VideoLAN HOWTO
Prev | Chapter 4. Stream a file | Next

# 4.2. Stream a file with VLS

    % vls -vv -d udp:192.168.0.42 file:video1.xyz --ttl 12

where :

- `video1.xyz` is the file you want to stream ,

- 192.168.0.42 is either :

  - the IP address of the machine you want to unicast to ;

  - or the DNS name the machine you want to unicast to ;

  - or a multicast IP address .

- 12 is the value of the TTL (Time To Live) of your IP packets (which means that the stream will be able to cross 11 routers) .

When you want to stop VLS, use the key combination Ctrl-c.

If you want to stream the file continuously, add the --loop option .

VLS can stream MPEG files that meet two critera :

- the file must be MPEG PS (Program Stream) or MPEG TS (Transport Stream), that contain video and audio multiplexed. VLS cannot stream MPEG ES (Elementary Stream), i.e. a file with only audio or video .

  In order to know if an MPEG file is MPEG PS, MPEG TS or MPEG ES, read the file with VLC and look at the messages (select in the menu View / Messages, or use the command line vlc -vvv) .

  - If you see a line :

        [00000107] main module debug: using demux module "ts_dvbpsi"

    it means the file is MPEG TS .

  - If you see a line :

        [00000109] main module debug: using demux module "ps"

    it means the file is MPEG PS .

  - If you see a line :

        [00000109] main module debug: using demux module "es"

    it means the file is MPEG ES, VLS can't stream it. .

- the sequence header of the video must repeat itself regularly, which is often the case with MPEG-2, but very rare with MPEG-1. There is no easy way to know if the sequence header is repeated regularly. Files with a .vob extension are normally MPEG-2 files and files with .mpg or .mpeg extension or usually MPEG-1 files .

You can download this streamable MPEG-2 PS file for your tests : presentation_short.vob .

Prev | Home | Next
Stream a file with VLC | Up | Stream a DVD