Send a Record Command to VLC

[KarlosAmigos]

Hi Everyone,

There are a lot of topics about VLC integration etc, but I don't want to get too deep into that, I don't need to run video on my front panel or anything, and I can't seem to find a solution yet.

I have a camera system (with other sensors) control application in LabVIEW. I have VLC running alongside my application that is streaming my video via RTSP on a second monitor. I sync the timestamp etc on the camera via TCP commands, but what I would also like to do is have a front panel control that will cause VLC to start recording my stream, and then another command to stop recording. At present I am just mousing over to the other monitor to hit record and stop.

I am using LabVIEW 2020 (32bit) on Windows 10. VLC is 3.0.10 (latest version as at June 2020).

Can anyone point me in the right direction to do this please? Can it be done?

Thanks, Karl

[Antoniooh]

A google search returns this:

https://forums.ni.com/t5/Example-Code/VLC-scripting-in-LabVIEW/ta-p/3515450?profile.language=en

I haven't try it my self, hope it helps.

Saludos.

[KarlosAmigos]

Thanks Antoniooh,

That was one of the first threads I found too and there is a lot of great code examples there. Some of it is a bit outdated now though with newer versions of LabVIEW, VLC and Windows, plus 64 bit in the mix. After a lot of time, and a bit of progress using these and other examples as a base, I decided to change my strategy. There is more than one way to skin a cat!

What I ended up doing was using Library Function Nodes to bring the VLC window to the foreground and in focus (user32.dll). Then I used another Library Function Node to simulate the shortcut keystrokes to start and later stop recording (Shift-R). This turned out to be easier and worked a treat.