GC Train Video upgraded to VLC 3 for Windows, Linux and macOS

[Ale Martinez (Please don't email or cc me)]

Last snapshot builds include VLC 3.0.8 Vetinari for wider media support and better performance in Train mode.

Windows and Linux versions support videosync and overlay widgets in the same way as with VLC 2.2.2

macOS version includes VLC in experimental way, videosync is expected to work but not widely tested, and overlay widgets are disabled for now.

Feedback is welcome.

[kub3r4]

After extracting Appimage i can see video.

I did not use "rm" as you suggested in my thread regarding VLC/codec issues. I assume this way it will use included VLC

rm lib/libvlc*
rm -r lib/vlc

[Ale Martinez (Please don't email or cc me)]

Yes, but it also should work without extraction in this version, just give execute permissions to the AppImage and run it. 

[kub3r4]

I messed up something at first, so it didn't play it with AppImage. But it is working now.

[Ale Martinez (Please don't email or cc me)]

Feedback on macOS would be useful since video was not available in v3.5 and video sync is a new feature in this platform.

Some guidelines about how to use this can be found in https://github.com/GoldenCheetah/GoldenCheetah/wiki/FAQ-TRAIN#how-can-i-have-synchronized-video-in-my-training-session

Main difference should be overlay widgets are not available on macOS builds so besides a Video chart you may want to add a Workout (not Workout Editor) chart to see the elevation profile, Live Map chart if the workout has location information and dials/charts with power/speed/cadence/hr/etc.

[Neil Harrington]

>Feedback on macOS would be useful since video was not available in v3.5 

Well, I was decided to start with the "Test" trainer, that was going smoothly, so I decided to add my Wahoo Kickr

Application crashed immediately on me trying to add "Ant+ and FE-C"

I am using build 4002. Attached is the crash log

[Ale Martinez (Please don't email or cc me)]

El jueves, 1 de octubre de 2020, 23:41:19 (UTC-3), Neil Harrington escribió:

>Feedback on macOS would be useful since video was not available in v3.5 

Well, I was decided to start with the "Test" trainer, that was going smoothly, so I decided to add my Wahoo Kickr

Do you mean using Video in a workout with the Robot device?

 

Application crashed immediately on me trying to add "Ant+ and FE-C"

I am using build 4002. Attached is the crash log

The crash seems to be related to usb support, not video.

This problem is new when you use video or it also happens without a Video chart or with a previous version?

[TWINGSISTER TWINGSISTER]

Don't know if this is he right place to place this comment but a similar one elsewhere in this group passed unnoticed so...

VLC supports RSS generated subtitles in its CLI. It will be great to cycle and have a baseline of news running by.

Trainers are so boring!

So the question in general is how can I control the VLC instance run by GC and also how to add parameters to the command that GC uses to launch VLC

Possibly then will be of some interest to integrate this feature configuration (i.e. news while training) directly in GC.

Cheers

[Ale Martinez]

El miércoles, 15 de diciembre de 2021 a la(s) 11:07:15 UTC-3, twing...@gmail.com escribió:

Don't know if this is he right place to place this comment but a similar one elsewhere in this group passed unnoticed so...

VLC supports RSS generated subtitles in its CLI. It will be great to cycle and have a baseline of news running by.

Trainers are so boring!

So the question in general is how can I control the VLC instance run by GC and also how to add parameters to the command that GC uses to launch VLC

See https://github.com/GoldenCheetah/GoldenCheetah/blob/0262d5f9683c914ebf7d3c8d27c539ea886084d9/src/Train/VideoWindow.cpp#L70 

[TWINGSISTER TWINGSISTER]

Thanks for the prompt and precious reply. Still I am a little bit hesitant to throw myself into a recompilation. Wouldn't be nice  to modify the .cpp to let the user specify a string of options for VLC?

This string could come from a system variable or a file or a configuration GC variable (do not know if they actually exist somehow)

This will save me a lot of work and would be useful in general for experimenting what actually VLC can do in this context before wiring all this into some code.

Not to mention that VLC parameters change very often.

[Ale Martinez]

El miércoles, 15 de diciembre de 2021 a la(s) 20:45:57 UTC-3, twing...@gmail.com escribió:

Thanks for the prompt and precious reply. Still I am a little bit hesitant to throw myself into a recompilation. Wouldn't be nice  to modify the .cpp to let the user specify a string of options for VLC?

I am afraid if you want to experiment with these features the least you need to be able to do is to build by yourself. Otherwise you could think about alternatives within your reach s.t. adding a Web Chart in Train View, or to run a separate application in another window, etc.

This string could come from a system variable or a file or a configuration GC variable (do not know if they actually exist somehow)

We can consider this afterwards, provided it is first proved a useful feature.

 

This will save me a lot of work and would be useful in general for experimenting what actually VLC can do in this context before wiring all this into some code.

I will be totally honest to you, I cannot see why you think to save you some work should be one of my priorities.

 

Not to mention that VLC parameters change very often.

VLC parameters used by GC never changed in years, AFAIK. 

[Mark Liversedge]

They haven't changed since the code was originally written.

@twingsister - I am curious to know what parameters you want to pass ?

Mark

[TWINGSISTER TWINGSISTER]

"I will be totally honest to you, I cannot see why you think to save you some work should be one of my priorities."

I am not saying it should YOUR priority. In this kind of FOSS project I think that people decide when to work or not to work so...

Furthermore GC project is a very complex one, there are an extraordinary number of different features to take into account basically 

it is a mix of an embedded operating system for several different trainers architectures plus a development environment for media for these trainers and all must run on a range of operating systems. This scenario could be a nightmare.  So there is no contempt  in my notes. 

It sounds like you do not see any interest in supporting what I propose but there is no obvious way of doing this in GC so if I work on it I will not reinvent the wheel and that sounds interesting.

I think that,  I will give a try to  the Python plugin architecture and see if I can write a chart for training where to put all my ideas.

So my forthcoming posts will be on the Python interface probably. 

To answer Mark question I propose that this VLC feature 

https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues/7241

could be of some interest. Actually it also went into modifications and presently I cannot see this working.

In the above link you can read. 

"Rémi Denis-Courmont @Courmisch · 9 years ago

Maintainer

Is it so hard to read the release news that you have to waste developers time?

Core: (...) * Option --sub-filter was renamed --sub-source

so I am trying to put all this in the right perspective. If I cannot control VLC line I cannot imagine to talk with guys at VLC that seem

sensitive about this type of interaction. Of course I can try the CLI interface but this will be of limited interest if I cannot change this in GC.

Surely a WebChart could be interesting if one can have it transparent and superimposed on the training videoChart or one could think

of writing some javascript code to embed a webplayer for RLVs but this sounds like reinventing the wheel (or the VideoChart).

BTW i do not even noticed this chart but googling for Web Chart Golden Cheetah I didn't find too much to encourage me to start all this.

the Python interface is more documented but suggestions and examples on how to start a training chart in Python will be welcome

Best Wishes

[Ale Martinez]

El viernes, 17 de diciembre de 2021 a la(s) 15:27:21 UTC-3, twing...@gmail.com escribió:

"I will be totally honest to you, I cannot see why you think to save you some work should be one of my priorities."

I am not saying it should YOUR priority.

I just found weird you request for others to do custom development to save you some work, before you have contributed anything to the project.

 

In this kind of FOSS project I think that people decide when to work or not to work so...

Yes, it is, and that means you can use the software freely and modify it to your taste, not that you are entitled to free services and free custom development.

 

Furthermore GC project is a very complex one, there are an extraordinary number of different features to take into account basically 

it is a mix of an embedded operating system for several different trainers architectures plus a development environment for media for these trainers and all must run on a range of operating systems. This scenario could be a nightmare.  So there is no contempt  in my notes. 

It sounds like you do not see any interest in supporting what I propose

That is a fair interpretation, may be even an understatement.

 

but there is no obvious way of doing this in GC so if I work on it I will not reinvent the wheel and that sounds interesting.

I think that,  I will give a try to  the Python plugin architecture and see if I can write a chart for training where to put all my ideas.

So my forthcoming posts will be on the Python interface probably. 

I would suggest to read the Python API documentation first since currently it is not intended to be used in Train view.