Writing Video conference software for Windows
Hi, I need to write a software that allow to see the desktop and hear the microphone capture of a remote PC across a network. I need to do that for a unviresity assignement. The software must run on Windows. Since I like Python very much I am thinking to write that software in Python. Do you thinkit is a good choice? Are there libraries for audio compression (OGG or MP3 or maybe GSM or something like realaudio) and video compression (btw what can be some good libraries to transmit images of a desktop in a bandwidth-efficent way?). What about capture of audio and screen? (Probably i will need some Win32 system call, there are bindings in Python, aren't they?) If I needed to write some Python modules in C, would it be difficult? Can some language like C# or C++ may be better? Thnx PAolo -- if you have a minute to spend please visit my photogrphy site: http://mypic.co.nr -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Writing Video conference software for Windows
19 Sep 2006 09:42:51 -0700, Jordan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > If you're going to need win32 system access use the win32all python > extension (very, very good extension). Do you need single frame image > capture, or constant video stream? PIL can be used for the first, it > might also be usable for video, I'm not sure. Well I need something like 5-10 fps. An issue is the comression method: MPEG and friends aren't good (I think) for compressing stuff with sharp borders. Maybe I could use A sequence of PNG images, but it isn't a great solution. For sound, python comes > with some built in libraries, but you should also take a look at > pysonic http://www.cs.unc.edu/Research/assist/developer.shtml. For the > bandwidth efficiency issue, what type of connection are you using? The > socket module is quite capable of transmiting whatever data you have, > so unless you're thinking of implementing some mini bittorrent like > network in an attempt to save bandwidth I don't know what you can do > about that. There's an extension called IPqueue which might give you > somewhere to start for packet/bandwidth manipulation. Check out The > Vaults of Parnassus, which has a lot of stuff (including ogg/mp3 > converters last time a check).Big question, is this supposed to act > like a remote desktop, or just show what's happening? Start by > searching Google, it's very useful. Well the bandwidth issue is most of all related to video compression (see above). Well maybe 256 kbps would be nice. It should just show what's happening. PAolo -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Writing Video conference software for Windows
Paolo Pantaleo wrote: > Well I need something like 5-10 fps. An issue is the comression > method: MPEG and friends aren't good (I think) for compressing stuff > with sharp borders. Maybe I could use A sequence of PNG images, but it > isn't a great solution. You probably want to use is VideoCapture for capturing digital video from e.g. USB webcameras (videocapture.sourceforge.net), Twisted for asynchronous sockets (twistedmatrix.com), and PyMedia for video and audio codec (pymedia.org). For GUI and graphics there are a number of candidates, e.g. PyGTK or PyGame. Video conference is an I/O bound task (except for the audio/video codec), and you will consequently gain nothing by using C++ over Python. The only part that is CPU-bound part (where C++ could theoretically be better) is the media codec, but you can leave that to PyMedia's C extensions. Python will most likely not be the bottleneck! Sure, you could use C++ instead. However, you would quickly be frustrated with Windows' extremely complex native APIs. E.g. DirectShow for digital video capture, Winsock for asynchronous sockets, Microsoft's multimedia APIs for codec, and perhaps MFC for GUI. Using Python is a good advice! -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Writing Video conference software for Windows
> I need to write a software that allow to see the desktop That would be the VNC protocol. Don't reinvent the wheel. VNC is relatively efficient in that it only updates the portions of the screen that changed. Maybe this project could be your starting point. PyVNC http://bdash.net.nz/blog/2005/07/17/pyvnc-the-beginnings-of-a-python-vnc-client/ > and hear the > microphone capture of a remote PC across a network. > I need to do that > for a unviresity assignement. The software must run on Windows. Since > I like Python very much I am thinking to write that software in > Python. Do you thinkit is a good choice? Are there libraries for audio > compression (OGG or MP3 or maybe GSM or something like realaudio) PyMedia can record and it works for mp3 and oggs. > and video compression (btw what can be some good libraries to transmit > images of a desktop in a bandwidth-efficent way?). See above. You can lossy compress images in VNC. > (Probably i will need some Win32 system call, > there are bindings in Python, aren't they?) The above modules should take care of everything. BTW, PIL can take screen shots if you want to do this manually. You need to create a streaming server for audio. Take a look at Edna, a streaming MP3 server. http://edna.sourceforge.net/ Also of interest ... Twisted and Shtoom. And finally... since you are on Windows - you can just try using the NetMeeting ActiveX control through Python. It already does everything you want. Disclaimer: While I tinkered with many of the above, I have not used most of the above projects recently. These are just leads for you to explore. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Writing Video conference software for Windows
Thnx everybody for the precious help :) Someone said about VNC... I'll take a look, but since it is an exercise I need to do it, I can't just say someone else arelady did that :) Everything seems quite useful. I forgot two specifications: 1. Screen should be split in small squares and only the changing squares must be transmitted (Ok it shouldn't be too difficult) 2. The comunication must be in multicast I will spend some time testing the resources. PAolo -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Writing Video conference software for Windows
2006/9/22, Paolo Pantaleo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Thnx everybody for the precious help :) > > Someone said about VNC... I'll take a look, but since it is an > exercise I need to do it, I can't just say someone else arelady did > that :) > > Everything seems quite useful. I forgot two specifications: > > 1. Screen should be split in small squares and only the changing > squares must be transmitted (Ok it shouldn't be too difficult) > > 2. The comunication must be in multicast Twisted supports multicast ( example http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/425975) > > I will spend some time testing the resources. > > PAolo > -- if you have a minute to spend please visit my photogrphy site: http://mypic.co.nr -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Writing Video conference software for Windows
> Someone said about VNC... I'll take a look, but since it is an > exercise I need to do it, Exercises typically need you to implement, not invent (leave that for a thesis or a dissertation). Rather than invent VNC, you could just implement it on your own from the specs. http://realvnc.com/docs/rfbproto.pdf > I can't just say someone else arelady did that :) No. But you can build upon it :-). Few construct software from the scratch. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Writing Video conference software for Windows
If you're going to need win32 system access use the win32all python extension (very, very good extension). Do you need single frame image capture, or constant video stream? PIL can be used for the first, it might also be usable for video, I'm not sure. For sound, python comes with some built in libraries, but you should also take a look at pysonic http://www.cs.unc.edu/Research/assist/developer.shtml. For the bandwidth efficiency issue, what type of connection are you using? The socket module is quite capable of transmiting whatever data you have, so unless you're thinking of implementing some mini bittorrent like network in an attempt to save bandwidth I don't know what you can do about that. There's an extension called IPqueue which might give you somewhere to start for packet/bandwidth manipulation. Check out The Vaults of Parnassus, which has a lot of stuff (including ogg/mp3 converters last time a check).Big question, is this supposed to act like a remote desktop, or just show what's happening? Start by searching Google, it's very useful. Paolo Pantaleo wrote: > Hi, > > I need to write a software that allow to see the desktop and hear the > microphone capture of a remote PC across a network. I need to do that > for a unviresity assignement. The software must run on Windows. Since > I like Python very much I am thinking to write that software in > Python. Do you thinkit is a good choice? Are there libraries for audio > compression (OGG or MP3 or maybe GSM or something like realaudio) and > video compression (btw what can be some good libraries to transmit > images of a desktop in a bandwidth-efficent way?). What about capture > of audio and screen? (Probably i will need some Win32 system call, > there are bindings in Python, aren't they?) > > If I needed to write some Python modules in C, would it be difficult? > > Can some language like C# or C++ may be better? > > Thnx > PAolo > > -- > if you have a minute to spend please visit my photogrphy site: > http://mypic.co.nr -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
