can this issue be closed?

[erikherz]

Thank you, Adrian-George. I am still having trouble getting VLC to compile against this on Windows.

I installed VLC on Windows as per your suggestion: https://github.com/adrg/libvlc-go/wiki/Install-on-Windows

I did pull the VLC code from Git and then was able to set these variables:

$ export CGO_CFLAGS="-IC:\libvlc\include"
$ export CGO_LDFLAGS="-LC:\libvlc"

C:\GIT\libvlc-go\v3>set CGO_LDFLAGS=-LC:\libvlc

C:\GIT\libvlc-go\v3>set CGO_CFLAGS=-IC:\libvlc\include

C:\GIT\libvlc-go\v3>go build
# runtime/cgo
gcc_libinit_windows.c: In function 'x_cgo_sys_thread_create':
gcc_libinit_windows.c:57:12: error: implicit declaration of function '_beginthread' [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
   57 |  thandle = _beginthread(func, 0, arg);
      |            ^~~~~~~~~~~~
cc1: all warnings being treated as errors
go: failed to remove work dir: GetFileInformationByHandle C:\Users\vivoh\AppData\Local\Temp\2\go-build851553638\NUL: Incorrect function.

C:\GIT\libvlc-go\v3>

C:\GIT\libvlc-go\v3>which go
/cygdrive/c/Go/bin/go

C:\GIT\libvlc-go\v3>go version
go version go1.14 windows/amd64

C:\GIT\libvlc-go\v3>

[adrg]

@erikherz This does not seem related to libvlc. How did you install go? Did you build it from source? This seems like a problem with the C compiler. Can you do which gcc and gcc --version? Also, it seems you are using cygwin, which might have installed an old version of gcc. The screenshots I took were made in the regular Windows cmd. Did you try building in that? You could also try installing https://jmeubank.github.io/tdm-gcc.

[erikherz]

Will do.

vivoh@windows-gtk-1 /GIT/libvlc-go/v3 $ which gcc /usr/bin/gcc

vivoh@windows-gtk-1 /GIT/libvlc-go/v3 $ gcc --version gcc (GCC) 9.2.0 Copyright (C) 2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

[adrg]

That's a pretty new version gcc. You could also try ignoring those warnings and see if that works, because they are treated as errors by default it seems.

set CGO_CFLAGS=-IC:\libvlc\include -D LIBSOLV_INTERNAL -Wno-error
set CGO_LDFLAGS=-LC:\libvlc
go build

Or to ignore all warnings:

set CGO_CFLAGS=-IC:\libvlc\include -D LIBSOLV_INTERNAL -w
set CGO_LDFLAGS=-LC:\libvlc
go build

[erikherz]

Looks like I need to set up pkg-config?

C:\GIT\libvlc-go\v3\examples>set CGO_CFLAGS=-IC:\libvlc\include -D LIBSOLV_INTERNAL -Wno-error

C:\GIT\libvlc-go\v3\examples>set CGO_LDFLAGS=-LC:\libvlc

C:\GIT\libvlc-go\v3\examples>go build
# pkg-config --cflags  -- pango
pkg-config: exec: "pkg-config": executable file not found in %PATH%
# pkg-config --cflags  -- glib-2.0 gobject-2.0
pkg-config: exec: "pkg-config": executable file not found in %PATH%
# github.com/adrg/libvlc-go/v3
In file included from _cgo_export.c:4:
event_manager.go: In function 'eventAttach':
event_manager.go:11:55: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size [-Wint-to-pointer-cast]
event_manager.go: In function 'eventDetach':
event_manager.go:14:48: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size [-Wint-to-pointer-cast]
# github.com/adrg/libvlc-go/v3
..\event_manager.go: In function 'eventAttach':
..\event_manager.go:11:55: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size [-Wint-to-pointer-cast]
   11 |     return libvlc_event_attach(em, et, eventDispatch, (void*)userData);
      |                                                       ^
..\event_manager.go: In function 'eventDetach':
..\event_manager.go:14:48: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size [-Wint-to-pointer-cast]
   14 |     libvlc_event_detach(em, et, eventDispatch, (void*)userData);
      |                                                ^
# github.com/adrg/libvlc-go/v3
cgo-gcc-prolog: In function '_cgo_a07b0869c079_Cfunc_libvlc_media_is_parsed':
cgo-gcc-prolog:173:2: warning: 'libvlc_media_is_parsed' is deprecated [-Wdeprecated-declarations]
In file included from C:\libvlc\include/vlc/vlc.h:51,
                 from ..\media.go:4:
C:\libvlc\include/vlc/deprecated.h:249:4: note: declared here
  249 |    libvlc_media_is_parsed( libvlc_media_t *p_md );
      |    ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
cgo-gcc-prolog: In function '_cgo_a07b0869c079_Cfunc_libvlc_media_parse':
cgo-gcc-prolog:226:2: warning: 'libvlc_media_parse' is deprecated [-Wdeprecated-declarations]
In file included from C:\libvlc\include/vlc/vlc.h:51,
                 from ..\media.go:4:
C:\libvlc\include/vlc/deprecated.h:209:1: note: declared here
  209 | libvlc_media_parse( libvlc_media_t *p_md );
      | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
cgo-gcc-prolog: In function '_cgo_a07b0869c079_Cfunc_libvlc_media_parse_async':
cgo-gcc-prolog:238:2: warning: 'libvlc_media_parse_async' is deprecated [-Wdeprecated-declarations]
In file included from C:\libvlc\include/vlc/vlc.h:51,
                 from ..\media.go:4:
C:\libvlc\include/vlc/deprecated.h:233:1: note: declared here
  233 | libvlc_media_parse_async( libvlc_media_t *p_md );
      | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

C:\GIT\libvlc-go\v3\examples>

[adrg]

Yes. It seems that's needed for GTK. See the Windows installation instructions on the go-gtk repository. But from the output you attached that seems like a warning. Did it build the executable?

[erikherz]

I don't see a binary. To be clear, I should now follow these here: https://github.com/gotk3/gotk3/wiki/Installing-on-Windows

[adrg]

Yes, you most certainly need to install GTK. Try following the installation instructions on the link you mentioned. I'll try running the example on Windows as well.

[erikherz]

I got an error in MSYS running the required pacman commands:

vivoh@windows-gtk-1 MSYS ~
$ pacman --noconfirm -Su
      1 [main] bash 491 child_copy: data read copy failed, 0x1004C4000..0x1004CCD40, done 24576, windows pid 1484, Win32 error 299
Segmentation fault

[erikherz]

I reinstalled Go after setting the environment variable and now the pacman scripts are running ... I am optimistic. More soon ...

[adrg]

Installing GTK turns out to be a very tedious task. In any case, my advice is to try to get one of the examples mentioned in https://github.com/gotk3/gotk3/wiki/Installing-on-Windows running on Windows first.

The examples in my repository are using go-gtk (which uses GTK2). However, if you get an example from the gotk3 repository up and running, integrating libVLC should be pretty easy.

EDIT: I'll probably also update the examples to use GTK3 sometime this week or at the beginning of the next one.

[erikherz]

No luck

C:\GIT\gotk3>cd gtk

C:\GIT\gotk3\gtk>go build
# github.com/gotk3/gotk3/glib
cc1.exe: sorry, unimplemented: 64-bit mode not compiled in

C:\GIT\gotk3\gtk>

and

C:\GIT\libvlc-go\v3\examples>go get github.com/gotk3/gotk3/gtk
go: downloading github.com/gotk3/gotk3 v0.4.0
go: found github.com/gotk3/gotk3/gtk in github.com/gotk3/gotk3 v0.4.0
# github.com/gotk3/gotk3/glib
cc1.exe: sorry, unimplemented: 64-bit mode not compiled in

[adrg]

I'll update the examples to GTK3 and try and get them running on Windows and let you know. Cross-compiling from Linux is also an alternative: https://github.com/gotk3/gotk3/wiki/Cross-Compiling.

[adrg]

Hi @erikherz. I adapted the player example to GTK 3. You can find the example here: https://github.com/adrg/libvlc-go/tree/master/v3/examples/gtk3_player I also tested it on Windows and created a wiki page on how to build the GTK 3 examples: https://github.com/adrg/libvlc-go/wiki/Build-GTK-3-examples

EDIT: I also updated the GTK 2 player example: https://github.com/adrg/libvlc-go/tree/master/v3/examples/gtk2_player You can find instructions for building GTK 2 examples on Windows here: https://github.com/adrg/libvlc-go/wiki/Build-GTK-2-examples

[erikherz]

Thank you!