Mpv can't stream over FTP/SMB/SFTP at all, however totem works

K

kriptomahsun

In Linux this worked very well, without doing anything. This I can't do on freebsd. This is a very convenient thing. I can't do without. How to make this happen?
What I do is, just connect to my server from Thunar in XFCE, then I try to run the media files with mpv. Then it doesn't work.
EDİT: But totem just works, you know the gnome's video player. It works nicely. I think this is mpv problem within FreeBSD.
 
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for SMB, use `mount_smbfs` to get the remote server mounted. For the other protocols there's FUSE implementations in packages/ports.
 
SirDice is right about what the issue is

you have to mount the share using your fstab
instead of using the file manager to mount the share

mpv has support for smb paths

mpv.io

a free, open source, and cross-platform media player
mpv.io mpv.io

smb://PATH

Play a path from Samba share. (Requires FFmpeg support.)

what about installing jellyfin on the server and kodi on Freebsd

that way you can have all your media on your server
and all the tv series and movies with thumbnails and info from imdb

then play the videos on Freebsd with Kodi

jellyfin.org

The Free Software Media System | Jellyfin

The volunteer-built media solution that puts you in control of your media. Stream to any device from your own server, with no strings attached.
jellyfin.org jellyfin.org

kodi.tv

Open Source Home Theater Software

Kodi is a free media player that is designed to look great on your big screen TV but is just as at home on a small screen.
kodi.tv kodi.tv
 
SirDice said:
It's not 'streaming' over FTP/SMB/SFTP, it's simply reading the file and playing it. Streaming is something else entirely.
Click to expand...
Thats not entirely accurate. If the MOOV atom of the container is moved to the front of the file (aka. isStreamable in mediainfo) you can stream over those protocols as well.

In this case this sounds more like a ressource issue. I myself have trouble to get SMB to perform in FreeBSD and since migrated to NFS. NFS is not directly supported by mpv. I am still trying to figure out why someone like to stream direct SMB vs. mounting and playing from filesystem though.
 
If the MOOV atom of the container is moved to the front of the file (aka. isStreamable in mediainfo) you can stream over those protocols as well.
Click to expand...

thats correct

apple calls it the ipod atom
its not actually streaming, its called progressive download

so the video can be played back as its downloading in the browser

there are tools like atomic-parsley and qt-faststart, ffmpeg or handbrake
that can be used to add the atom to the start of the video

thats why .avi videos people used to upload years ago wouldnt stream
and you had to wait for the entire video to download in the browser before it would play

because the avi format wasnt designed for progressive download
 
however the moov atom is for http/https delivery

eg hosting a video on a server and delivering the video over http in the browser

playing a video over a mounted network share doesnt use the moov atom

as SirDice said

It's not 'streaming' over FTP/SMB/SFTP, it's simply reading the file and playing it
Click to expand...

its simply reading the file and playing it

the difference is the network cache and hence the video buffering
are determined by the network share protocol settings

for example

nfs mounted shares will play videos over the network with less buffering than smb shares
 
stefs1 said:
I am still trying to figure out why someone like to stream direct SMB vs. mounting and playing from filesystem though.
Click to expand...
The joy is that everyone has a different way they like to work and use things, so I get it, but I always thought about that too when users are on the local network anyway, I like to click on the video in the file manager and launch it in my video player, I used to have kodi going as well and access my network shares, but when I moved from my last place to where I am now I never got the whole network set back up, changed things around, not into it that much anymore. I like to carry around a couple of 512 GB usb keys around the house, pop them in to whatever computer or OS I am on. Back them up on my Server every week or so.
 
kriptomahsun said:
In Linux this worked very well, without doing anything. This I can't do on freebsd. This is a very convenient thing. I can't do without. How to make this happen?
What I do is, just connect to my server from Thunar in XFCE, then I try to run the media files with mpv. Then it doesn't work.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you can access your shares but when you drag a file onto the mpv window or double click to open it does not work. Do you have Gstreamer plugins installed? What video format are the videos? have you tried with Vlc?
 
EDİT: But totem just works, you know the gnome's video player. It works nicely. I think this is mpv problem within FreeBSD.
 
By complete coincidence I just tried this out earlier today, using sshfs to mount the remote drive that contain the video files... mpv is playing them perfectly here. This is on a fresh install of 14.2 RELEASE running on my thinkpad X201.

If you would like to try it.... this page has a nice howto on using sshfs in freebsd.

FreeBSD 14 : OpenSSH : Use SSHFS : Server World

FreeBSD 14 OpenSSH Use SSHFS
www.server-world.info

Then once you have mounted the remote filesystem at the local mount point, simply change to that directory and 'mpv <filename>'. It works perfectly :)
I can't see anything wrong with mpv.
 
blackbird9 said:
By complete coincidence I just tried this out earlier today, using sshfs to mount the remote drive that contain the video files... mpv is playing them perfectly here. This is on a fresh install of 14.2 RELEASE running on my thinkpad X201.

If you would like to try it.... this page has a nice howto on using sshfs in freebsd.

FreeBSD 14 : OpenSSH : Use SSHFS : Server World

FreeBSD 14 OpenSSH Use SSHFS
www.server-world.info

Then once you have mounted the remote filesystem at the local mount point, simply change to that directory and 'mpv <filename>'. It works perfectly :)
I can't see anything wrong with mpv.
Click to expand...
I don't want to do that, can you not see how inconveinent that is?
Mount filesystem> sudo> then play.
What about simplicity? You just link smb to the thunar, than click click boom vrrm. Why do that?
 
You don't need root privilege, no sudo. It's a fuse filesystem, filesystem in user space. Just run the sshfs command as the user who is going to play the video. Works fine here.

For bonus points I just tested real streaming using mpv on 14.2 as well. You need to have yt-dlp installed, I built mine locally from the git repo to get the most recent version.

Then running :-

$ mpv <video url>

streams the video at the url.... just choose any video you like from yt... mpv works a treat on freebsd :)
 
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