I am trying to control OMXplayer during playback of a video using a Python script. I am new to Dbus on Python, and am hopefully just missing something simple.
Eventually I want to do this with a motion sensor using the GPIO pins, but first I am just trying to get control over the player. What I need to do is loop a section of the video once a certain time passes, and then jump forward to the 'second' section when the passage is interrupted. I am testing this using a key entry.
My problem is that the 'if' statement within the code does not loop unless there is an interruption from a key being inputted, or any other signal. Any key will cause an interruption, but I want the time-specific 'if' statement in the loop to trigger without any input being entered. I hope what I am saying is clear in the below code, but if not please ask any question and I'll be happy to try to clarify.
I am using Will Price's OMXplayer wrapper: https://github.com/willprice/python-omxplayer-wrapper/
My hardware is a Raspberry Pi 3B+
I have looked at similar questions including those below, but have not found the answer: How to open and close omxplayer (Python/Raspberry Pi) while playing video? https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=533160
I have cleaned out unnecessary parts of the code so this is a basic functioning version.
from omxplayer.player import OMXPlayer #runs from the popcornmix omxplayer wrapper at https://github.com/popcornmix/omxplayerhttps://github.com/popcornmix/omxplayer and https://python-omxplayer-wrapper.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
from pathlib import Path
import time
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO #for taking signal from GPIO
import subprocess
import logging
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
VIDEO_PATH = Path("VIDEO.m4v")
player_log = logging.getLogger("Player 1")
player = OMXPlayer(VIDEO_PATH, dbus_name='org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.omxplayer1')
player.playEvent += lambda _: player_log.info("Play")
player.pauseEvent += lambda _: player_log.info("Pause")
player.stopEvent += lambda _: player_log.info("Stop")
positionEvent = 12
flyin = 3
flyaway = 15
'''
THE ERROR OCCURS IN THE BELOW FUNCTION!!!
the following function does not run each time
the 'while' loop below is playing, but does run
when there is a key pressed as an 'input'
I want to add a chck so that each time a certain
amount of time passes, the video jumps back
'''
def checktime():
currtime = player.position()
print("current time is " + str(currtime))
if(currtime > 3):
print("currtime is greater than 3")
try:
player.play()
print (" Ready")
while True:
'''
Below is the call for the function 'checktime'
This runs once when the video starts, and only
runs again when a key is entered.
I want this to run on a continuous loop
and call each time the video loops
'''
checktime()
key = input()
if key == 'd': #works perfectly
currtime = player.position()
player.seek(flyin-currtime)
print("player position is" + str(player.position()))
if key == 'a': #works perfectly
currtime = player.position()
player.seek(flyaway-currtime)
if key == 's': #works perfectly
player.play()
'''
in addition to the key inputs above, entering any key
and pressing return will run the checktime()
function. I understand that this is receiving an
input, therefore 'waking' the program up,
but I don't understand why the loop is not working
continuously
'''
# Wait for 10 milliseconds
time.sleep(.01)
except KeyboardInterrupt:
print (" Quit")
# Reset GPIO settings
GPIO.cleanup()
The video is controlled using the 's', 'a' and 'd' keys as inputs, and this works perfectly. However, the 'checktime()' function does not call each time the while loop goes around. My guess is that this is because once the video is playing, it is not looking for anything from the Python program until it receives another input.
I am not sure if I am using DBus correctly. Ideally, I wanted to use the seek_absolute function of omxplayer-wrapper, but I haven't been able to understand this. I have been ploughing ahead on this project and have gotten a better understanding since posting an earlier question (see here: OMXplayer-wrapper and Python - jump to a specific point in video) but I am a bit stumped here.
If anyone can help I would appreciate any suggestions!
