To run this script, ensure you are running Ruby 2.5 or higher. The Nokogiri and Typhoeus gems must be installed too:
$ gem install nokogiri
$ gem install typhoeus
In addition to this, the VLC web interface will need to be enabled and configured with a password. To do this, go into the Main interfaces menu in the VLC preferences and enable the Web option:
The password can be set in the Lua section found under Main interfaces.
The script accepts one argument, which is the path to the text file to save the currently playing track to. For example, to save to /tmp/test.txt, the script would be executed using:
$ ruby vlc_to_obs.rb /tmp/test.txt
After launching the script, you will be prompted for the password used to configure the VLC web interface. After entering this, the script will poll the web interface once every 5 seconds to determine what song is currently playing.
The output to the terminal will show the currently playing song as the track changes:
╭─rastating ~ ‹ruby-2.5.1›
╰─$ ruby vlc_to_obs.rb /tmp/test.txt
VLC Server Password:
[-] Now playing: Dual Core - Beginning of the End
[-] Now playing: Dual Core - Hostage Down
[-] Now playing: Dual Core - Dull Boy
To read the file in OBS, add a new Text source to your scene and enable the Read from file option and browse to the file that vlc_to_obs is writing to.
If setup correctly, the file contents will be displayed on screen:
