Difference between revisions of "Playing Videos and Music"

Revision as of 20:48, 2 March 2021

TL;DR: To play video and music files, you'll just add them exactly like you add your games. When creating folders for your systems inside EmuVR\Games, just add a Video and/or a Music folder, copy your video and music files there, add them to the Game Scanner, assign the Video or Music media types to them (or click Autofill), then click Scan. They'll show up in your inventory menu in EmuVR.

Read below for more detailed instructions.

Thanks to the FFMPEG core, EmuVR supports playback of video and music files. Additionally, you can also play compatible web streams, provided you have a valid accessible URL. This guide will offer some brief instruction on setting up these types of media.

Video/Music

Video and Music are a straightforward setup, as the steps are similar to setting up games.

• Create a folder inside EmuVR\Games for your movies. This can be whatever you'd like, but it's recommended you pick something along the lines of Videos or Music.
• Place your media files in this new directory. Compatible file formats: .mkv, .avi, .f4v, .f4f, .3gp, .ogm, .flv, .mp4, .mp3, .flac, .ogg, .m4a, .webm, .3g2, .mov, .wmv, .mpg, .mpeg, .vob, .asf, .divx, .m2p, .m2ts, .ps, .ts, .mxf, .wma, .wav
  More info in the libretro docs for the FFMPEG core, located here.
• Run the Game Scanner. If you named your folder similar to the name examples above, it should detect them when you click Autofill. If not, add the folder manually.
• Ensure the media type is set to Video or Music depending on the media type.
• Launch EmuVR.

As long as you've used compatible media and setup the Game Scanner properly, you should now have the option to spawn a new system and cartridges for your Videos and Music.

Important Notes

• The DVD and Casette / CD media types are currently functionally identical, and will spawn a generic console. Those variations are placeholders for when more models are created in the future.
• The VHS / VCR media type does have functional models since version 1.0.5.
• As it's the case with games, each media file will show up as as a labelled VHS or cartridge. This means that each file takes up a small amount of VRAM, and as such it is advised that you not dump too many files into the game at once.
• If you would like to play more than one file per VHS or cartridge, you can do so by manually merging your files(a topic not covered here, as it is somewhat advanced), or by reading the section below about Streaming for an alternative.

Streaming

In addition to using video files from your HDD, you can also directly stream some media formats without needing to download anything.

Streaming from the Web

The FFMPEG Core, by default, handles a wide variety of media including common stream formats. Getting those URLs into EmuVR is fairly straightforward, but does need a bit of manual work.

• Create a new file in your Games/Video directory. You can name it whatever you would like, but it must end with the extension .str (be sure to enable file extensions or you might actually end with an invisible "filename.str.txt")
• Open this new file with a text editor. Notepad will do.
• Paste the link to the stream you'd like to play. Note that this needs to be a direct link, not just the webpage the stream is on. A direct link will end with a file format, and will usually prompt you to download a file if you put it in your browser. (As an example, the link might look something like http://mycoolsite.com/stream/supercoolstream.m3u8 or https://sample-videos.com/video123/mp4/480/big_buck_bunny_480p_10mb.mp4.
• Save the file.
• Run Game Scanner. You should now have a cartridge in game named after the .str file you created.

Important Notes

If the console immediately turns off without playing, it usually means that either the link is not accessible or that it's not compatible with ffmpeg. Verify that you are using a direct link to the stream, and that it's accessible in a incognito/private browser window.

No, Youtube and Twitch don't work with this method.

Streaming from your PC (Experimental / Advanced)

Disclaimer: This is just a workaround made by a community member, using third party software, which might not work anymore after any update or for any reason.
Again, this is experimental, unreliable, unstable, unpredictable, and out of our control. It might work for some people and not for you.
This is not supported. Good luck.

Sometimes, the media you want isn't accessible from a direct link. Or perhaps you'd like to use your own media and play a series of videos or music without needing to swap cartridges each episode. Maybe you have a bunch of shows and old commercials in a playlist that you'd like to watch to emulate a TV channel. While this functionality isn't supported in EmuVR, a workaround has been created by a user of the community using the popular media player VLC.

• If you don't already have it, download and install VLC.
• Create a new file in your \Games\Video directory. You can name it whatever you would like, but it must end with the .str (be sure to enable file extensions or you might actually end with an invisible "filename.str.txt")
• Open this new file with a text editor. Notepad will do.
• This is where things get tricky. In this file, you need to enter the following: http://127.0.0.1:8080/MYSTREAM.ts. The MYSTREAM can be whatever word you would like, but the rest of the link must match the example given. For these instructions, we will be using the URL http://127.0.0.1:8080/teststream.ts.
• Scan with the Game Scanner as usual, to add the new file to your inventory.
• Open VLC.
• If using default hotkeys in VLC, press Control + S. Alternatively, you can open the proper menu via Media -> Stream.
• In the window that appears, add your media. These can be any format VLC supports.
• Once you've added some files, click Stream.
• Click Next. In the Destination Setup Window, click the dropdown that currently says File. Change this to HTTP. Click Add.
• Leave the port as 8080. Only change this if you know what you're doing or why you're doing it.
• Set the Path to /MYSTREAM.ts, or whatever you chose in place of MYSTREAM. In this case, we're going to use /teststream.ts.
• Click Next.
• Ensure Activate Transcoding is ticked. In the profile box, choose Video - H.264 + MP3 (TS).
• Choose Next. Then, choose Stream.

NOTE: If you only see one of the files you added in the stream queue, you may have to add all your files to a playlist as you would to normally play them, save the playlist (Ctrl+Y), then use that file in the Stream window instead.

You're done. You should now see the files you chose appear in you VLC playlist, and the timestamp will be moving. You may not see the video actually playing in VLC- this is normal, as long as the timestamp is moving your files are streaming. Open EmuVR and play your new stream cartridge. It might take a few seconds to load, but you'll eventually see your video file playing on the TV.

Important Notes

• This method of streaming is likely not the most efficient, and exists only as a workaround to stream from places where a direct link isn't accessible, like Twitch or Youtube, or to play a large number of media files on one cartridge without needing to swap them out.
• VLC must remain running, and the files must be playing in order for the stream to work. If you attempt to play the stream cartridge without VLC running/playing, it will simply turn off without loading anything.
• If you decide you want to add more files to this playlist, you will need to do so via the Stream menu. Otherwise, VLC will just play the file as a regular file and your console in-game will shut off.
• You can save the playlist of streaming files with VLC to open it again later without needing to go through all the setup steps again.