The VideoLAN Forums

This might sound stupid, but how does one stream a video file with VLC as is, without any transcoding?

Simply:
- select menu Media / Streaming... ctrl+S
- Add... a file (an AVI, with XVID video and mpga audio)
- click Stream
- Add Destination : HTTP 0.0.0.0 port 80
- turn off the "Activate Transcoding" option
- click Next
(the Generated stream output string is : :sout=#transcode{vcodec=none,acodec=none,scodec=dvbs,soverlay}:std{access=http,mux=avi,dst=0.0.0.0:80})
- click Stream

Try to open the stream with another instance of VLC on same PC or on remote PC: Neither works.

But if I select trancoding (any profile, for example "Video - Theora + Vorbis (OGG)") it works.

Why does plain streaming not work?

I use VLC 1.0.2 on Windows XP (of of the clients I tried was with Ubuntu 9.04 and VLC 0.9.9a)

Regards,
David

I also tried using a MKV/VC-1 file, but is the same.

Am I overlooking something?

This is what worked for me:

Open an instance of VLC that will be your streaming server and select Media-->Streaming...

Under the File tab, click the Add... button to add a file, click the Stream button at the bottom of the window,
which opens the Source window. Click the Next button.
On the Destination window, open the New Destination combo box and select a streaming method (File, HTTP, UDP, etc), then click Add and type in an address and port number.
Uncheck the Activate Transcoding. Then change whatever is listed in the codec combo box.
This triggers a change in the final string. Click Next. If you still see a string that is longer than this:
:sout=#std{access=udp,mux=mp4,dst=224.xxx.xxx.xxx:1234}
then go back to the Previous screen and toggle the Activate Transcoding button and combo box again
to trigger the removal of the transcoding info from the Generated stream output string.
Once you are satisfied, click Stream.
Open another VLC instance and select Media->Open Network Stream.
Enter the Protocol and address. If you are using a different port than the default, enter that also.
Then click Play.

That should get you going.

scodec=dvbs,soverlay won't work if you don't transcode. Also if you stream, use mux=ts.