Streamlink 0.5.0 Adds Support For Streaming Google Drive / Google Docs Videos

Streamlink 0.5.0 was released yesterday, bringing support for streaming videos from Google Drive / Google Docs, along with other improvements.

Forked from Livestreamer, which is no longer maintained, Streamlink is a command line tool (and API) that can be used to stream videos from various streaming services, such as Twitch, YouTube Live and many more, and play them using your favorite video player, be it VLC, mpv, and more.
It is is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS.
Changes in Streamlink 0.5.0 include:

• added support for streaming videos stored on Google Drive / Google Docs;
• added support for BBC iPlayer live and VOD, along with support for HLS streams;
• add support for Beam VOD and HLS streams for live;
• added support for camsoda.com;
• added new plugin: canlitv;
• added new plugin: garena;
• Aliez plugin now accepts any TLD;
• added support for avi/mov VOD streams for rtve;
• removed dead plugins such as blip.tv, gaminglive.tv, leon.tv, livestation.com and more.

Since our initial article about Streamlink, the tool has seen quite a few improvements, including support to use FFmpeg to mux separate video and audio streams, along with new plugins and much more. Check out the Streamlink GitHub releases page for a complete changelog.
For a complete list of supported streaming services, see THIS page.
Using the Streamlink command line interface is very simple. Here’s an example using a Google Drive video. The first thing you need to do is run Streamlink with the link you want to stream, to see the available streams:

streamlink https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0tRrdcY7CwJWGdVdHEyYWpfTTQ

This should list the available formats:

[cli][info] Found matching plugin googledrive for URL https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0tRrdcY7CwJWGdVdHEyYWpfTTQ
Available streams: 360p_alt, 480p_alt, 360p (worst), 480p, 720p, 1080p (best)

Next, simply add one of the available streams at the end of the command, and Streamlink will start streaming:

streamlink https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0tRrdcY7CwJWGdVdHEyYWpfTTQ 1080p

By default, Streamlink uses VLC to play the stream, but you can specify a different video player by using the “–player” argument, e.g. “–player mpv” to use mpv instead.
For more about using the Streamlink command line interface, check out THIS page.

Install Streamlink

Ubuntu / Linux Mint users can install Streamlink by using the main WebUpd8 PPA. To add the PPA and install Streamlink, use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt update
sudo apt install streamlink

I didn’t add a direct deb download link because the PPA provides quite a few dependencies required to install Streamlink.
For how to install Streamlink in other Linux distributions, Windows or Mac OS, see THIS page.
Report any bugs you may find @ GitHub.

Originally published at WebUpd8: Daily Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.