The VideoLAN Forums

Could anyone help with screen streaming please?

Problem
Connecting to a HTTP stream fails when that stream exposes the desktop capture device.

Devices
Two different machines have been tried but both are Windows 10 build 19041.746 and VLC 3.0.12.

Step-by-Step

SENDER VLC INSTANCE

• Open VLC
• Media > Open Capture Device
• Capture mode: Desktop
• Down arrow to right of 'Play' button > Stream
• Next
• New destination: HTTP > Add
• Port: 8585
• Next
• Profile: Video - H.264 + MP3 (MP4)
• Next
• Stream

Success is assumed by the timer beginning to increment and netstat -a | findstr ":8585" showing the port is listening on 0.0.0.0.

RECEIVER VLC INSTANCE

• Open VLC
• Media > Open Network Stream
• Please enter a network URL: : http://localhost:8585
• Play

Failure is assumed by the highlighted part of the progress bar bouncing between right and left ends then disappearing. I am unable to share the Message output because there's a forum character limit on individual posts but there are no errors shown in it.

Debugging steps
All tests have been done with fresh instances of VLC and making sure that port 8585 is not in use through netstat before starting the stream. So far I have:

• Looked in Tools > Messages but there are no obvious errors to me
• Used netstat to confirm the port is activating/deactivating with the stream being started and VLC subsequently closed
• Successfully streamed a video file (mkv) with same transcode settings to prove it is not a firewall issue
• Ticked "Display locally" on the Stream Output > Destination Setup wizard screen so I can see the desktop is being captured
• Successfully streamed desktop to a file and played it back
• Tried to stream the recorded desktop file to HTTP but VLC failed connect. The sender VLC instance used ":sout=#transcode{vcodec=h264,acodec=mpga,ab=128,channels=2,samplerate=44100,scodec=none}:duplicate{dst=http{mux=ffmpeg{mux=flv},dst=:8585/},dst=display} :no-sout-all :sout-keep" and the receiver VLC instance gave basically the same Message output as above, no errors.

Why am I doing this?
In these unprecedented times... I need a screen sharing solution that is entirely within the local network so does not rely on any Internet service. This will be used to allow a training provider to share their screen to trainees so that proper social distancing can be maintained. Audio is not required as participants would be in a conference call on our telephony solution. Ultimately, I hope to make use of either HTML5's video element to embed the stream or some other mechanism so viewers can use their browser.

• Windows 10 is now build 19041.804, same VLC version, same problem as above
• Running both VLC sender and receiver as an administrator account has the same problem (both run as and when signed in as the admin)
• Uninstall and removing preferences then reinstalling as administrator still shows the same problem
• Tried sender and receiver on same machine and different machines on same network but the same problem exists

I can't post the whole log due to the character limit but the last line here is where the receiver pauses for a few seconds. Also, "vlc.exe -vv --logfile=c:\vlclog.txt" does not produce any output.

Message window output on receiver. It pauses on the last line for a few seconds. Then continues on Eventually the receiver VLC instance gives a popup that says (replace 'localhost' with the machine when the receiver is on a different machine). The sender VLC instance does not generate Message window output when the receiver tries to connect. On beginning the stream there are two warnings lines about the same thing.

For anyone coming across this in the future: Streaming the screen capture device to HTTP does not work in VLC and there is no solution other than using an alternative product.

VLC can still be used to record the screen by streaming to a file.

Logs on the sender would be more useful than on the receiver. It might be necessary to use the CLI.

You can stream a pc desktop using an older version of vlc and a screen capture software. The desktop stream can be viewed on any phone or streaming device with audio & video. YT vid demo process "Stream Windows 7/10 Desktop To Multiple VLC".