QuickTime Broadcaster to VLC

[ph0t0n]

Can VLC receive a manual unicast audio/video stream from QuickTime Broadcaster WITHOUT reading connection details from an SDP file exported from QTBC, instead specifying the necessary arguments on the command line?

If so, how?

I've been trying for some time now, but I cannot get it to work.

I am using VLC 0.8.6f on Mac OS X 10.4.11.

Anyone?

[dionoea]

That should be possible I guess. Could you give more info about the stream you're trying to receive?

[ph0t0n]

I am basically just testing different things locally on a G4 PowerMac w/ OS X 10.4.11.

For this test, I use QuickTime Broadcaster (QTBC) 1.5.2 to pick up audio/video from an original iSight camera,
encode it to MPEG-4/AAC and send it by Manual Unicast to VLC 0.8.6f over ports 5432 and 5434 respectively.

This works perfectly if I export the SDP file from QTBC and let VLC read from it, albeit with a few warnings about
'[input | output | computed] PTS is out of range', 'audio drift is too big', 'received buffer in the future', and such.

However, it's a bit annoying (in a setting involving TWO computers, obviously) to have to redo the whole
SDP-file-export-and-copy-to-client-machine song and dance every time I make a change (however small) to the settings in QTBC,
which is why I am looking to specify the necessary parameters and their values on the command line instead - if at all possible.

I guess that the traditional method of exporting SDP info to file for a manual unicast probably means that the stream itself
does not carry SDP metadata (unlike when using the QuickTime Announce method), but it still contains the same media content,
and should by all accounts be readable if the client is given the correct information.

The intended outcome of this is a setup where two persons with iSight and QTBC are sending their separate feeds to a third user running
two VLC client instances (or two feeds side by side in just one VLC client window, if possible), shown by a projector in a classroom.

Yes, I can set up QTBC to use the QuickTime Announce method to the freely available DSS for this, but it introduces a serious lag -
about 11 seconds (why?) - even locally on my laptop. The DSP method is only 1-2 seconds late, and is therefore much preferred.

I can of course use other software for conferencing, but the intension is giving an audiovisual presentation of RTSP, where the use of applications based on the SIP protocol would render the whole thing a bit pointless.

Btw: today QTBC gives me connection error 5420 on QuickTime Announce, even if I trash preferences and reinstall. It worked fine just
yesterday, no changes done today. DSS restart (killing all involved processes) won't help. Files in the playlist work fine, as does a live feed
from Wirecast using the same iSight camera.

*Sigh*

Thanks for all help!

[dionoea]

Could you paste the contents of the SDP file? And the debug output from VLC when it plays that SDP file? (use -vvv --file-logging to save the output to a file named vlc-log.txt)

[ph0t0n]

SDP file contents from QuickTime Broadcaster:

v=0
o=- 3 710041850 IN IP4 127.0.0.0
s=QuickTime
t=0 0
a=range:npt=now-
m=audio 5432 RTP/AVP 96
c=IN IP4 10.0.0.10
b=AS:125
a=rtpmap:96 mpeg4-generic/44100/1
a=fmtp:96 profile-level-id=15;mode=AAC-hbr;sizelength=13;indexlength=3;indexdeltalength=3;config=1208
a=mpeg4-esid:101
m=video 5434 RTP/AVP 97
c=IN IP4 10.0.0.10
b=AS:1000
a=rtpmap:97 X-QT/90000
a=cliprect:0,0,240,320
a=framesize:97 320-240

I did the following:

/Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC -vvv --color --file-logging --logfile ~/vlc-log.html --logmode html ~/isight.sdp

And here is the VLC debug output, colorized HTML for readability:

http://www.ia-stud.hiof.no/~ingeteid/files/vlc-log.html

Thank you for your help!

EDIT: Script was killed by me after 10 seconds...

[dionoea]

You could try opening a URL like rtp://10.0.0.10:5434 or rtsp://10.0.0.10 ... I unfortunately don't know SDP stuff very well, maybe someone else can jump in and give some useful advice.

[ph0t0n]

I have tried numerous combinations of URL and arguments to no avail, including the ones you mention.
In any case, the audio part of the file will be left out when only port 5434 is specified.


'vlc -vvv rtsp://10.0.0.10:5434'

causes VLC to crash after a few seconds, with the following error msg:

http://www.ia-stud.hiof.no/~ingeteid/fi ... p-err.html

(VLC output until crash is at http://www.ia-stud.hiof.no/~ingeteid/files/rtsp-log.txt)

Is RTSP at all being used in this case? The SDP file only mention RTP.
Perhaps it is implied in some way, but I have no idea.


'vlc -vvv rtp://10.0.0.10:5434'

only causes cyclic (it seems) error messages, seen here:

http://www.ia-stud.hiof.no/~ingeteid/files/rtp-log.txt

Script was killed by me after 10 seconds or so.


Thanks for trying anyway!