The VideoLAN Forums

I read from the documentation that Video LAN is compiled using linux. Is there a way I can use Visual C/C++ or Visual Studio to compile VLC or VLS?

thanks,

-Steve A

Yes.

(Oh, you actually want to know how?....0

Go to the Developers page of videolan.org, follow the link to obtain/install the Subversion application, that lets you get snapshots of the current codebase.

Then, create a little one line batch file:
"c:\program files\subversion\bin\svn" co svn://svn.videolan.org/vlc/trunk vlc-trunk

Park the batch file (get_svn.bat, or whatever else you like) wherever you like to keep your development work.

Running get_svn.bat will automagically download the current snapshot of the code, populating a directory called vlc-trunk (it will overwrite the directory if there is stuff already there -- your job to rename the top-level directory if you want to save prior code snapshots.)

There is a file, install.win32, that is a little how-to, should get you going, at the root of vlc-trunk. Make sure you follow the note about obtaining:
contrib-20040229-win32-bin-gcc3.3.1-only.tar.bz2

some-precompiled libraries, makes life much easier.

For myself, I just installed the Cygwin environment on WinXP (and Win2K, before), didn't bother messing with Visual C.

Have fun!

thanks for the reply.

has anyone been successfull at compiling vlc using visual c++ or studio even as a command line interface .exe file?

if so, how did you create the workspace and the project?

thanks

VC++ sucks !!!!

</trolling>

Look in the msvc/ subdirectory of the latest source code release, it contains the workspace and dsp files needed by VC...

I've had alot of success compiling plugins using MSVC for VLC... (with the exeception of the PulseEvent bug I've already posted about)... I've got VLC to compile under MSVC, however it doesn't run correctly... surely I'm missing some plugins that need to be compiled as well.

So... You can do almost everything with plugins. I compile my plugin into the plugins directory of VLC, then run binary version of VLC from MSVC... it works 1/2 the time unless it hangs on the PulseEvent() bug.

-Richard

ok...it's good to see someone else trying to use visual c++.

I am using Visual c++ 6.0...here are the steps I perform...

i downloaded 0.7.1 source code

In the MSVC directory, I load vlc.dsw
set vlc as the active project.
perform a batch build both debug and release for all projects in workspace.

run vlc from the release directory with the dlls also released

I type the following command at the command prompt....

c:\vlc> vlc -vvv demo.mpg --sout udp:147.18.150.3 --ttl --loop

here is the output on the command prompt screen. what is wrong?
i dont know where exactly these messages start to loop, but it is a continuous output of these types of messages.

[00000063] rc interface: VideoLAN Client - version 0.7.1 Bond - (c) 1996-2003 VideoLAN
[00000063] rc interface:
Warning: if you can't access the GUI anymore, open a dos command box, go to the
directory where you installed VLC and run "vlc -I wxwin"

Remote control interface initialized, `h' for help
[00000046] main module debug: using interface module "rc"
[00000063] main interface debug: interface initialized
[00000063] main interface debug: thread 132 (manager) created at priority 0 (C:\Documents and Settings\saumack\Desktop\vlc-0.7.1\src\interface\interface.c:145)
[00000060] main input debug: thread 148 joined (C:\Documents and Settings\saumack\Desktop\vlc-0.7.1\src\input\input.c:289)
[00000058] main playlist debug: creating new input thread
[00000064] main input: playlist item `demo.mpg'
[00000064] main input debug: waiting for thread completion
[00000064] main input debug: access `', demux `', name `demo.mpg'
[00000064] main input debug: thread 116 (input) created at priority 1 (C:\Documents and Settings\saumack\Desktop\vlc-0.7.1\src\input\input.c:254)
[00000065] main stream output debug: using sout chain=`std{mux="",access="udp",url="147.18.150.3"}'
[00000065] main stream output debug: stream=`std'
[00000066] main private debug: looking for sout stream module
[00000066] main private debug: probing 0 candidates
[00000066] main private error: no sout stream module matched "std,none"
[00000066] main private debug: destroying chain... (name=std)
[00000066] main private debug: destroying chain done
[00000065] main stream output error: stream chained failed for `std{mux="",access="udp",url="147.18.150.3"}'
[00000064] main input error: cannot start stream output instance, aborting
[00000064] main input debug: pes: 0 packets
[00000064] main input debug: data: 0 packets
[00000064] main input debug: buffers: 0 packets
[00000064] main input debug: thread 116 joined (C:\Documents and Settings\saumack\Desktop\vlc-0.7.1\src\input\input.c:289)
[00000058] main playlist debug: creating new input thread
[00000067] main input: playlist item `demo.mpg'
[00000067] main input debug: waiting for thread completion
[00000067] main input debug: access `', demux `', name `demo.mpg'
[00000067] main input debug: thread 112 (input) created at priority 1 (C:\Documents and Settings\saumack\Desktop\vlc-0.7.1\src\input\input.c:254)
[00000068] main stream output debug: using sout chain=`std{mux="",access="udp",url="147.18.150.3"}'
[00000068] main stream output debug: stream=`std'
[00000069] main private debug: looking for sout stream module
[00000069] main private debug: probing 0 candidates
[00000069] main private error: no sout stream module matched "std,none"
[00000069] main private debug: destroying chain... (name=std)
[00000069] main private debug: destroying chain done
[00000068] main stream output error: stream chained failed for `std{mux="",access="udp",url="147.18.150.3"}'
[00000067] main input error: cannot start stream output instance, aborting
[00000067] main input debug: pes: 0 packets
[00000067] main input debug: data: 0 packets
[00000067] main input debug: buffers: 0 packets
[00000067] main input debug: thread 112 joined (C:\Documents and Settings\saumack\Desktop\vlc-0.7.1\src\input\input.c:289)

i just noticed upon compiling the plugins, i am getting errors when compiling the following dsp's

plugin_access_http
plugin_avi_file
plugin_m4v
plugin_vout_directx
plugin_waveout

No idea on the VC part of it, but to just see if it kinda-sorta works:
1. Double click VLC -- see if it opens the GUI.
or
2. Use: vlc -vvv demo.mpg
The above should open a local VLC session, start playing demo.mpg

3. If you're trying for a streaming test, you could try a slightly simpler, perhaps, command line of the form:
vlc -vvv demo.mpg
:sout=#duplicate{dst=std{access=udp,mux=ts,url=239.20.30.40:1234}}

The above is all on one command line, would tell vlc to stream demo.mpg to 239.20.30.40 (a local LAN segment multicast address) on Port 1234
OR,

4. If you were trying to test transcoding, with streaming plus a copy played locally, using SLP and SAP announce, channel name of TestChannelName:
vlc -vvv demo.mpg :sout=#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,vb=1024,scale=1,acodec=mpga,ab=192,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=display,dst=std{access=udp,mux=ts,url=239.20.30.40:1234,sap="TestChannelName",slp="TestChannelName"}}

The above gludge is, again, all intended to be a single command line, something you would put in at a DOS prompt.

The VLC GUI is pretty good, to gain practice with some settings. Run Streaming Wizard and copy the results that appear on the top line of Step 1 and Step 2, to get a working command line. (the only thing missing is the "vlc " that has to go before the file [or other input method] choice, and the -vvv if you wish verbose debugger output.)

most likely you didn't compile all the required plugins.