Description:

This driver controls the VLC Media Player, which provides low-latency streaming capability across your home network. This is a CML driver and is in the CML scope MEng.System.CQC.Drivers.VLCMediaPlayer.

Quirks and Limitations:

Although the command is provided in this driver, the “Play” transport mode does not appear to actually do anything based on testing.  If you want to un-Pause a stream, then you need to send another Pause command, not a Play command.

Also note that many fields will not work unless a stream is playing.  An example is volume.  You cannot adjust the volume if a stream is not playing.  Also, when paused, the only command VLC will accept is another pause.

Connection Details

This driver connects through a TCP port.  In order to startup VLC with the correct settings for connection, you must add the following parameters to the command-line:

--extraintf="rc" --rc-host="yyyy:xxxx" --rc-quiet

where yyyy is the PC hostname where VLC is being run. Typically, you would want to put “ localhost” for this value.  The term xxxx is the port number that VLC will be communicating to CQC with.  Basically, when you install the driver you’ll be asked for a hostname and port number, just make sure they are the same as the ones you started VLC with.

Driver Fields

This section lists the fields that the driver makes available, their types, minimum and maximum values, etc...

Name	Type	R/W	Description/Limits
PlayMode	String	R/W	Play, Pause, or Stop
Volume	Card	R/W	Read or set the volume.  Has a range of 0 to 400.
VolumeUp	Boolean	W	Increment the volume by one “step”.  The documentation of how much a step was is vague, but in practice seemed to be approximately 6.
VolumeDown	Boolean	W	Decrement the volume by one “step”.  The documentation of how much a step was is vague, but in practice seemed to be approximately 6.
NextPlaylistItem	Boolean	W	Move to the next playlist item.
PrevPlaylistItem	Boolean	W	Move to the previous playlist item.
PlayFaster	Boolean	W	Increase the speed of the playing stream
PlaySlower	Boolean	W	Decrease the speed of the playing stream
PlayNormal	Boolean	W	Reset the playing speed to normal
Seek	Card	W	Move to a specific time in the stream (in seconds).  This value should be between 0 and the length of the stream.
DeviceSelect	Card	W	Set device to use.  See the VLC Help for an explanation of this.
ChannelSelect	Card	W	Set channel to use.  See the VLC Help for an explanation of this.
PlayTimeElapsed	Card	R	Amount of time that the current stream has been playing (in seconds).
PlayTimeLength	Card	R	Total length of the current stream (in seconds)
MediaTitle	String	R	Title of the currently playing stream.