assistance with vlc stream

[lolwthm8s]

well hello all i am new to this forum,

i was directed by the moderators at the video lan forums to come here for the answer to my VLC problem.

kinda makes no sense to send someone to a strangers forum for help with their own product dosent it?

anyways here is my issue in a nut shell...

i am in my 30's i run a multi gaming clan with a main web page a forums and 2 voice clients and a couple other sites.

i want to stream in game video we take ( we like to do some crazy stunts with planes and helis and tanks and such) and personal vids from car shows, game and comic conventions skate parks and so on.
>>>>>>>>>!!!!!!!!!!!WE DO NOT WANT TO RUN MOVIES OR BREAK ANY COPYRIGHT LAWS!!!!!!!<<<<<<<<

i have to say this and highlight it as it seems that is a touchy subject for some.
and it also seems that you can dl movies and play them on vlc which i assume
you could stream them as well. not our desire nor intention!

we do not like you tube or any other online video services.
we want to use VLC as its the media player almost all of the clan uses.
i can stream the files and use my laptop to play a game or view the files live and discuss live over voip.

i have tried and tried and tried and searched and searched and searched for some page or some one to help me and have had ZERO luck. i found some great advice and learned a bit about streaming but cannot get the dam thing to work for my site members.

i will post the link to my topic at the vlc forums instead of clogging up your forums here with a repeat.

http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=47354&p=150753#p150753

if anyone can walk me thru the steps to set up our web page so our members can send me vids and i can stream them so anyone who i give the page link to can see the video i would greatly appreciate a reply.

btw if you read this other topic i posted you can see i am stuck i can stream and watch the vid via the player on my web page but NOONE else can see the video!!!!??!!??!

i am not a code monkey nor do i understand the "how to section" on the vlc site for streaming content.
we use the latest version of vlc and also use firefox as our browser.

and please do not link me back to the vlc page the moderator there sent me here to use a tv card capture guide.
which does not apply to my question at all.
and the vlc wiki just links back to the vlc sites how to which is not understandable i followed it a dozen times or more and still no luck.

and i need to add if someone does choose to help i would like very much a step by step tut.
like as simple as possible
EX. step 1 open vlc
step 2 goto vlc wizard
step 3 etc.

thank you in advance i hope i can get some help here i have been trying for 3 months to solve this issue.

[lolwthm8s]

well its been a couple days since i posted this it shows 29 views? noone here can help me out?

[DB83]

well its been a couple days since i posted this it shows 29 views? noone here can help me out?

Actually, it's been 24 hours and 51 minutes. Sounds like a post bump to me.

But then I know less about streaming than you do. Except to say that you are probably looking at the wrong tool.

You do not use VLC but VLS - Video Lan Streamer (IIRC). Check out the detailed manual that comes with that.

As to linking this to your website so that others can see it, I would have thought that you would have to incorporate an integrated player to pull the data from your local connection.

But if you can see the data and then so can the website, your uses can use VLC if the website produces an url for that stream.

Beyond this, I do not know. Maybe the guys at VLC did not wish to 're-invent the wheel' as it was all explained in the manual in the first place.

[lolwthm8s]

vls is replaced by vlc. vls is called legacy now means old and rarely used.

and sure its a bump 24 hrs and 51 minutes is 2 days.

and i did read the tuts and followed them exactly.

seems that no matter where i go and ask its vague to get the info asked for.

someone on this forum KNOWS how to set up my client. the right nice person with the few minutes extra time

just hasent seen my post yet.

ill look at vls AGAIN but im afraid it wont work as well. SIGH***

[guns1inger]

You can stream with VLC, and it is in fact very easy to set up. However I don't believe it will do what you want to do.

YouTube/Veoh et al are basically Video On Demand services. I go, I pick a video, and I play it. Simple. Multiple people can play the same video, all starting and ending at different times, and there is no issue or confusion.

VLC is more like a TV station. You set up a stream that pushes video out, and people connect to your address to see the stream They will come it at whatever point in the video VLC is up to playing. The viewer cannot select what to watch, or start at the beginning unless they happen to join the stream as it begins.

Also, to have several streams running would mean having several instances of VLC running through different ports. You could have links on a web page that point to your IP address and the port for each stream, but I could not get either IS or FF to correctly play the streams in a page. All I could do what open VLC and connect directly to the stream.

Have a play with the wizard. It is pretty straight forward, with the default values being the best in most cases (although for internet streaming you might want to push the TTL values up), then see if your mates can connect to the stream.

But is it not a VOD solution.

[lolwthm8s]

VLC is more like a TV station. You set up a stream that pushes video out, and people connect to your address to see the stream They will come it at whatever point in the video VLC is up to playing. The viewer cannot select what to watch, or start at the beginning unless they happen to join the stream as it begins.

this is almost what we want. no where did i say i want VOD.

my mates would join at the same time and any vids would be started at the same time. no several streams or several players. I select what to stream i set it up. someone contacts me on our voice comms, i start file. they or a few at a time watch the file. i stop the file. some one else contacts me i stream rinse and repeat.

you mentioned TTL could you elaborate a bit more on that term?

im serious when i say i am fed up with this whole issue. but i would like the freedom to stream files when i want with ease. it works the way i want other web sites do it. i just cant wrap my puny brain around this issue ive been baning my head against a brick wall here for too long. the solution is out there, someone knows.

[DB83]

Always looking to advance my knowledge (that's why I joined thi forum in the first place - already learnt that 24 hrs and 51 minutes is 2 days ) I took look at the original topic.

I think the answer is in there. And you said it yourself (not an exact quote) " I can see the stream on the web page but if I change the address to my IP then I can not "

Obviously no problem as you were originally viewing the webpage locally via your own LAN.

Two possibilities come to mind. Your ISP is blocking the ports. Your router has not enabled the ports for outgoing traffic.

How you actually do that I do not have a clue as I use one of dem ol' fashioned USB ADSL thingies.

[guns1inger]

If you are sick of it after only a couple of days then you should stop working with video, period. You need to have patience. If you slow down and think through the process, you will probably find it isn't that difficult.

Until yesterday when I saw your post, I had never set up VLC for streaming video across a network. But by taking my time and working through the wizard step by step, I had a stream up and running within a couple of minutes. If you hover your mouse over the fields in the Wizard, VLC even gives you pretty clear descriptions of what each value is for, and whether or not the defaults are the best option.

From what I can see, you are basically telling VLC to stream a media file in a selected format to a port. All of these choices are made as you go through the wizard. The only one that really needs any thought is TTL, which is Time To Live, or how many network devices can the data pass through before it dies. On a LAN, this might be a very low value - I used 2 for my tests - but for the internet i might have to be higher - 30 or more.

Other issues you may have to content with include

Dynamic IP addresses. If you ISP allocates a new IP address on a regular basis then the clients will have to be changed to keep up.

NAT (Network Address Translation). If you use a DSL modem router then chances are it will get the IP address from the ISP, and use DHCP to allocate your machine a different, internal IP address. The clients will have to connect to the IP address of the router, not your PC.

Port Forwarding. You will probably have to configure your modem to forward the stream traffic through specific ports so the clients can connect to it. PortForward.com has guides for port forwarding on many different modem models, otherwise it is time to read the manual.

Other websites do not do it this way. They have the files parked and waiting to be served. It is far simpler, as they have fixed IP addresses, actual URLs, and the infrastructure to back it up.

That said, you should be able to get a stream running through your modem with only a few hours of patient work.

[lolwthm8s]

Always looking to advance my knowledge (that's why I joined thi forum in the first place - already learnt that 24 hrs and 51 minutes is 2 days ) I took look at the original topic.

day 1 24 hrs then its day 2. lol

If you are sick of it after only a couple of days then you should stop working with video, period. You need to have patience. If you slow down and think through the process, you will probably find it isn't that difficult.

not 2 days re read the post its been months but then i guess i have a warped sense of time....

and this is the first time someone has actually given good info, albeit sarcastic but useful this might just be the issue the ttl and the modem i use Qwest DSL, and have no clue about the port forwarding issue this might also explain why when i try to host a server for some steam games that no one see it. i will research this issue thx for the new direction, and btw i dont mind sarcastic replies as long as info is passed.

and it is diffecult whne you have followed the wizard to the letter too many time to count, and still have no one see the stream,

yes i understand that i can see the stream via the web site as my PC is streaming it, its the fact no one else can.

thank you for the info and maybe someone else as nice as these 2 can add to this topic, i will be gathering all the info i get and put what works into a TUT for the un-edumacated folks like me out there.

[guns1inger]

Take it how you want, but know there was no sarcasm at all in my post.

If you go to Portforward.com you will find guides to two different Qwest modems. If you are lucky yours is one of them. VLC isn't specifically covered, but that doesn't matter as any guide the covers setting up port forwarding on a single port will do.