This tutorial is written to show you how easy it is to use the MplayerCtrl with wxPython and not to teach you how to use wxPython.
Note
You need to start the script as administrator in Windows Vista and Windows 7 (because of UAC)
There are three things to download and to install:
Don’t forget that the MplayerCtrl has one dependency: wxPython. If you need to install wxPython, you can download it here.
Of course you first need to install the MplayerCtrl, before you can use it. You can download the source from the cheeseshop and install it with the setup.py or you can also use easy_install or pip:
easy_install MplayerCtrl
# or
pip install MplayerCtrl
One last item that you need is the mplayer(.exe), which you can get here: MplayerDownload or you can get the Win32 files here: MplayerWin32Download.
If you’ve downloaded the installer, just install it. You can install the source with this command:
> setup.py install
or as said above you can use easy_install or pip:
easy_install MplayerCtrl
# or
pip install MplayerCtrl
Now you can import it!
>>> import MplayerCtrl as mpc
>>> mpc.__version__
'0.3.0'
Let’s start with an easy Frame.
import wx
import MplayerCtrl as mpc
class Frame(wx.Frame):
def __init__(self, parent, id, title, mplayer, media_file):
wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, id, title)
self.mpc = mpc.MplayerCtrl(self, -1, mplayer, media_file)
self.Show()
if __name__ == '__main__':
app = wx.App(redirect=False)
frame = Frame(None, -1, 'Hello MplayerCtrl', u'mplayer', u'testmovie.mpg')
app.MainLoop()
So, what’s happening here?
- argument: parent of the MplayerCtrl
- argument: id of the MplayerCtrl, as used for each wx.Panel instance
- argument: the path to the mplayer(.exe)
- argument: this arg is optional. It’s used to start playback immediately with the given file; in this case the file’s name is testmovie.mpg
Note
You have to pass unicode to the MplayerCtrl
Note
The events are in the MplayerCtrl module, not in the wxPython module.
You should know what events are and how you can use them with wxPython.
A list of all Events of the MplayerCtrl.
import wx
import MplayerCtrl as mpc
class Frame(wx.Frame):
def __init__(self, parent, id, title, mplayer, media_file):
wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, id, title)
self.mpc = mpc.MplayerCtrl(self, -1, mplayer, media_file)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_PROCESS_STARTED, self.on_process_started)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_MEDIA_STARTED, self.on_media_started)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_MEDIA_FINISHED, self.on_media_finished)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_PROCESS_STOPPED, self.on_process_stopped)
self.Show()
def on_process_started(self, evt):
print 'Process started'
def on_media_started(self, evt):
print 'Media started'
def on_media_finished(self, evt):
print 'Media finished'
self.mpc.Quit()
def on_process_stopped(self, evt):
print 'Process stopped'
if __name__ == '__main__':
app = wx.App(redirect=False)
frame = Frame(None, -1, 'Hello MplayerCtrl', u'mplayer', u'testmovie.mpg')
app.MainLoop()
If you run the code above, you can tell that the events are working because the print statements should be printing to your stdout. The events will signal you as soon as they fire to let you know which event happened.
If the EVT_MEDIA_FINISHED is posted, we Quit() the Mplayer process, but the Panel won’t be destroyed. To destroy the complete MplayerCtrl you have to call the Destroy() method.
There are two special events, one of them is the EVT_STDERR event.
Let’s extend the example above to demonstrate how this event works:
import wx
import MplayerCtrl as mpc
class Frame(wx.Frame):
def __init__(self, parent, id, title, mplayer, media_file):
wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, id, title)
self.mpc = mpc.MplayerCtrl(self, -1, mplayer, media_file)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_PROCESS_STARTED, self.on_process_started)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_MEDIA_STARTED, self.on_media_started)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_MEDIA_FINISHED, self.on_media_finished)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_PROCESS_STOPPED, self.on_process_stopped)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_STDERR, self.on_stderr)
self.Show()
def on_process_started(self, evt):
print 'Process started'
def on_media_started(self, evt):
print 'Media started'
def on_media_finished(self, evt):
print 'Media finished'
self.mpc.Quit()
def on_process_stopped(self, evt):
print 'Process stopped'
def on_stderr(self, evt):
print 'oh oh some errors:'
print '==>', evt.data
if __name__ == '__main__':
app = wx.App(redirect=False)
frame = Frame(None, -1, 'Hello MplayerCtrl', u'mplayer', u'testmovie.mpg')
app.MainLoop()
As you can see, there’s a new event every time the mplayer process writes data to its stderr. To access the data, call the data attribute of the event-argument (line: 31).
An example output:
Process started
Media started
oh oh some errors:
==> The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
Media finished
Process stopped
New in version 0.2.3.
The EVT_STDOUT event is similar to the the Stderr event, you can also access the data through evt.data. The one and only difference is, the data contains the stdout output of the mplayer, instead of the stderr. To use this event you’ve to replace EVT_STDERR with EVT_STDOUT (see the example above).
There are 4 ways how you can change/set properties:
New in version 0.2.0.
Now there are real pythonic properties, created with property, you can access them through MplayerCtrl.the_prop.
A little example:
volume = self.mpc.volume
stream_pos = self.mpc.stream_pos
# now set a property
self.mpc.volume = 50
self.mpc.time_pos = 20
# now de/increase a property
self.mpc.volume -= 10
self.mpc.time_pos += 5
A list of all properties: Properties
GetProperty() returns the current value of a property.
Example usage:
length = self.mpc.GetProperty('length')
print 'The current length of the file:', length
If a property isn’t available for this type of media or the property isn’t a valid property (Properties), an AnsError is raised.
SetProperty() sets a property, a list with all possible properties you can find here: Properties
Example usage:
self.mpc.SetProperty('volume', 90)
If the property isn’t a valid property (Properties), an AnsError is raised.
StepProperty() changes a property by value, or increases by a default if value is not given or zero. The direction is reversed if direction is less than zero.
Example usage:
self.mpc.StepProperty('volume', 5)
If the property isn’t a valid property (Properties), an AnsError is raised.
There are many more methods to set/get properties. Here’s a list of all the methods of the MplayerCtrl class: MplayerCtrl
In the Mplayer-Documentation you can find a list of all available args.
If you create an instance of the MplayerCtrl class, you can get started with these args:
-wid,
-slave,
-noconsolecontrols,
-nofontconfig,
-input conf=devnull // os.devnull
-input nodefault-bindings
-idle
The -input, -slave and -idle arguments are added automatically if not specified
Changed in version 0.1.3: behavior of passing arguments to the mplayer
If you want to use your own args for the mplayer, you can use mplayer_args it must be a list or tuple containing the arguments.
Warning
You should never add -wid and -msglevel this does the MplayerCtrl for you and both are required for full functionallity
There is no module without (custom) exceptions.
The MplayerCtrl has these exceptions:
The MplayerCtrl.BaseMplayerCtrlException is the base exception for all other exceptions from the MplayerCtrl module. To catch all exceptions thrown by the MplayerCtrl you can use this (Note: this is not recommended as it’s not very useful):
try:
# do something
except mpc.BaseMplayerCtrlException:
pass
The MplayerCtrl.AnsError is raised, if an ANS_ERROR is returned by the mplayer process. Possible causes for this error: * wrong value * unknown property * property is unavailable, e.g. the chapter property used while playing a stream
The MplayerCtrl.BuildProcessError is raised if the path to the mplayer(.exe) is incorrect or another error occurs while building the mplayer.
The MplayerCtrl.NoMplayerRunning is raised, if you’ve quit the mplayer with MplayerCtrl.Quit() and try to call a method/function of the MplayerCtrl. To solve this problem you’ve just to call MplayerCtrl.Start().
New in version 0.2.2.
Here is a very simple example:
A wx.Frame with the MplayerCtrl and the MplayerCtrl plays a file (testmovie.mpg):
import wx
import MplayerCtrl as mpc
class Frame(wx.Frame):
def __init__(self, parent, id):
wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, id)
self.mpc = mpc.MplayerCtrl(self, -1, u'mplayer.exe', media_file=u'testmovie.mpg')
self.Show()
if __name__ == '__main__':
app = wx.App(redirect=False)
f = Frame(None, -1)
app.MainLoop()
Another example, now with events:
import wx
import MplayerCtrl as mpc
class Frame(wx.Frame):
def __init__(self, parent, id):
wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, id)
self.mpc = mpc.MplayerCtrl(self, -1, u'mplayer.exe', media_file=u'testmovie.mpg')
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_MEDIA_STARTED, self.on_media_started)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_MEDIA_FINISHED, self.on_media_finished)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_PROCESS_STARTED, self.on_process_started)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_PROCESS_STOPPED, self.on_process_stopped)
self.Show()
def on_media_started(self, evt):
print 'Media started!'
def on_media_finished(self, evt):
print 'Media finished!'
self.mpc.Quit() # quits the Mplayer-process
def on_process_started(self, evt):
print 'Process started!'
def on_process_stopped(self, evt):
print 'Process stopped!'
if __name__ == '__main__':
app = wx.App(redirect=False)
f = Frame(None, -1)
app.MainLoop()
Now let’s get the arriving data from stderr and stdout:
import wx
import MplayerCtrl as mpc
class Frame(wx.Frame):
def __init__(self, parent, id):
wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, id)
self.mpc = mpc.MplayerCtrl(self, -1, u'mplayer.exe', media_file=u'testmovie.mpg')
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_STDERR, self.on_stderr)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_STDOUT, self.on_stdout)
self.Show()
def on_stderr(self, evt):
print ':O Some errors:', evt.data
def on_stdout(self, evt):
print 'stdout >>>', evt.data
if __name__ == '__main__':
app = wx.App(redirect=False)
f = Frame(None, -1)
app.MainLoop()
Let’s use a wx.EVT_KEY_DOWN event to decrease or increase the volume:
import MplayerCtrl as mpc
import wx
class Frame(wx.Frame):
def __init__(self, parent, id, size=(-1,-1)):
wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, id, size=size)
self.mpc = mpc.MplayerCtrl(self, -1, u'mplayer')
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_MEDIA_STARTED, self.media_started)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_MEDIA_FINISHED, self.media_finished)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_PROCESS_STARTED, self.process_started)
self.Bind(mpc.EVT_PROCESS_STOPPED, self.process_stopped)
self.mpc.Bind(wx.EVT_KEY_DOWN, self.key_down)
self.Center()
self.Show()
def media_started(self, evt):
print '----------> Media started'
def media_finished(self, evt):
print '----------> Media finished'
def process_started(self, evt):
print '----------> Process started'
self.mpc.Loadfile(u'testmovie.mpg')
def process_stopped(self, evt):
print '----------> Process stopped'
def key_down(self, evt):
k = evt.GetKeyCode()
if k in (43, 45) and self.mpc.playing:
volume = self.mpc.volume
if k == 43:
if not volume > 95:
self.mpc.volume += 5
elif k == 45:
if not volume <= 5:
self.mpc.volume -= 5
evt.Skip()
if __name__ == '__main__':
app = wx.App()
f = Frame(None, -1)
app.MainLoop()
See also: http://www.blog.pythonlibrary.org/2010/07/24/wxpython-creating-a-simple-media-player/