Play video file with VLC, then quit VLC

Question

I am working on a simple Python script that is supposed to do something, then play a video file, and then do some more stuff.

I am forced to do this on a Windows XP machine with Python 3.2.3 and VLC to play my video file.

I am currently using this code...

vlc_path = '\\path\\to\\vlc.exe'
video_path = '\\path\\to\\video\\file'
subprocess.call([vlc_path, video_path])

... to open VLC and play the video. It works nicely. However, the script waits for VLC to quit before it goes on. Which is good and I want to keep it that way.

My question is: Is there a way to quit VLC right after the video file has been played?

Thanks a lot for any help!

Answer 1

Funnily enough, vlc has a command line option for this:

  --play-and-exit, --no-play-and-exit
                             Play and exit (default disabled)

So, just pass this option to vlc.

Answer 2

Another option would be to pass the dummy item vlc://quit, e.g.:

vlc audio1.mp3 audio2.mp3 vlc://quit

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Source: https://wiki.videolan.org/Transcode/#Completely_non-interactive_transcoding