A bash script to play video URL on a remote Kodi server.

kodi-start-video.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# A small shell script that uses kodi-send and youtube-dl to play  
# videos (or audio) URLs on a Kodi server.
#
# Examples:
#   - send a Youtube page
#     kodi-start-video.sh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwn8fQSW7-8
#   - send a DailyMotion page
#     kodi-start-video.sh https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7syshi
#   - send a MP4 file
#     kodi-start-video.sh https://sample-videos.com/video123/mp4/480/big_buck_bunny_480p_30mb.mp4
#   - send the URL in primary buffer
#     kodi-start-video.sh primary 
#   - send the URL in clipboard buffer
#     kodi-start-video.sh clipboard
#
# The script does not download the video. Youtube-dl is only used
# to extract the video stream URL from the web page.
#
#
# Dependencies:
#
#   - kodi-send to send the commands to Kodi.      
#   - youtube-dl (https://youtube-dl.org/) to extract the URL of the video stream
#   - wl-paste to read the selection (on Wayland).
#   - xclip to read the selection (on X11).
#   - Common shell utilities: grep, head, sed, ... 
#
#    On Debian: sudo apt install kodi-eventclients-kodi-send sed wl-clipboard
#
# TODO:
#   - Append to current playlist. How? The "Cast Kodi" Firefox extension can do it. JSON? 
#   - Add all videos in a playlist.
#   - Use the Json interface instead of kodi-send? (see https://kodi.wiki/view/JSON-RPC_API)
#

VERB=yes


YOUTUBE_DL="youtube-dl"


# For Youtube URL only: Set to "yes" if you have the Youtube add-on
# installed on Kodi and you want to use it instead of using youtube-to
# to extract the video stream url.
WITH_YOUTUBE_ADDON="yes"

# Youtube-dl rules to select the video quality.
# See also FORMAT SELECTION in youtube-dl man page
# Remark: Using bestvideo+bestaudio is not a good idea since that would produce
# 2 separate video and audio streams and we cannot mux them together.
H=720  # Maximum Video Height for my Raspberry Pi
FORMAT="best[height<=$H]/bestvideo[height<=$H]/bestaudio"

SERVER=kodi.schauveau.local
PORT=9777

usage () {
    APP=$(basename $0)
    cat  <<EOF
Usage: $APP [OPTION]... [ URL | clipboard | primary ]

Start playing a video URL on a Kodi server.

   -k KODI    Set the Kodi server (currently $SERVER)
   -p PORT    Set the Kodi port (currently $PORT)
   -d         Send the URL directly to Kodi (mostly for debugging)

If the special values "clipboard" and "primary" are used then the 
URL is obtained from the 1st word of the clipboard or primary 
selection.

EOF
    exit 0
}

read-primary () {    
    if [[ -n "$WAYLAND_DISPLAY" ]] ; then
        wl-paste --primary --type text/plain  
    elif [[ -n "$DISPLAY" ]] ; then
        # Not really tested
        xclip -selection primary -o -t TEXT 
    else
        echo "Sorry! Cannot read the primary selection"
    fi
}

read-clipboard () {    
    if [[ -n "$WAYLAND_DISPLAY" ]] ; then
        wl-paste  --type text/plain  
    elif [[ -n "$DISPLAY" ]] ; then
        # Not really tested
        xclip -selection clipboard -o -t TEXT 
    else
        echo "Sorry! Cannot read the clipboard"
    fi
}

#
# Extract the first non-blank word from the input.
#
keep-first-word () {
    grep -E '[[:alnum:]]' | head -n 1 | sed -e 's/^[[:space:]]*//' -e 's/[[:space:]].*//' 
}

send-command () {
    KODI=( kodi-send --host "$SERVER" --port "$PORT" )
    CMD=( "${KODI[@]}" --action="$1" )
    if [[ $VERB == "yes" ]] ; then
        echo -n "#" ;  printf " %q" "${CMD[@]}"  ; echo
    fi
    "${CMD[@]}"
}

get-stream-from-url () {
    "$YOUTUBE_DL" -f "$FORMAT" -g "$URL"
}

start-youtube () {
    echo "Starting Youtube video $1"
    send-command "PlayMedia(plugin://plugin.video.youtube/?action=play_video&videoid=$1)" 
}

SRC=arg
DIRECT=no
while getopts ":dcpk:" option; do
    case "${option}" in
        k) SERVER="$OPTARG" ;;
        p) PORT="$OPTARG" ;;
        d) DIRECT=yes ;;
        \?) usage ;;
    esac
done
shift $((OPTIND-1))

case "$1" in
    clipboard)
        URL="$( read-clipboard | keep-first-word )"
        echo "Using 1st word of clipboard as URL ($URL)"
        ;;
    primary)
        URL="$( read-primary | keep-first-word )"
        echo "Using 1st word of clipboard as URL ($URL)"
        ;;
    *)
        URL="$1"
        ;;
esac

if [[ -z "$URL" ]] ; then
    echo "Error: No URL found"
    exit 1
fi

if [[ "$DIRECT" == "no" ]] ; then
    if [[ "$WITH_YOUTUBE_ADDON" == "yes" ]] ; then
        YT_ID="[-a-zA-Z0-9_]{11}"  # A Youtube ID is exactly 11 characters in a-z,A-Z,0-9,- and _
        if [[ "$URL" =~ ^https://www.youtube.com/watch\?(.*&)*v=($YT_ID) ]] ; then
            # A long Youtube URL such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXUAyRRkI6k
            start-youtube "${BASH_REMATCH[2]}"
            exit 0
        elif [[ "$URL" =~ ^https://youtu.be/($YT_ID) ]] ; then  
            # A short Youtube URL such as https://youtu.be/DXUAyRRkI6k
            start-youtube "${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
            exit 0
        fi
    fi
    if [[ "$URL" =~ ^https?://.*\.(mp3|m3u|mp4|ogg|mpeg|avi|webm)$ ]] ; then
        # Recognize some common video or audio extensions.
        DIRECT=yes    
    elif [[ "$URL" =~ ^https?:// ]] ; then                      
        # For other URLs, obtain the video stream using youtube-dl
        # That works ... most of the time.
        STREAM=$(get-stream-from-url "$URL" | head -n 1)
        if [[ -n "$STREAM" ]] ; then
            send-command "PlayMedia($STREAM)"
        else
            echo "Error: Failed to extract a video stream from URL."
            echo "       Falling back to direct play..."
            DIRECT=yes
        fi
    else
        DIRECT=yes
    fi
fi

if [[ "$DIRECT" = "yes" ]] ; then
    send-command "PlayMedia($URL)"
fi