The VideoLAN Forums

Is there a way to hide the controls? I'm a junior high teacher and I want to stream video to my students. I don't want them to mess with any settings or even close the program. Possible?

You could use interface-modules, which don't make use of GUIs. Thus you could start VLC through the command-line (probably using a script to make that easier on multiple computers) including the to-be-played files or the respective URL and the option --intf= with an appropriate module (such as dummy for no interface at all, rc as a limited interactive console or ncurses for a GUI-like command-line-intf).
Please have a look at the "Play-HOWTO" for more information on these interfaces.

Could someone get me started on how to use the command line? I'm not familiar with this. I think I can figure it out if I can just get started. Of course if someone knows how to do what I need done above and would like to show me step by step, that would be great as well!

Which OS are you using? I can give you the respective commands then (as far as I remember, they are also in the play-howto, but I can explain some of them here a bit more in detail).

Yes, they are in the how-to section, but I couldn't get it to do anything. I did a simple copy and paste of some commands, but obviously it involves a little changing of some things. My teacher station is running Server 2003, and my student stations (15 of them) are running XP Pro. I've already been able to stream video to the student stations with no problem, so it's just a matter of making it do exactly what I want it to do and hiding the controls. Thanks a lot for your help!

I use a vbs script to launch my VLC server, and though the how-to tells you what you need to do, it seems to have a few issues with quotes. This is (at least an older version of) what I use to launch my server from the command line:
And the client:

The --intf dummy interface has no GUI (eg: controls) and --dummy-quiet makes it so it doesn't bring up a second dos window to run from.

--video-on-top makes the video always sit on top of other windows.

I don't know if you can disable the close button though.

I use a vbs script so that the users on my network never see a dos window at all (it tends to frighten them).

I tried to copy and paste the code and it says "Windows cannot find vlc.exe." Ideas?

You need to be in the directory VLC is installed in to perform that command. Otherwise, you would need to give it the complete path like C:\Applications\vlc.exe (no idea how the applications-dir is called though, since I'm not on Windows).

Here's how I put it in:

"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe --intf dummy --dummy-quiet --video-on-top --width 120 --height 90 dshow:// :dshow-adev="none" :no-dshow-config :no-dshow-tuner --sout "#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,vb=384,scale=1}:duplicate{dst=display,dst=standard{acc"

It says the file name, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

Anyone?

duplicate{dst=display,dst=standard{acc"

It says the file name, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

We'll assume that was a typo and that the rest of the line should read

:duplicate{dst=display,dst=standard{access=udp,mux=ts,url=239.255.12.42:1234}}"


Are you putting a double quote (") at the very beginning before C:\Program Files\[...]?
If you are, make sure you close it after the program (vlc.exe), but before the parameters. I find it's easier to represent "Program Files" as Progra~1 most of the time.

Are you trying to do this inside a windows shortcut (won't work)?

Hi Cheeseness

Your previous comments were extremely helpful to me. You have obviously got a bit further than I have managed so far.

Do you know if it is possible to monitor the progress of the task being performed? I want to call VLC from another program to perform a silent, invisible process and to be able to show a progress monitor in my other program - and, of course, to know when it has finished!

Hmmmm

I don't know. I use it for live video streaming, so there's not been much need for me to investigate a progress bar.

So is it on the server that you want to show a progress indicator or on the clients?

Hmmmm

I don't know. I use it for live video streaming, so there's not been much need for me to investigate a progress bar.

So is it on the server that you want to show a progress indicator or on the clients?

That was me by the way

Note sure what you mean. All I want to do is to use the processing power of vlc from within another program that I am writing, and I want to be able to show certain information in my program - for example, a progress bar (is that what you are referring to as the server?)


Andrew

Sorry, I thought you were streaming (like I was discussing at the top of the thread)

So are you writing your own interface, or are you writing a program that receives the output from VLC?

I hadn't thought of it like that. What I am actually trying to do is to write a program that converts a file copied from my hard disk recorder into a format that I can then write to a DVD.

VLC offers the capability to convert my MPEG-TS file into an MPEG-PS file, which is the first part of the process. I then want to call another program to convert the MPEG-PS file into a DVD compatible format.


Andrew

It’s Me Your Favorite Student
I'm Just Kidding
I Wanted To Let You Know That I Have Made
Two Successful Batch Files That Can Be Easily Executed
Off A Floppy Disk Into The Computers and Have The Settings Changed
On The VLC Program. They Are Both Called "VLCADMIN.BAT" and "VLCSLAVE.BAT". I Will Bring In The Floppy With The Batch Files
On Monday December 5th. Project Time: 45 Minutes 11 Seconds

Sincerely,
Bart K.
[Trs] Pro Surfin' CSI