The VideoLAN Forums

Hi, I'm a big fan of VLC as it has surpassed all other media players I've used. However, I'm a Mac user and there is one difference between the Mac and Windows version which leaves me pulling out my hair. I want to PLAY a video track and LISTEN to a synchronised external audio track. For instance, a football match recording with a radio broadcast of the same match. I have an .avi file of the TV and an .mp3 file of the radio.

It seems that a Windows user can open a media file (Media -> Advanced Open File) and is presented with the option to 'Play anther media synchronously (extra audio file, ...)'. It works seamlessly.

I cannot find this feature in the Mac version. I have read some posts about '--input-slave' but I don't understand and still have no idea how to implement this feature. Is there a command line in VLC? Or must this input slave feature be invoked through the terminal.

Thanks in advance,

Kind regards, rubbervlc

--input-slave is a command line switch

I've opened a ticket in our bug tracker (#2959), so I don't forget to add this option to the Mac OS X GUI. However, I can't say which version will include this feature yet.

Thank you j-b. Would you mind pointing me to a guide for the use of this command line switch? Your succinct response is, sadly, too brief for me to know how to use it. I'm just not that familiar with the command line. Should I, as a place to start, open Terminal.app in OS X to invoke this command? Or do I need to look elsewhere?

Thank you fkuehne. You have anticipated my next question which is: how do I alert the great minds behind VLC to the absence of this useful feature.

Kind regards,
rubbervlc

Can someone please show me the correct syntax for using the input-slave command?

I can open the movie like this:
$ open VLC.app ~/Movies/themovie.avi

but I receive an error doing this:
$ open VLC.app ~/Movies/themovie.avi --input-slave ~/Movies/theaudio.mp3

What is the correct use of input-slave?

Kind regards,
rubbervlc

OK, well I've experimented with this input-slave command and I can happily say that I can now get it to work. Here's how:

In the terminal I navigate to the directory which contains the movie.avi and the audio.mp3 I wish to play synchronously. Then:

$ /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC movie.avi --input-slave=audio.mp3

I guess that's what you have been saying all along. Works like a charm!!
Note: it is not imperative to navigate to the relevant directory if you specify the paths of the files correctly in the command line.

Kind regards,
rubbervlc

Hi there,

First of all, I am absolutely amateur so please your understanding ....

I want to record (save) a live video stream http://wms1.nl.kab.tv/heb AND a radio stream through which comes the translation of the mentioned video stream into ONE VIDEO FILE.

The "convert / save" panel I set the network url and in the "play another media synchronously" I put the online radio url.
Unfortunately I does not work. It save the video only WITHOUT the secondory audio (i.e. the radio stream). Or sometimes, It does not save anything at all but It gives an error message saying that it cannot find the stream.

So please tell me what should I do so as It could work (is there anything I have to type to the "edit options" field?

thanks a lot, aron