Page 1 of 1

Multicast Streaming ?

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 17:00
by liquidcool
Hi there,

Is there any knowledge if multicast streaming will be implemented in VLC ?

Re: Multicast Streaming ?

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 17:21
by Jean-Baptiste Kempf
It is inside VLC since around 5 years...

Re: Multicast Streaming ?

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 17:22
by liquidcool
Please excuse my ignorance, but where ? and how do you set it up ?

Re: Multicast Streaming ?

Posted: 23 Jun 2009 14:49
by thannoy
You will maybe have to read some documentation about multicast usage.

one example with VLC:
- server side : stream to udp://239.0.0.0:7777
- clients side: listen on udp://@239.0.0.0:7777

links:
http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Streaming_HowTo

Re: Multicast Streaming ?

Posted: 23 Jun 2009 15:52
by liquidcool
I have set that up, but it won't work.

I have spoken to our network guys and they have noticed on the UDP packet the TTL is set to 1 and as a result it is not even reaching the switches. I tried to set it to any number in the gui and it still will not change it. Wireshark still shows the packet as having a TTL of 1.

Is this a bug ?

Re: Multicast Streaming ?

Posted: 23 Jun 2009 15:59
by thannoy
Maybe you can use --ttl option.

Code: Select all

--ttl <integer> Hop limit (TTL) This is the hop limit (also known as "Time-To-Live" or TTL) of the multicast packets sent by the stream output (-1 = use operating system built-in default).

Re: Multicast Streaming ?

Posted: 23 Jun 2009 16:07
by liquidcool
When I add that into the gui it still comes out with a TTL of 1

Re: Multicast Streaming ?

Posted: 23 Jun 2009 16:36
by thannoy
Try to modify it in configs.
Preferences > select "all" (bottom left) to have the full option list in the left side.
Then Stream output> access output and modify TTL config here, save, restart VLC.

Re: Multicast Streaming ?

Posted: 23 Jun 2009 16:44
by liquidcool
Great. Got that sorted out. Now i have another issue. Trying to receive the stream on the client, nothing comes through. Just sits there and says Buff: 0%

Running Wireshark on the client I see the UDP packets coming into the machine, but VLC does not play anything.

Re: Multicast Streaming ?

Posted: 23 Jun 2009 17:43
by thannoy
if your receiver is on lunix, you can try (requires root privileges):

Code: Select all

ifconfig eth0 allmulti
If will ask the network card to not filter multicast. Normally, if should not be needed since when a client try to listn a multicast stream, it ask the network card to unfilter the specific multicast it is waiting for. But in case.

Re: Multicast Streaming ?

Posted: 24 Jun 2009 07:51
by liquidcool
The client is on Windows. And, as I said, wireshark is showing the stream coming onto the client PC, so I don't think there is a problem with the nic filtering multicast traffic. VLC Player just does not want to play the stream at all.