The VideoLAN Forums

To all 'VLC Gods'

My internet service provider has recently enabled its' subscribers to watch some TV channels on their PC's at home. No TV capture card or any other special hardware is required. We were told to download VLC 0.8.5, and given a small executable to run after installation. It looks to me as if all the executable does is to create a playlist containing 14 TV channels. All well and good.

However, I would REALLY like to be able to record some shows to my PC while I am at work (and preferably in a format that I can edit later to remove the advert breaks). Unfortunately scheduled recordings are not covered in the VLC manuals, and while there are some posts about this subject in these forums, it seems to me that you must be a rocket-scientist to understand what they are saying! It seems as if I must first learn how to write a batch file, all about containers & codecs, and how to enter a whole range of unintelligible strings on the 'command line'. To me it's like saying something like, "before you can drive this car, you must learn how to completely disassemble and reassemble it!"

I am not a rocket-scientist and I'm too old to start learning something akin to a new programming language. I would just like someone to explain in easy-to-understand non-technical English how to accomplish what I would like to do. Even to save a file to disk manually (using the wizard), there are SO many options (eg codecs, containers, etc) and I have close to NO idea what they are for. And after having recorded a show to my hard drive, Pinnacle Studio 9 told me it couldn't work with it (and I have all codecs, etc enabled). It's very frustrating!

OK, I guess even VLC Gods need a *little* information to work with, so I will supply what limited technical details I can:

PC is an Athlon 64x2, 2 gigs of RAM, nVIDIA GeForce 7900GT, 160 gig SATA drive, Asus A8N-E mainboard, ADSL 1M/256k internet connection, Win XP Pro SP 2.

The stream I want to record: udp://@239.255.2.9:1234 (luckily the shows I am interested in are all on the same TV channel)

As for the type of stream this is - I have no idea, nor even how to find this out. If someone tells me what to look for, I can happily supply this information if needed.

I really wanted to learn about how to do this myself, and then I discovered that you must have a degree in Internet Video to understand it all!

It occurs to me that perhaps VLC is not the program I should be using for this - so if anyone can suggest an alternative, I will be extremely grateful!! However, I must say that I quite like VLC, it's easy to use if you just want to watch TV on your PC, so I really need an 'idiots guide to scheduled recordings with VLC'!

I hope 'The Gods' will answer my prayers!

Bannor

Hi Bannor,

Happy to hear that your ISP is using VLC to provide such a service ..

I believe it is NOT difficult to record down the program technically using VLC technically ..

* I am not going to think of the legal matter ...let's just focus on the TECHNICAL issue ...

Some basic u may want to know ..BTW, VLC 0.8.6a is what I am using ....

There are 2 ways people may use VLC ..1) in GUI interface and 2) command line

No matter in which mode, using VLC = a. input + b. process + c. output

a. input = tell VLC where to get the source, .... in your case, from udp://239.255. 2.9:1234 (a udp stream on multicast IP 239.255.2.9 and port 1234)

b. process = nothing if just watch on PC, OR transcode to another format if u want to save it in a file for later use

c. output = display if just watch on PC, OR a file for later use.

Using VLC = find out the righ parameters.

Obvisouly, it is easy to find out the right parameters using GUI mode, then put the right parameter into a batch file, such that u can repeat the process in command mode.

If u are a newbiw of VLC, try complete your task (save the program in a file for later use) using the GUI mode first.

in VLC GUI,
a. select Network - udp multicast as your soruce, put 239.255.2.9 and 1234 as the source IP / port
b. in stream / save,
I : select 1) display and 2) save in file, give a name to your file
II : select a new transcode format ( ... u may try mp4 + h264 + mp3)

u may record for a few minutes, then check the output file. If u are happy of the result, the u can use the "parameters" to build your command.

If u are NOT happy of the result, say..file too large, not smooth ..etc, adjust your parameters used.

You may find the command syntax in : Documentation:Streaming HowTo/Command Line Examples http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation: ... _streaming

Something u may need to know ...
1. video files are always very large
2. there's no timer in vlc, u may need to create your own timer to start / stop the recording
3. udp allows lost package of the video data

hope u can make it ....good luck ...

Marcus Chan

Firstly, thankyou for a rapid and informative response!

With regard to the first step (telling VLC which input to use), it seems fairly straight-forward: I open VLM Control on the View menu, and in the 'Input' box I choose the stream I want to record in the subsequent dialog box, right?

Then I must choose an Output. The Target is already selected (from Step 1), can I choose 'Play Locally' AND 'File' if I want to watch AND record at the same time? If not, is there a way to do this (like running 2 instances of VLC)? While on the subject of recording while watching, will the 'Pause' button do what the pause button on a VCR would do (I guess not, that would be too much to hope for - or am I wrong)? What does 'Dump raw input' do? Actually, I probably don't need to know what it does, perhaps it's better if you can just tell me whether I must select it or not. What file extension should I use (and does it matter very much)?

Now I must choose an encapsulation method and transcoding option (codec). There are 9 encapsulation methods and 12 video codecs to choose from (108 combinations). You have suggested the 'mp4' encapsulation method, the 'h264' video codec and the 'mp3' audio codec. Should I find the output file unsatisfactory, what parameters should I start to adjust first? I assume that to change everything at once will probably not allow me to learn very much. Am I correct in assuming that selecting a higher bitrate will give me a higher quality (resolution) video file? Will setting the 'Scale' to 2 give me a video of twice the width & height? And if so, will the resolution be doubled, or will the pixels just be bigger? Would I need to select the 'Select all elementary streams' check-box? Do I need 'Time To Live'?

You mentioned that 'udp allows lost package of the video data' - is this a Good Thing?

I'm not too worried about the size of the video files created, but I do want good, clear video, and I must be able to remove adverts with a video editor (I've mentioned Pinnacle Studio 9, but I'm not too fussy about which one). That would be really handy!

If you happen to know of an online resource that will tell me a *little* about encapsulation methods vs codecs, aimed at *ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS*, please post a link. I don't want to study this in depth, but I am prepared to read a little about it. I just need to find ONE combination of encapsulation / codec - that's all. Then the fun will start - with batch files, setting a schedule, etc.....

BTW - I downloaded and installed VLC 0.8.6a. It runs (doesn't crash), but I get no video or sound whatsoever, so I'm back to 0.8.5. I'm quite happy to use the older version - it works!

Well, I'll let you supply some answers to this post for now. Don't get me wrong - I am very grateful for your time and expertise, it's just that this whole video thing has overwhelmed me! In this day and age, 'easy answers' and 'quick solutions' seem to be the order of the day, and I wasn't expecting this to be any different.

My sincere thanks!

Bannor

I feel your pain. Setting VLC up to record is very confusing.

You probably should start by ignoring codecs etal and just recording the show in the format it is transmitted. HDTV is transmitted as a mpeg2 transport stream, so just choose mux=ts if that's what you have.

You will end up with a command similar to this:
cd c:\program files\videolan\vlc\
vlc udp:@:5000 :access-filter=timeshift :udp-caching=300 :vout-filter=deinterlace :deinterlace-mode=blend :sout=#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=ts,url="D:\filename.ts"}}

That's complete except for specifying the udp stream.

I got this from this post, which uses a HDHomerun as the tuner. You will need to read the file to see how to patch in your udp address.
http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewto ... =vlclaunch

Grittree

Many thanks for your assistance!

Setting up VLC to perform a scheduled recording is probably not confusing - if you know how to do it, that is! Unfortunately, I haven't got the faintest idea of where to start! I'm sure that once someone has explained it to me in a step-by-step fashion, I will wonder how I could ever have been mystified by it. However, that day is still in the future.

Getting back to your post - I'm not altogether sure I am receiving HDTV. If I select 'Stream & media info' I get the following info:

Stream 0:
Codec: mpgv
Language: (blank)
Type: Video

Stream 1:
Codec: mpga
Language: Russian
Type: Audio

Program 1:
Name: Ren-TV
Provider: (blank)
Type: Digital television service
Status: Running

Is this HDTV?

You gave an example of a command - I cannot see where I should insert the date & time that recording should start & stop - am I missing it somewhere?

I am beginning to have serious doubts as to the suitability of VideoLAN for what I want to achieve (as simple as it seems to me). All I want to do is record TV to my hard drive while I am at work. This does not seem to me to be something that is outside the capabilities of VLC (according to some of the users who have posted here), but I don't seem to be making any concrete progress in this regard. What other similar applications are out there, that are more user-friendly?

I cannot believe that I am the very first person on the face of the planet that has conceived of the idea of using VLC to record a TV stream to a PC automatically - probably millions of people have done this. Please, ONE of you post the full method here, and then we'll ALL know!

Thankyou

Bannor

VLC was not designed as a PVR, but a few clever people have gotten it to kinda sorta work like one using the scheduler in Windows.

DJ

Thankyou very much for qualifying this for me! I was under the impression that it was a relatively easy matter!

So, now I know - VLC, as good an application as it is, is NOT the application I should be using for scheduled recording to my PC. I can give up trying to make it work.

I shall look elsewhere for something to suit my needs.

Thanks!

Bannor

I made a nice program in AutoIt3 that records shows according to a schedule using VLC

http://www.rush4hire.com/3abn_vcr/
It command line like:

Well I'll just show you the code, you can figure it out if you want, or if not just ignore this post
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