🎬 ASCII Live

Play YouTube videos and local files directly in your terminal as high-fidelity ASCII art.

Experience video playback like never before, rendered in real-time using ANSI escape codes and half-block characters for a surprisingly detailed "pixelated" look.

✨ Features

• 📺 YouTube Support: Play any YouTube video by simply providing the URL.
• 📁 Local Files: Play MP4, MKV, AVI, and other local video formats.
• 🔊 Audio Sync: Real-time synchronization between ASCII video and audio tracks.
• ⚙️ Highly Flexible:
  • --no-audio: For silent playback.
  • --fps: Override default frame rates.
  • --quality: Choose between performance or detail.
  • --bw: Sleek monochrome mode.
  • --size: Manual resolution overrides.
• ⌨️ Interactive Controls:
  • [Space] Play/Pause
  • [←] [→] Seek 10s back/forward
  • [Q] Quit

🚀 Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• ffmpeg (Required for audio extraction)
  • Windows: choco install ffmpeg or download from ffmpeg.org
  • Linux: sudo apt install ffmpeg
  • macOS: brew install ffmpeg

Install from PyPI

pip install ascii-live

📖 Usage

Play a YouTube Video

ascii-live "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

Play a Local File

ascii-live movie.mp4

Options

# Play without audio
ascii-live "URL" --no-audio

# Force a specific resolution
ascii-live "URL" --size 80x40

# Play in Black & White
ascii-live "URL" --bw

# Set a custom FPS
ascii-live "URL" --fps 15

🛠️ How it Works

ASCII Live uses OpenCV to decode video frames, yt-dlp for stream handling, and Pygame for high-performance audio playback. The renderer uses a custom-built ANSI half-block algorithm that packs two vertical "pixels" into a single character cell, effectively doubling the vertical resolution.

📄 License

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See the LICENSE file for details.