The VideoLAN Forums

Hi,

I used to use ffserver, but I've had real stability issues with it recently and would like to switch to vlc.

I have a webcam which streams in mjpeg format and a dedicated server that I'd like to use to encode to .flv and then display on a website.

From reading the documentation, I think the command should be this:

vlc -v http://username:password@my-home-camera ... video.mjpg --sout "#transcode{vcodec=FLV1,acodec=mp3}:std{access=http,dst=server-ip-address:80/stream.flv}"

I think that's right, although in my case I don't have sound so could probably take out ",acodec=mp3". I've left it in for the moment while I work this out.


Anyway, that's the background information...

I'm running Debian Lenny (the testing version). I think the reason my streaming isn't working, is that perhaps my version of VLC isn't high enough. Possibly.

I have put in the apt sources from this page: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-debian.html

and now I'm on version 0.8.6h I think.

It's not quite working unfortunately, this is what I get when I run the command above.

VLC media player 0.8.6h Janus
starting VLC root wrapper... using UID 1000 (stephan)
[00000001] main private warning: Unable to get HAL device properties
[00000001] main private warning: config file /home/stephan/.vlc/vlcrc does not exist yet
[00000287] skins2 interface error: Cannot open display
[00000287] skins2 interface error: cannot initialize OSFactory
Remote control interface initialized. Type `help' for help.
[00000297] stream_out_standard private error: no mux specified or found by extension
[00000297] main private warning: no sout stream module matching "std" could be loaded
[00000294] stream_out_transcode private error: cannot create chain
[00000294] main private warning: no sout stream module matching "transcode" could be loaded
[00000293] main stream output error: stream chain failed for `transcode{vcodec=FLV1,acodec=mp3}:std{access=http,dst=XXXXXXXXXX.fishycam.com:80/stream.flv}'
[00000291] main input error: cannot start stream output instance, aborting


So, I'm wondering if anyone can let me know what I'm doing wrong. Also, what's the minimum version number I should be running?
Your help is appreciated, I'm going mad here!

Thanks.

I'm nearly there now. I think the command is right:

vlc -vvv http://username:password@camera-stream- ... video.mjpg --sout '#transcode{vcodec="FLV1"}:standard{access=http,mux=ffmpeg{mux=flv},dst="server-ip-address:80/stream.flv"}'


I can't view the stream in any players I've tried though.

It is http://server.fishycam.com/fishycam.flv , if anyone is up for checking it for me? That would be useful.

Ok, so now I guess that the reason it doesn't work is perhaps that it can't tell where each frame of my input video starts and finishes?

I can only guess that the video it is outputting is corrupt, as I can't get it to play in anything.

The camera I'm using streams in Mpjpeg format, basically lots of jpg files stuck together.

http://wiki.videolan.org/Mpjpeg


I *really* need help with this, I'm at a total loss...

Now I don't think it's corrupt due to the encoding of the video, but am still stuck.

Has anyone done this before?

I've added in a bit for the mime type. It still isn't giving back the right output though.
When I access the stream using curl -I , the headers seem right:

HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-Length: 0
Content-type: video/x-flv
Cache-Control: no-cache


Is anyone able to help please? I've read the documentation, I just can't tell what I've done wrong here. I've tried two different version of VLC.

Can someone post your working details please?

There is my example:

vlc -I dummy -vvv http://**.**.**.**:8891/video --sout '#transcode{vcodec=FLV1,vb=320}:standard{access=http{mime=video/x-flv},mux=ffmpeg{mux=flv},dst=0.0.0.0:8091}' --color --loop --no-audio

vlc
VLC media player 0.9.3 Grishenko
[00000001] main libvlc debug: VLC media player - version 0.9.3 Grishenko - (c) 1996-2008 the VideoLAN team
[00000001] main libvlc debug: libvlc was configured with ./configure '--prefix=/usr' '--host=i686-pc-linux-gnu' '--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--infodir=/usr/share/info' '--datadir=/usr/share' '--sysconfdir=/etc' '--localstatedir=/var/lib' '--enable-a52' '--disable-aa' '--enable-faad' '--disable-alsa' '--disable-altivec' '--disable-arts' '--disable-asademux' '--disable-atmo' '--disable-bonjour' '--enable-fribidi' '--enable-cdda' '--enable-cddax' '--disable-libcddb' '--enable-libcdio' '--disable-csri' '--disable-dbus' '--disable-dbus-control' '--disable-dirac' '--disable-directfb' '--disable-dc1394' '--disable-debug' '--enable-dca' '--disable-dv' '--disable-dvb' '--enable-dvdread' '--enable-dvdnav' '--disable-esd' '--disable-fb' '--enable-avcodec' '--enable-avformat' '--disable-swscale' '--enable-imgresample' '--enable-postproc' '--enable-flac' '--disable-fluidsynth' '--disable-fontconfig' '--disable-ggi' '--disable-gnomevfs' '--enable-gnutls' '--disable-hal' '--enable-httpd' '--enable-id3tag' '--disable-jack' '--enable-kate' '--enable-libass' '--disable-caca' '--disable-notify' '--disable-libproxy' '--disable-libtar' '--disable-lirc' '--enable-live555' '--disable-lua' '--enable-mkv' '--disable-mmx' '--disable-mod' '--enable-mad' '--enable-libmpeg2' '--disable-mpc' '--enable-ncurses' '--disable-mozilla' '--with-mozilla-pkg=' '--enable-ogg' '--disable-glx' '--disable-opengl' '--disable-galaktos' '--disable-optimize-memory' '--disable-oss' '--enable-png' '--disable-portaudio' '--disable-pulse' '--disable-pvr' '--enable-qt4' '--enable-realrtsp' '--disable-smb' '--disable-schroedinger' '--disable-sdl' '--enable-sdl-image' '--enable-shout' '--disable-speex' '--disable-sse' '--disable-svg' '--enable-svgalib' '--disable-taglib' '--enable-theora' '--disable-freetype' '--enable-twolame' '--enable-upnp' '--disable-v4l' '--disable-v4l2' '--enable-vcd' '--disable-vcdx' '--enable-vorbis' '--disable-loader' '--enable-x11' '--enable-screen' '--disable-x264' '--disable-xinerama' '--disable-libxml2' '--enable-xosd' '--enable-xvideo' '--disable-xvmc' '--disable-zvbi' '--disable-snapshot' '--disable-growl' '--disable-optimizations' '--enable-fast-install' '--enable-vlm' '--enable-sout' '--disable-skins2' '--enable-remoteosd' '--enable-libgcrypt' '--build=i686-pc-linux-gnu' 'build_alias=i686-pc-linux-gnu' 'host_alias=i686-pc-linux-gnu' 'CFLAGS=-O2 -march=i686 -pipe' 'CPPFLAGS=' 'CXXFLAGS=-O2 -march=i686 -pipe'

Hi,

Thanks for posting that, I've been going a bit mad here!

It doesn't work for me, but your version of VLC is much higher, so I've got something to do there... Thanks again, much appreciated.

Hi !

Here is a line which works for me :

vlc mysource.avi --sout
'#transcode{vcodec=FLV1,scale=0.5,acodec=mp3,samplerate=22050}:std{access=http,dst=192.168.0.7:1234/stream.flv}'
-I http --http-host 192.168.0.7:8080

( Be sure to specify the audio samplerate to 44100, 22050 or 11025 ) .

Hi,

Thanks for posting that, I've been going a bit mad here!

It doesn't work for me, but your version of VLC is much higher, so I've got something to do there... Thanks again, much appreciated.

People say that vlc version 0.9 is minimal requirement for flash streaming.

Thanks I've got it working now.

I got the latest VLC off the Debian experimental repository. Probably not a great idea, but hey...

and it's not running as root!