HON’s Wiki # VLC

Home / Media

Contents

• Resources
• Installation
• General
• Access Modules
• Stream Output Modules
• Video and Sub Filter Modules
• View Stream
• Examples
  • Media Processing
  • Streaming

Resources

• Command line (VideoLAN)
• Command line streaming (VideoLAN)
• Command line streaming examples (VideoLAN)
• Streaming over IPv6 (VideoLAN)

Installation

• Arch: sudo pacman -S vlc zvbi

General

• Hide GUI:
  • Linux: Use cvlc instead of vlc.
  • Windows: Specify -I dummy --dummy-quiet.

Access Modules

• Screen capture (screen):
  • screen module (VideoLAN)
  • Super laggy.
  • Captures all screens by default. Specify coordinates and dimensions to capture a specific screen or section.
  • CLI format: screen//
  • CLI example: screen:// --screen-top=0 --screen-left=1920 --screen-width=1920 --screen-height=1080
• Video4Linux 2 (v4l2) (Linux):
  • v4l2 module (VideoLAN)
  • Requires V4L2 to be installed. v4l2-ctl can be used to control video/webcamera settings. See separate section about V2L2.
  • CLI format: v4l2://<dev> [v4l2-options]
  • CLI example: v4l2:///dev/video0:width=1920:height=1080:fps=30:chroma=mjpg (TODO v4l2 prefix and -- instead of :?)
  • Specify format: chroma=<format> (e.g. mjpg or h264 if supported) (yuyv may be the default and gives terrible frame rate)
  • Specify width, height, frame rate: width=1920:height=1080:fps=30 (1080p)
• DirectShow (dshow) (Windows):
  • CLI format: dshow:// [dshow-options]
  • CLI example: dshow:// --dshow-vdev="Game Capture HD60 S (Video) (#01)" --dshow-adev=none --dshow-aspect-ratio=16:9 --dshow-fps=60
  • You can open “open capture device”, select the device and selecting “show more options” in the GUI to find the exact names of the audio and video devices.

Stream Output Modules

• Specify chain of output modules: --sout=#module1{options}:module2{options}:module3...
• Standard (standard/std):
  • Save the stream to file or send it over a network.
  • HTTP example: --sout='#[...]:standard{access=http,mux=ts}' --http-host=localhost --http-port=5555
  • The ts mux is the most common one.
• Transcode (transcode):
  • Transcode the video.
  • Codec list: Codec (VideoLAN)
  • Specify video codec using vcodec= and audio codec using acodec=. Use none to disable audio or video. Common video codecs include h264 (very good and very intense), mp2v (good quality but bad/small compression) and mp4v (better compression).
  • Specify the video and audio buffer sizes in kB/s using vb= and ab=.
  • Specify deinterlace when using an interlaced source to improbe the quality a little.
• Duplicate (duplicate):
  • Duplicate the feed, e.g. to send it to different destinations.
• Display (display):
  • Show the input stream locally. Can be used to verify that the input or previous parts chain is working as expected. Can be used with duplicate to monitor the stream.
• RTP (rtp):
  • Stream as raw RTP to a destination unicast or multicast address.
  • Example: rtp{mux=ts,dst=<addr>,port=<port>}
  • dst must be some destination unicast or multicast address. port may be omitted to use the default (typically UDP).
• RTSP (also rtp):
  • Run a RTSP server, allowing clients to stream over RTP.
  • Example: rtp{name=yolo,mux=ts,proto=udp,sdp=rtsp://127.0.0.1:5000/}

Video and Sub Filter Modules

• Specified using --sub-source=<...>.
• Marquee (marq):
  • marq module (VideoLAN)
  • Show text and/or time on the screen.
  • For positions and colors, see time module (VideoLAN).
  • To show it in the output stream, specify the sfilter=marq transcode option instead of using --video-filter=logo.
  • Example (local): --sub-source=marq --marq-marquee="%Y-%m-%d, %H:%M:%S" --marq-position=9 --marq-color=0xFFFFFF --marq-size=20
• Logo (logo):
  • logo module (VideoLAN)
  • HowTo Add a logo (VideoLAN)
  • Show one or a series of looping images.
  • The image doesn’t seem to be scalable, so scale the file beforehand.
  • To show it in the output stream, specify the sfilter=logo transcode option instead of using --video-filter=logo.
  • Example (local): --video-filter=logo --logo-file=/c/Users/1234 --logo-position=0 --logo-opacity=255

View Stream

• View stream: vlc <proto>://<host>[:port][/path]
  • RTSP (example): vlc rtsp://<host>:554 --rtsp-user=$rtsp_username --rtsp-pwd=$rtsp_password
• Specify --network-caching=100 (milliseconds) to reduce network buffering causing delay (defaults to 1000ms).
• Use cvlc (Linux) or specify -I dummy --dummy-quiet (Windows) to not use the full GUI.
• Specify --fullscreen to start in full screen.

Examples

Media Processing

• Convert/transcode or fix badly encoded files (GUI method):
  1. (Note) E.g. when othe programs complain that a GoPro video file is corrupted but VLC still manages to open it somehow.
  2. Open VLC.
  3. Go to “File”, “Convert”.
  4. Open add the source files.
  5. Press “Convert/save”.
  6. Select some appropriate profile/formats (use e.g. mediainfo to check the format of the source files).
  7. Wait for the playlist to finish “playing” (kinda weird but whatever).
• Concatenate files (no transcoding): cvlc <input-files-ordered> --sout "#gather:std{access=file,dst=full.mp4}" --sout-keep (TODO cvlc doesn’t exit when done for me, maybe use vlc and manually close the window when it’s visually done instead.)

Streaming

• Stream webcam to RTP (raw stream to target, no RTSP) (no sound) (Linux):
  • Command: cvlc v4l2:///dev/video0:width=1920:height=1080:fps=30:chroma=mjpg --live-caching=10 --sout='#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=none}:rtp{mux=ts,dst=127.0.0.1}'
• Stream webcam to RTSP (no sound) (Linux):
  • Command: cvlc v4l2:///dev/video2:width=1920:height=1080:fps=30:chroma=mjpg --live-caching=10 --sout='#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=none}:rtp{name=yolo,mux=ts,proto=tcp,sdp=rtsp://127.0.0.1:5000/}'
• Stream webcam to HTTP (no sound) (Linux):
  • Command: cvlc v4l2:///dev/video0:width=1920:height=1080:fps=30:chroma=mjpg --live-caching=10 --sout='#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=none}:standard{access=http,mux=ts}' --http-host=127.0.0.1 --http-port=5555
  • HTTP streams may be easily used as sources in e.g. OBS.
• Stream capture card to display and HTTP stream (no sound) (Windows):
  • Command: ./vlc -I dummy --dummy-quiet dshow:// --dshow-vdev="Game Capture HD60 S (Video) (#01)" --dshow-adev=none --dshow-size=1920x1080 --dshow-aspect-ratio=16:9 --dshow-fps=60 --live-caching=10 --sout='#transcode{vcodec=mp2v,acodec=none,sfilter=logo}:duplicate{dst=display,dst=standard{access=http,mux=ts}}' --http-host=127.0.0.1 --http-port=5555
• Record network stream to file (no sound) (Linux):
  • Command: cvlc <input> --sout='#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=none}:std{access=file,mux=ps,dst=test.mpg}'

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