[Feature Request] Open video files in local player

[tissole]

Is your feature request related to a problem?

Currently, the video player can render only .mp4 and .mov files. MKV, AVI, FLV, TS can't be played on the video player.

Describe the solution you'd like

Add an option for the users to open video files in the local video player. Not only a greater variety of files could be played directly, but the process is more smoothly and battery friendly. Now the video player consumes more resources than the local video player.

[ilya-fedin]

Such option already exists, look at kotatogram settings

[tissole]

??? I searched all settings, I could not find this option in any menu. Where exactly is this option located?

[ilya-fedin]

Ah, it's not released yet. You can still enable it via videoplayer cheat code inherited from tdesktop.

[tissole]

Please give more details, I don't know anything about this cheat code. P.S. When this feature is coming?

[ilya-fedin]

Please give more details, I don't know anything about this cheat code.

Go to the main settings view (where Notifications, Chat Settings, etc), enter videoplayer blindly (like a cheat code in a game)

P.S. When this feature is coming?

It's already present on dev branch. No ETA for next pointing release.

[ilya-fedin]

Here's the list of tdesktop cheat codes: https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/wiki/Hidden-modes

[tissole]

Aaaa...the treasure trove. Thanks a lot!

[tissole]

I tested but unfortunately, it does not work, It downloads the file instead to open it in the external player. I will wait for the new version.

Is it also possible to open Youtube links in the external player? Now, these links are opened in the browser, which is quite annoying.

[ilya-fedin]

It downloads the file instead to open it in the external player.

Of course it downloads, you can't open something in external program without downloading it.

I will wait for the new version.

It just adds a visible switch for that feature. Nothing else.

[tissole]

Oh! I was expecting the file to be streamed, not downloaded. That's disappointing... If that's not going to work, what about making the internal player stream, mkv, avi files? Or is a Telegram limitation that can't be bypassed?

The desktop client can be made to play directly Youtube links as the mobile client does?

[ilya-fedin]

I don't imagine how to stream to external players. Usually system provides you an API like ShellExecute/xdg-open and all you can is to specify local file, then it finds the appropriate application that can handle that file and opens it. They don't provide any API to handle streams.

[ilya-fedin]

The desktop client can be made to play directly Youtube links as the mobile client does?

That would require a lot of effort, personally I'm not interested in this, so I won't work on this

[ilya-fedin]

If that's not going to work, what about making the internal player stream, mkv, avi files? Or is a Telegram limitation that can't be bypassed?

I'm not sure we should do that. I think this should be discussed with @RadRussianRus

[EricKotato]

I don't think it's going to work. Even if player supports streaming, it's probably by HTTP(S), and Telegram uses MTProto.

It could be solved with embedding of HTTP server, so video can be converted from MTProto to HTTP, but that's totally overkill.

Another way is to make a player plugin with embedded TDLib to support streaming. But I'm not sure if TDLib even supports streaming. Though even if it does, you'll need to make a plugin for every player you need, and maintain it (at least in terms of updating TDLib). And with Telegram's pretty unstable APIs it probably will be painful.

So it's either overkill or painful to make and maintain (also first way could be both overkill and painful).

[tissole]

Thanks for the answers! If making Youtube links play in the external player is difficult, what about this: Opening any links with a custom URI Scheme like in this fork https://github.com/Forkgram/tdesktop

It could be solved with embedding of HTTP server, so video can be converted from MTProto to HTTP, but that's totally overkill.

I see. That's OK, I found a solution based on this concept, streaming Telegram files through an HTTP server.

[ilya-fedin]

Opening any links with a custom URI Scheme like in this fork

WTF

[tissole]

[ilya-fedin]

What does that do?

[tissole]

[ilya-fedin]

It doesn't make clear what happens when you click "Open Link with URI scheme"

[tissole]

It opens the player (Potplayer), but it does not play the video for some reason. Or is something wrong with the implementation, or I did not set this correctly.

[ilya-fedin]

How does it understand what app to open?

[tissole]

Supposedly through this URI scheme potplayer://

[ilya-fedin]

so you specify URI scheme in settings and it just opens that URI scheme via system handler by that menu item?

[tissole]

Yes, but only for Potplayer, I tried vlc://, and is not working. So I don't know what the scheme is for specific players. I will open a ticket to ask the developers.

[ilya-fedin]

So I don't know what the scheme is for specific players.

Players usually don't provide schemes. So I think such a feature is useless.

[tissole]

They updated the fork and the feature is working now. I tried with potplayer:// andmpv://. I also found a workaround, drop the link in the player :)

[github-actions[bot]]

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