The VideoLAN Forums

Hi,
I have the following setup at home:

1. Windows XP
2. Pinnacle Studio 8 AV/DV with DC10

I am able to stream a file successfully with no issues at all but when I try to stream live TV or VCR movie, I get "invalid frame size" error and cannot stream it.

I tried setting the vide size to different size like 640x480, 320x240, etc but it does not help.

The capture card is analog card not the digital one. Is this the culprit?

Any help in this regard is greatly appreciated.

More info:

I used DirectShow option in VLC and selected the Pinnacel DC10 MPG option in the drop down. Please help !!!!




-Sameer

There are a couple of issues here that I really can't read between the lines or assume.

1. Does the capture card work with VLC?

2. Are you able to transcode the saved files using your capture card?

While I believe that any format should be compatible with any container and all containers should be capable of streaming, that's not how it is in the real world. This is why the Wizard was created.

The key issue is:

1. know your compatible formats and containers.

2. Separate transcoding from streaming when you have problems.

3. Know your source file types and the containers so you can make intelligent decisions for quality with relatively low overhead when transcoding files for streaming.

I can not in this space tell you what is ideal in every situation, that is why there are options. At the same time I can not tell you which ones don't work together as some of these were never finished (they do work but perhaps not as expected), so that all the accepted variations for all the various formats and containers would work together.

Hint: mp3 audio is not accepted with any video format in any container, however mpga is accepted for most mpeg formats including mp4v and DivX. MP4a (AAC) audio is accepted with MP4v or h.264 in a MP4 or MOV container as this is a standard QuickTime format. But for streaming MOV is the container of choice.

Reference: http://wiki.videolan.org/index.php/Transcode

There are a couple of issues here that I really can't read between the lines or assume.

1. Does the capture card work with VLC?

2. Are you able to transcode the saved files using your capture card?

While I believe that any format should be compatible with any container and all containers should be capable of streaming, that's not how it is in the real world. This is why the Wizard was created.

The key issue is:

1. know your compatible formats and containers.

2. Separate transcoding from streaming when you have problems.

3. Know your source file types and the containers so you can make intelligent decisions for quality with relatively low overhead when transcoding files for streaming.

I can not in this space tell you what is ideal in every situation, that is why there are options. At the same time I can not tell you which ones don't work together as some of these were never finished (they do work but perhaps not as expected), so that all the accepted variations for all the various formats and containers would work together.

Hint: mp3 audio is not accepted with any video format in any container, however mpga is accepted for most mpeg formats including mp4v and DivX. MP4a (AAC) audio is accepted with MP4v or h.264 in a MP4 or MOV container as this is a standard QuickTime format. But for streaming MOV is the container of choice.

Reference: http://wiki.videolan.org/index.php/Transcode

Thank you for the reply DJ.

I am sorry if I have not been clear enough explaining my issue here.

1. Does the capture card work with VLC?

I am not sure if the capture card works with VLC but I do see it listed in the drop down in Direct Show tab and when Iclickon Configure button, I see the window which mentions Pinnacle in it. I can paste the screen shot if you want to haev a look at it.

2. Separate transcoding from streaming when you have problems.

I am not sure I understand what it means. I will surely go through the link you provided. I am still a newbie in this world of VLC.
I will try MOV as you suggested and reply back.

Thanks for the reply once again.

Most people will jump straight away to the end and complain that they can't stream live video.

But the order must be correct.

1. The capture device must work with VLC.

2. You must learn to transcode your files. IE what formats work with what containers to form compatibility with other programs. QuickTime or WMP 9 or 10. Could be your favorite Direct Show player.

3. Now you have the necessary tools to begin to start streaming files, having an idea of what you are doing. Even then is best to start small like streaming over a local network before trying to tackle the Internet. There is no one that can learn this for you. We can only suggest. If you don't learn this you will spend more time here asking questions waiting for an answer than doing what you want to do.

Most people will jump straight away to the end and complain that they can't stream live video.

But the order must be correct.

1. The capture device must work with VLC.

2. You must learn to transcode your files. IE what formats work with what containers to form compatibility with other programs. QuickTime or WMP 9 or 10. Could be your favorite Direct Show player.

3. Now you have the necessary tools to begin to start streaming files, having an idea of what you are doing. Even then is best to start small like streaming over a local network before trying to tackle the Internet. There is no one that can learn this for you. We can only suggest. If you don't learn this you will spend more time here asking questions waiting for an answer than doing what you want to do.

Thanks for all the inputs. I have finally got it working and I amable to access it from my friwnds house too. Works good. I have a problem though. My CPU is maxing out . I realize that it is due to all the transcoding it is doing. I tried to do it wiothout transcoding and transmitting it directly and it worked for a couple of time and CPU did not max out this time. But for some reason if I close the VLC and open again, it doesnt work and forces me to transcode it.

Any ideas? Can you let me know what I am doing wrong?

It may be best to use the options menu rather than the wizard. Any time there are problems with streaming is is best to try transcoding without streaming, 1. to get you familiar with the various formats and containers and 2. to work out the bugs in your setup. In the options menu called Stream output there is a command under transcoding options, Video codec and is called Scale. If you change this to 0.75 or 0.5 it may do what you want.

Here are the general things to consider before streaming.

This story comes in three phases when starting new.

1. getting your capture device to work with VLC.

2. Learning how to transcode using your capture device and learning in general how to transcode files.

3. Learning how to stream files across a local network and then using what you have learned to stream your capture device

4. This is inevitable: learning to stream files across the Internet and then applying what you have learned to stream live source material over the Internet.

This is generally what I tell people that jump straight to the end without starting from the beginning.

While I believe that any format should be compatible with any container and all containers should be capable of streaming, that's not how it is in the real world.

The key issue is:

1. know your compatible formats and containers.

2. Separate transcoding from streaming when you have problems.

3. Know your source file types and the containers so you can make intelligent decisions for quality with relatively low overhead when transcoding files or streaming.

I can not in this space tell you what is ideal in every situation, that is why there are options. At the same time I can not tell you which ones don't work together as some of these were never finished (they do work but perhaps not as expected), so that all the accepted variations for all the various formats and containers would work together.

I finally got it working without MAXing out my CPU. I am transmitting it in mms transcoding in DIV3+MP3 audio. You were right when you said there is no correct answer to it. You just need to know the capabilities of your internet bandwidth, and what you need and understand the containers.

However I amfacing with a conufing issue here. When I keep a good bitrate 512/384, the quality is very good but the guys watching it reported buffering by Windowd Media player every 3 secs. Whereas for lower bitrate than 384 i.e. 256 gives smooth video but gets hit bad by quality when you increase the screen size.

Which is the best setting : (keeping better bitrate and lower video size) OR (lower bitrate and higher video size)?


Please let me know.

Regards

This is the speed of the Internet connection. if your friend is using VLC he could try increasing the buffer size. But there is always a trade off between speed of the connection and quality. This is seldom a problem when streaming across an internal network and this is why I put my recommendations for learning the processes in the order I do, so that you can easily figure out what is best for any given circumstance.

How did you get the DC10+ working in VLC ? What are your setting. I am using XP and cannot get video - same error you originally got. Please help.
Thanks,
Kevin K.