Changes in release v1.0 (29 October 2023):

• EXEs created for Windows and executables for Linux in the Executables folder

Current Features:

• Connection with VLC

• Remote commands fully functional

• Speech Recognition through Google Speech API (requires internet connectivity)

• Support for noise adjustment

• Click and run executables for Windows and Linux

• Executables for Windows tested on Windows 10 and Windows 11

• Executables for Linux tested on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.03 LTS and Kali Linux 23.2

• Source tested on Python 3.10.0 (Should work with Python 3.8+) on Windows 10 Pro 22H2

• Source tested on Python 3.11.6 on Windows 10 Pro 22H2 (Build: 19045.3570)

• Source tested on Python 3.8.5 on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

• Source tested on MacOS 13

Upcoming:

• Executables for Mac to be released in upcoming month.
• Improved speech recognition commands with wider vocabulary
• Task scheduling capability integrated into the setup to automatically launch the script with VLC. (Focused for Windows machines)

SETUP GUIDE:

Download the latest release from Releases

Current latest release: v1.0

Configure VLC Media Player to use telnet as an additional main interface:

Windows and *Nix systems

1. Open VLC Media Player
2. Click Tools on Menu Bar
3. Click on Preferences
4. On the bottom left of popup window, under 'show settings' click on All
5. In the left menu expand 'Interfaces' and click on Main Interfaces
6. IMPORTANT: In main interfaces, checkmark on 'Telnet'
7. Expand 'Main Interfaces' on the left pane and click on 'Lua'
8. On the right pane configure 'Lua Telnet'
   1. Lua Interface: dummy
   2. Host: localhost or 127.0.0.1 for same computer or set remote IP
   3. Port: 4212 is default, you can leave it as is or configure any other port if required
   4. Password: Set your password
9. Click on Save
10. Restart VLC Media Player

MacOS

1. Open VLC Media Player
2. Click on VLC Media Player on menu bar to open the context menu and click on settings OR Press Command + ,
3. On the bottom left of popup window click on "Show All"
4. In the left menu expand 'Interface' and click on Main Interfaces
5. IMPORTANT: In main interfaces, checkmark on 'Telnet'
6. Expand 'Main Interfaces' on the left pane and click on 'Lua'
7. On the right pane configure 'Lua Telnet'
   1. Lua Interface: dummy
   2. Host: localhost or 127.0.0.1 for same computer or set remote IP
   3. Port: 4212 is default, you can leave it as is or configure any other port if required
   4. Password: Set your password
8. Click on Save
9. Restart VLC Media Player

Setup via Executables (Recommended way for Microsoft Windows and Linux):

Microsoft Windows:

1. Put the Setup.exe and SpeakToVLC.exe files in your movies directory for easy access to run them while watching movies.

2. Double click to run Setup.exe (Microsoft Defender may block this file because it generates a simple plain text configuration file which the AI engine understands to be some malicious remote scripts but in real is only the configuration for your application to use). If blocked by Microsoft Defender then you need to make an exclusion for Setup.exe in Microsoft Defender. It's a false positive. VirusTotal scan results

3. Go through the setup process:

   • Host: Set host or leave empty for default
   • Port: Set port or leave empty for default
   • Noise adjustment: Set your noise adjustment preference during voice command or leave empty for default
   • Password: Set your VLC Telnet interface password that you set in the above section
   • You'll get a config.json file in the same folder where you ran Setup from. This file contains the connection information for the voice command and VLC. It should always be in the same place as SpeakToVLC.exe.

4. Play your favorite movie in VLC
5. Double-click to run SpeakToVLC.exe. VirusTotal scan results
6. Enjoy ^_____^
7. If any errors are encountered then refer to troubleshooting.txt or create an issue

Linux:

1. Put the Setup and SpeakToVLC files in your movies directory for easy access to run them while watching movies.
2. Right click in the folder and Open Terminal.
3. Type ./Setup and press Enter. VirusTotal scan results
4. Go through the setup process:
   • Host: Set host or leave empty for default
   • Port: Set port or leave empty for default
   • Noise adjustment: Set your noise adjustment preference during voice command or leave empty for default
   • Password: Set your VLC Telnet interface password that you set in the above section
   • You'll get a config.json file in the same folder where you ran Setup from. This file contains the connection information for the voice command and VLC. It should always be in the same place as SpeakToVLC.exe.
5. Play your favorite movie in VLC
6. Type ./SpeakToVLC in the terminal and press Enter. VirusTotal scan results

Note: You may get output like below and this is totally normal because of the everlasting issue of audio devices and linux.

ALSA lib pcm_dsnoop.c:566:(snd_pcm_dsnoop_open) unable to open slave
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:999:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
ALSA lib pcm.c:2666:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear

7. Enjoy ^_____^
8. If any errors are encountered then refer to troubleshooting.txt or create an issue

OR Setup via Source (All platforms):

1. Install all requirements:

1. Install Python >= 3.8 and < 3.12 if not already installed. IMPORTANT: Choose to install pip along with the installation.
2. • Windows: Double click to run req.bat
   • Linux/MacOS: Open terminal in current directory and type chmod u+x req.sh then ./req.sh to install all requirements from requirements.txt

• Note: Run the req.bat as Administrator on Windows if you have Python installed in C:\Program Files\. Similarly, try sudo mode for *nix/MacOS
• Internet connectivity for speech recognition
• Python 3.8+
• cryptography library
• telnetlib3 module
• SpeechRecognition module
• pyaudio module
  • Windows: It'll install automatically with step 2.
  • Debian/Ubuntu:
    1. sudo apt-get install -y portaudio19-dev
    2. sudo apt-get install python-pyaudio python3-pyaudio
  • Redhat:
    1. sudo dnf install portaudio-devel redhat-rpm-config
    2. sudo pip3 install pyaudio
       • If you encounter any error then try: sudo dnf install python-pyaudio
  • MacOS:
    1. brew install portaudio
    2. pip3 install pyaudio

3. Generate configuration file to establish connection

1. Go to scripts directory
2. Run setup.py
3. Set host, port and password which were set in VLC media player in previous step
4. config.json will be generated

4. Connect Python to VLC

1. Launch VLC media player or play some media in VLC
2. Run speaktovlc.py

• You'll see the VLC> prompt to issue commands. (List of commands available in commands.txt)

Voice commands:

play - To play media

pause/hold - To pause playback

stop - To stop playback

fullscreen - Enter/Exit full screen

shutdown - Exit VLC

increase volume - Increase volume by 10%

decrease volume - Decrease volume by 10%

stop listening - Turns off voice command and closes SpeakToVLC

faster - Faster playback by 0.5x

slower - Slower playback by 0.5x

normal - Normal playback

Other simple commands listed in commands.txt also work. Complex to speak commands like atrack (for changing audio track) will be broken down into simple commands to implement their functionality in upcoming releases.

Troubleshooting

Additional resource

This might address some errors you could encounter which aren't mentioned below

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In the event of crash a connection.log file will be created in the directory from where the application was launched. Check it's contents and look below

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1. Connection Refused Error

Prompt:

Windows: ERROR __main__ [WinError 1225] The remote computer refused the network connection

Linux: ERROR __main__ [Errno 111] Connect call failed ('127.0.0.1', 4212)

Possible cause(s): The IP Address of the host machine OR/AND port is incorrect OR/AND VLC Media Player is not running.

Fix:

(i) Delete config.json

(ii) Run Setup.exe/Setup and generate a new config.json

(iii) Additionally you can open config.json in text editor and verify the correct details

Common possible issues and fixes are listed in troubleshooting.txt

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2. Configuration file not found error

Prompt: ERROR __main__ [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'config.json'

Possible cause: You executed SpeakToVLC.exe/SpeakToVLC before Setup.exe/Setup hence, config.json doesn't exist yet.

Fix: Run Setup.exe/Setup and generate new config.json before running SpeakToVLC.exe/SpeakToVLC

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3. JSONDecodeError

Prompt: ERROR __main__ Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

Possible cause: The config.json file is empty.

Fix: Run Setup.exe/Setup and generate new config.json with correct details. Additionally, you can verify using a text editor that correct details are saved.

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4. FLAC codec error in MacOS

Fix: Run brew install flac in terminal to install flac