stop libvlc outputting error messages on top of urwid

Question

Using the python bindings for libVLC in a urwid music player I am building. libVLC keeps outputting some errors about converting time and such when pausing and resuming a mp3 file. As far as I can gather from various posts on the vlc mailing list and forums, these errors appear in mp3 files all the time and as long as the file is playing like it should one should not worry about them.

That would be the end of it, but the errors keep getting written on top of the urwid interface and that is a problem.

How can I either stop libVLC from outputting these non-essential errors or or perhaps simply prevent them from showing on top of the urwid interface?

Answer 1

I believe you can disable logging or at least set a LogLevel for libvlc using the vlc bindings.

Syntax and info https://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help/

Answer 2

You can try capturing the stderr before creating the VLC objects, depending which moment the stderr stream is open by libVLC.

It would be something like:

import io
import contextlib

tmp_stderr = io.StringIO()
with contextlib.redirect_stderr(tmp_stderr):
    # ... initialize VLC stuff here, sth like this i guess :)
    vlcInstance = vlc.Instance("--no-xlib")
    player = vlcInstance.media_player_new()

See the docs for redirect_stdout and redirect_stderr -- they're Python 3.5+, but you can reimplement them in lower Python versions if necessary.