Unable to play mpeg4 network stream

[caecilia]

I m running VLC under win XP and i've tried both v0.8.5 and 0.7.2.
I'm trying to stream mpeg4 video from my network camera , i'm trying to open http://192.168.0.100/mpeg4 the message says

:
....
asf debug: found 1 streams
access_http warning: unimplemented query in control
main debug: selecting program id=0
asf debug: added new video stream(ID:1)
main debug: using demux2 module "asf"
main debug: looking for a subtitle file in C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\
main debug: looking for decoder module: 27 candidates
ffmpeg debug: libavcodec already initialized
ffmpeg debug: postprocessing disabled
ffmpeg debug: using direct rendering
ffmpeg debug: ffmpeg codec (MPEG-4 Video) started
main debug: using decoder module "ffmpeg"
main debug: thread 3936 (decoder) created at priority 0 (input/decoder.c:159)
main debug: `http://192.168.0.100/mpeg4' successfully opened
asf warning: cannot peek while getting new packet, EOF ?
main debug: EOF reached
main debug: closing input
asf debug: free asf object 0x8cabdca1-0xa947-0x11cf-0x8ee400c00c205365
asf debug: free asf object 0xb7dc0791-0xa9b7-0x11cf-0x8ee600c00c205365
asf debug: free asf object 0x5fbf03b5-0xa92e-0x11cf-0x8ee300c00c205365
asf debug: free asf object 0x75b22630-0x668e-0x11cf-0xa6d900aa0062ce6c
asf debug: free asf object 0x75b22636-0x668e-0x11cf-0xa6d900aa0062ce6c
ffmpeg debug: ffmpeg codec (MPEG-4 Video) stopped
main debug: removing module "ffmpeg"
main debug: thread times: real 0m0.109375s, kernel 0m0.000000s, user 0m0.000000s
main debug: thread 3936 joined (input/decoder.c:191)
main debug: killing decoder fourcc `MP4S', 0 PES in FIFO
main debug: Program doesn't contain anymore ES
main debug: removing module "asf"
main debug: removing module "access_http"
main debug: thread times: real 0m0.734375s, kernel 0m0.000000s, user 0m0.000000s
main debug: thread 3832 joined (input/input.c:399)
main: nothing to play


the only player i have found that plays it is mplayer2.

It's true that im not very familiar with video application but i'm trying to make it work almost a week .. Please help.

[caecilia]

Any ideas ? Anybody?

[DJ]

http://ip:port/file

Most of the time these types of devices are raw and not in a container but you should not need to specify the file type or container in any event. So given this device, file in the example above may not be relevant. Also in http:// the port is not always used. So is it possible that your router is blocking? IE you have not set port forwarding or your network is not proper for what you are trying to do? Setting the router for the DMZ may allow more light here. But remember this is a test and it should not be left this way.

Ya! I know in http:// this shouldn't be necessary, but I'm having problems seeing what else it may be without more info on the device.

[caecilia]

I don't use a rooter the camera is directly connected on my pc, no firewall, and the file path is for sure correct.

Is there a possibility that this kind of Mpeg4 is not supported?
and if it is , is there any possibility that older version may support it?

Is there a possibity that it doesnot sent raw data but also extra info that vlc cannot recognize?

i just want a command line recording tool to capture some minutes

[DJ]

There have been a few users that have been having problems with MJPEG in a MP4 container in 0.8.5 but not in 0.8.4

The source of the problem is unknown.

[jclark]

There have been a few users that have been having problems with MJPEG in a MP4 container in 0.8.5 but not in 0.8.4

The source of the problem is unknown.

I've tried 0.8.2, 0.8.4, 0.8.4a and 0.8.5, all fail with the Sony SNC-RZ26N (and presumably the -P version as well...).


The following is the messages debug output.
The http connection is made, the 'server' responds with a mime tag of:

video/mpeg

VLC gets some amount of data:

main debug: pre-buffering done 1399470 bytes in 5s - 241 kbytes/s

Then basically 'waits'...



main debug: adding playlist item `http://192.168.0.250/mpeg4' ( http://192.168.0.250/mpeg4 )
main debug: creating new input thread
main debug: waiting for thread completion
main debug: creating statistics handler
main debug: thread 3820 (input) created at priority 1 (input/input.c:261)
main debug: `http://192.168.0.250/mpeg4' gives access `http' demux `' path `192.168.0.250/mpeg4'
main debug: creating demux: access='http' demux='' path='192.168.0.250/mpeg4'
main debug: looking for access_demux module: 0 candidates
main warning: no access_demux module matched "http"
main debug: creating access 'http' path='192.168.0.250/mpeg4'
main debug: looking for access2 module: 7 candidates
access_http debug: http: server='192.168.0.250' port=80 file='/mpeg4
main debug: net: connecting to 192.168.0.250 port 80
main debug: connection in progress
access_http debug: protocol 'HTTP' answer code 200
access_http debug: Content-Type: video/mpeg
access_http debug: Pragma: no-cache
main debug: using access2 module "access_http"
main debug: pre-buffering...
main debug: received first data for our buffer
main debug: pre-buffering done 1399470 bytes in 5s - 241 kbytes/s
main debug: creating demux: access='http' demux='' path='192.168.0.250/mpeg4'
main debug: looking for demux2 module: 44 candidates
main debug: looking for packetizer module: 17 candidates
main debug: using packetizer module "packetizer_mpegvideo"
main debug: selecting program id=0
main debug: using demux2 module "mpgv"
main debug: looking for a subtitle file in C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\
main debug: looking for decoder module: 27 candidates
main debug: using decoder module "libmpeg2"
main debug: thread 3940 (decoder) created at priority 0 (input/decoder.c:159)
main debug: `http://192.168.0.250/mpeg4' successfully opened
packetizer_mpegvideo debug: waiting for sequence start

[caecilia]

I don't know if it is the same problem i don't recognize similar warnings, but i have the bad suspicion that the stream isn't only raw data but also extra data that activex controls of ie that is provided with cam software recognizes and uses, such us the current settings of the camera.

Is there any parameter at command line to filter this extra data?

[jclark]

I don't know if it is the same problem i don't recognize similar warnings, but i have the bad suspicion that the stream isn't only raw data but also extra data that activex controls of ie that is provided with cam software recognizes and uses, such us the current settings of the camera.

Is there any parameter at command line to filter this extra data?

Yesterday I had a pretty dismal conversation with the Sony 'Customer Support' service.

Basically I'm comming to the conclusion this camera is not for the systems integrator. They basically indicated there was no further information about the mpeg-4 stream, than 'it's mpeg-4'... I asked about an SDP file, or spec for the mpeg-4 stream, and basically was told, no there is no such thing available... but there is another piece of software you can buy that allows for various functions not available in the on-board browser, or even through their various API's, which do not really allow for one to do such things as 'record' a video stream, distribute the video stream through 'processing elements'... As for the actual Mpeg-4 stream there is some mention in the API doc that there is 'user information' passed in the Mpeg-4 stream. I would hope this is according to spec, and so vlc should remove such user info when processing the packets. However, in the case of an SDP spec, the 'fmtp config=XXXX' is sort of essential for making any sense out of the stream, which as of the mentioned converstation, is not available by any means from the device, or via some API documetation.


Which brings up a very weird 'feature' of their multicast option. Apparently they use RTP... but then the camera streamer expects that even in multicasting mode, that the receiver generate a RTCP packet, otherwise the streamer shuts down. So much for one-way multicasting to a wide variety of receivers, some of which could have been used for recording, or
remote viewing by many observers...

I'm at the moment trying to get a Axis camera in of equivalent price and features, which does have a much better documented API for truely custom applications. In particular the Axis documentation indicates that they have an rtsp entity operational on the device, which gives the SDP info, and thus allowing for a receiver to match stream parameters without resorting to 'vendor only' supplied modules or applications.

At the moment, unless the Sony people get back with me, and give me better support, Sony is off my list of remotely perfered vendors for IP video applications.

[DJ]

The biggest problem with Sony is the representation and support they provide in various countries SUCKS. When it works it's great but when it doesn't the problem has to be yours. Sony Japan is a whole other story.