Python + QT + Gstreamer

Question

I'm working with PyQt and trying to get video from a webcam to play within a QT widget. I've found tutorials for C and Qt, and for python and gtk, but NOTHING for this combo of pyQt and gstreamer. Anybody get this working?

This plays the video fine, but in a separate window:

self.gcam = gst.parse_launch('v4l2src device=/dev/video0 ! autovideosink')
self.gcam.set_state(gst.STATE_PLAYING)

what I need is to get the overlay working so it's displayed within a widget on my GUI. Thanks, Gurus of the internet!

ok, so I've gotten a lot farther, but still in need of some help. I'm actually writing this for Maemo, but the following code works fine on my linux laptop:

class Vid:
    def __init__(self, windowId):
    self.player = gst.Pipeline("player")
    self.source = gst.element_factory_make("v4l2src", "vsource")
    self.sink = gst.element_factory_make("autovideosink", "outsink")
    self.source.set_property("device", "/dev/video0")
    self.scaler = gst.element_factory_make("videoscale", "vscale")
    self.window_id = None
    self.windowId = windowId

    self.player.add(self.source, self.scaler, self.sink)
    gst.element_link_many(self.source,self.scaler, self.sink)

    bus = self.player.get_bus()
    bus.add_signal_watch()
    bus.enable_sync_message_emission()
    bus.connect("message", self.on_message)
    bus.connect("sync-message::element", self.on_sync_message)

    def on_message(self, bus, message):
    t = message.type
    if t == gst.MESSAGE_EOS:
        self.player.set_state(gst.STATE_NULL)
    elif t == gst.MESSAGE_ERROR:
       err, debug = message.parse_error()
       print "Error: %s" % err, debug
       self.player.set_state(gst.STATE_NULL)

    def on_sync_message(self, bus, message):
    if message.structure is None:
        return
    message_name = message.structure.get_name()
    if message_name == "prepare-xwindow-id":
        win_id = self.windowId
        assert win_id
        imagesink = message.src
        imagesink.set_property("force-aspect-ratio", True)
        imagesink.set_xwindow_id(win_id)
    def startPrev(self):
    self.player.set_state(gst.STATE_PLAYING)
    print "should be playing"
vidStream = Vid(wId)
vidStream.startPrev()

where wId is the window id of the widget im trying to get to display the output in. When I run this on the N900, the screen goes black and blinks. Any ideas? I'm dying here!

EDIT: I've been asked to post the full code, and though I still need to clean it up a bit, here's the relevant part:

self.cameraWindow = QtGui.QWidget(self)
self.cameraWindow.setGeometry(QtCore.QRect(530, 20, 256, 192))
self.cameraWindow.setObjectName("cameraWindow")
self.cameraWindow.setAttribute(0, 1); # AA_ImmediateWidgetCreation == 0
self.cameraWindow.setAttribute(3, 1); # AA_NativeWindow == 3

global wId
wId = self.cameraWindow.winId()

self.camera = Vid(wId)

self.camera.startPrev()

class Vid:
    def __init__(self, windowId):
    self.player = gst.Pipeline("player")
    self.source = gst.element_factory_make("v4l2src", "vsource")
    self.sink = gst.element_factory_make("autovideosink", "outsink")
    self.source.set_property("device", "/dev/video0")
    #self.scaler = gst.element_factory_make("videoscale", "vscale")
    self.fvidscale = gst.element_factory_make("videoscale", "fvidscale")
    self.fvidscale_cap = gst.element_factory_make("capsfilter", "fvidscale_cap")
    self.fvidscale_cap.set_property('caps', gst.caps_from_string('video/x-raw-yuv, width=256, height=192'))
    self.window_id = None
    self.windowId = windowId
    print windowId

    self.player.add(self.source, self.fvidscale, self.fvidscale_cap, self.sink)
    gst.element_link_many(self.source,self.fvidscale, self.fvidscale_cap, self.sink)

    bus = self.player.get_bus()
    bus.add_signal_watch()
    bus.enable_sync_message_emission()
    bus.connect("message", self.on_message)
    bus.connect("sync-message::element", self.on_sync_message)

    def on_message(self, bus, message):
    t = message.type
    if t == gst.MESSAGE_EOS:
        self.player.set_state(gst.STATE_NULL)
    elif t == gst.MESSAGE_ERROR:
       err, debug = message.parse_error()
       print "Error: %s" % err, debug
       self.player.set_state(gst.STATE_NULL)

    def on_sync_message(self, bus, message):
    if message.structure is None:
        return
    message_name = message.structure.get_name()
    if message_name == "prepare-xwindow-id":
        win_id = self.windowId
        assert win_id
        imagesink = message.src
        imagesink.set_property("force-aspect-ratio", True)
        imagesink.set_xwindow_id(win_id)
    def startPrev(self):
    self.player.set_state(gst.STATE_PLAYING)
    def pausePrev(self):
    self.player.set_state(gst.STATE_NULL)

This is piecing together a few bits, and I can't test it right now, but maybe it will be helpful to someone. Good luck!

Answer 1

Got it! It appears I needed to force the resolution of the pipeline to match the resolution of the widget where I was pumping the video to:

self.fvidscale_cap = gst.element_factory_make("capsfilter", "fvidscale_cap") self.fvidscale_cap.set_property('caps', gst.caps_from_string('video/x-raw-yuv, width=256, height=192'))

Then just add those to the pipeline like the other elements, and it works great. Man, it seems so easy looking at it now, but when I was pounding my head against the wall for a few days it wasn't so obvious...

Answer 2

The pasted code is not showing gobject loading, which cannot be dismissed. It took me a good while to figure out what was missing. Thanks Jun for having a working audio example.

import gobject, pygst
pygst.require('0.10')
import gst
from PyQt4.QtGui import QMainWindow, QWidget, QApplication 
import sys

class Video(QMainWindow):
    def __init__(self):
        QMainWindow.__init__(self)
        container = QWidget()
        self.setCentralWidget(container)
        self.windowId = container.winId()
        self.setGeometry(300,300,640,480)
        self.show()

    def setUpGst(self):
        self.player = gst.Pipeline("player")
        source = gst.element_factory_make("v4l2src", "vsource")
        sink = gst.element_factory_make("xvimagesink", "sink")
        fvidscale_cap = gst.element_factory_make("capsfilter", "fvidscale_cap")
        fvidscale = gst.element_factory_make("videoscale", "fvidscale")
        caps = gst.caps_from_string('video/x-raw-yuv')
        fvidscale_cap.set_property('caps', caps)
        source.set_property("device", "/dev/video0")

        self.player.add(source, fvidscale, fvidscale_cap, sink)
        gst.element_link_many(source,fvidscale, fvidscale_cap, sink)
        bus = self.player.get_bus()
        bus.add_signal_watch()
        bus.enable_sync_message_emission()
        bus.connect("message", self.on_message)
        bus.connect("sync-message::element", self.on_sync_message)

    def on_message(self, bus, message):
        t = message.type
        if t == gst.MESSAGE_EOS:
            self.player.set_state(gst.STATE_NULL)
            print "end of message"
        elif t == gst.MESSAGE_ERROR:
            err, debug = message.parse_error()
            print "Error: %s" % err, debug
            self.player.set_state(gst.STATE_NULL)

    def on_sync_message(self, bus, message):
        if message.structure is None:
            return
        message_name = message.structure.get_name()
        if message_name == "prepare-xwindow-id":
            win_id = self.windowId
            assert win_id
            imagesink = message.src
            imagesink.set_xwindow_id(win_id)

    def startPrev(self):
        self.player.set_state(gst.STATE_PLAYING)
        print "should be playing"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    gobject.threads_init()
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    video = Video()
    video.setUpGst()
    video.startPrev()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

Answer 3

Ptterb can you post your full code please?

I copied your code.
Added fvidscale_cap to pipeline, with:

self.player.add(self.source, self.scaler, self.fvidscale_cap, self.sink)
gst.element_link_many(self.source,self.scaler, self.fvidscale_cap, self.sink)

From the main program I create a new QWidget, and pass its winId() to Vid constructor.
The widget start loading, but crashes.

The output says:
should be playing
Segmentation fault

Answer 4

If you're happening to use PySide instead of PyQt on a platform other than Linux, winId() returns a PyCObject which can't be used directly with native functions or other modules. In my case this came in handy when using GStreamer (pygst) with PySide on Microsoft Windows:

from ctypes import pythonapi, c_void_p, py_object
...
if message_name == 'prepare-xwindow-id':
    # convert winId from PyCObject to void pointer
    pythonapi.PyCObject_AsVoidPtr.restype = c_void_p
    pythonapi.PyCObject_AsVoidPtr.argtypes = [py_object]
    hWnd = pythonapi.PyCObject_AsVoidPtr(self.videoWidget.winId())

    # set window handle to video sink
    self.videoSink.set_xwindow_id(hWnd)