ffplayout-engine

The purpose with ffplayout is to provide a 24/7 broadcasting solution that plays a json playlist for every day, while keeping the current playlist editable.

Check ffplayout-gui: web-based GUI for ffplayout.

Features

have all values in a separate config file
dynamic playlist
replace missing playlist or clip with a dummy clip
playing clips from watched folder
send emails with error message
overlay a logo
overlay text, controllable through messenger over libzmq
EBU R128 loudness normalization (single pass) (experimental)
loop clip in playlist which out value is higher then its duration, see also Loop Clip
loop playlist infinitely
trim and fade the last clip, to get full 24 hours
when playlist is not 24 hours long, loop filler clip until time is full
set custom day start, so you can have playlist for example: from 6am to 6am, instate of 0am to 12pm
normal system requirements and no special tools
no GPU power is needed
stream to server or play on desktop
on posix systems ffplayout can reload config with SIGHUP
logging to files, or colored output to console
add filters to input, if is necessary to match output stream:
- yadif (deinterlacing)
- pad (letterbox or pillarbox to fit aspect)
- fps (change fps)
- scale (fit target resolution)
- aevalsrc (if video have no audio)
- apad (add silence if audio duration is to short)
- tpad (add black frames if video duration is to short)

Requirements

python version 3.6+
python module watchdog (only when playlist_mode = False)
python module colorama if you are on windows
ffmpeg v4.2+ and ffprobe (ffplay if you want to play on desktop)
if you want to overlay text, ffmpeg needs to have libzmq
RAM and CPU depends on video resolution, minimum 4 threads and 3GB RAM for 720p are recommend

JSON Playlist Example

{
    "channel": "Test 1",
    "date": "2019-03-05",
    "program": [{
            "in": 0,
            "out": 647.68,
            "duration": 647.68,
            "source": "/Media/clip1.mp4"
        }, {
            "in": 0,
            "out": 149,
            "duration": 149,
            "source": "/Media/clip2.mp4"
        }, {
            "in": 0,
            "out": 114.72,
            "duration": 114.72,
            "source": "/Media/clip3.mp4",
            "category": "advertisement"
        }, {
            "in": 0,
            "out": 2531.36,
            "duration": 2531.36,
            "source": "/Media/clip4.mp4",
            "category": ""
        }
    ]
}

Warning:

(Endless) streaming over multiple days will only work when config have day_start value and the length value is 24 hours. If you need only some hours for every day, use a cron job, or something similar.

Remote source from URL

You can use sources from remote URL in that way:

...
        {
            "in": 0,
            "out": 149,
            "duration": 149,
            "source": "https://example.org/big_buck_bunny.webm"
        }

But be careful with it, better test it multiple times!

More informations in Wiki

Installation

install ffmpeg, ffprobe (and ffplay if you need the preview mode)
cd to /opt/
clone repo: git clone https://github.com/ffplayout/ffplayout-engine.git
cd ffplayout-engine
run make
copy ffplayout.yml to /etc/ffplayout/
create folder with correct permissions for logging (check config)
copy docs/ffplayout.service to /etc/systemd/system/
change user in /etc/systemd/system/ffplayout.service
create playlists folder, in that format: /playlists/year/month
set variables in config file to your needs
use docs/gen_playlist_from_subfolders.sh /path/to/mp4s/ as a starting point for your playlists (path in script needs to change)
activate service and start it: sudo systemctl enable ffplayout && sudo systemctl start ffplayout

Start with Arguments

ffplayout also allows the passing of parameters:

-c, --config use given config file
-d, --desktop preview on desktop
-f, --folder use folder for playing
-l, --log for user-defined log path, none for console output
-i, --loop loop playlist infinitely
-p, --playlist for playlist file
-s, --start set start time in hh:mm:ss, now for start with first'
-t, --length set length in hh:mm:ss, none for no length check

You can run the command like:

./ffplayout.py -l none -p ~/playlist.json -d -s now -t none

Play on Desktop

For playing on desktop use -d argument or set preview = True in config under [OUT].

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