Any way to stream audio to a Mac from Windows VLC?

[CoachZ31]

Hi there,

I'm trying to find a way to stream live audio from my sound card (either stereo mix or microphone input) across the Internet. I'm using VLC on XP Pro SP3 as the server, streaming over HTTP.

I can easily stream any number of formats that Windows Media Player or Winamp will accept, but I have been having the hardest time figuring out if there are any formats that will play easily on a Mac, without the need for Flip4Win or having the Mac user install any additional software.

My main goal is to have a cross-platform (Windows and Mac) stream. In reading through the documentation, I see a number of formats and protocols that the Mac will support. I have tested these with the Windows version of QuickTime -- assuming that many Mac users use QT -- and have not had success.

So basically, I guess I'm wondering if there are any known working ways to stream from VLC to any player that is found on your average Mac. I'm definitely not married to the idea of streaming to QT for Mac, but I just assumed that might be the best option. I'm open to a better way, though.

Thanks for reading. I'd appreciate any help you could offer!

Luke

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Stream from VLC in mp4/mp4v/mp4a on http to your mac.

[BostonDriver]

Stream from VLC in mp4/mp4v/mp4a on http to your mac.

Can you post an example of the settings you use?

[CoachZ31]

I actually managed to get this working, although I did not have success with using the MP4 audio wrapper and codec.

My setup was a little more involved than I anticipated, but I managed to successfully stream to Windows and Mac computers simultaneously using VLC.

I'm typing this out on my BlackBerry, but I will try to provide a write-up detailing what I did.

[BostonDriver]

My setup was a little more involved than I anticipated, but I managed to successfully stream to Windows and Mac computers simultaneously using VLC.

I'm typing this out on my BlackBerry, but I will try to provide a write-up detailing what I did.

Thank you. Funny you should mention BlackBerry....

My goal, in time, is to be able to use VLC to stream to my BlackBerry via HTTP.

For now, I'll settle for just streaming over my LAN/WiFi to Windows Media Player (or any other common client.)

I am able to stream from VLC to a VLC client just fine. But since VLC doesn't run on my BlackBerry I need to figure out how to get it to talk to more common clients.

Thanks!

[CoachZ31]

Here's what I ended up doing.

I streamed over HTTP, using port 8080. I used the MP3 preset, which I believe is raw encapsulation and the MP3 audio codec.

I didn't have any trouble connecting with Windows Media Player, going to File -> Open URL and entering in http://mycomputername:8080.

It was a different story for the Mac, though. I finally figured out that, using iTunes, I could connect to http://mycomputername:80, if I was streaming on port 80, but not 8080 when streaming on 8080. So what I did was kept VLC on port 8080, but forwarded port 80 on my router to my computer's port 8080. That way, when opening http://123.456.789.000:80 (my public IP) in iTunes, it connects! And I can use the same IP and port in WMP, and that works, as well.

Here is what my VLC command-line entry would look:

"C:\program files\videolan\vlc\vlc.exe" -vvv dshow:// :dshow-vdev="" :dshow-adev="SoundMAX Digital Audio" :sout=#transcode{acodec=mp3,ab=40,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=std{access=http,mux=raw,dst=:80}}

So my end result is streaming to both Windows and Mac from VLC! Mission accomplished.

I hope this helps! Let me know how it goes for you.

[BostonDriver]

Thanks. I'm making progress.

I'm able to stream using some of the supplied "profiles". I haven't tried to the BlackBerry yet (or anything outside the firewall), but that isn't VLC related.

Some profiles work, some don't, depending on the client. VLC streaming to VLC didn't' always work, but simply changing the profile did.

[CoachZ31]

I was very surprised by how much trouble I had finding a cross-platform method of streaming. It seemed like it would be so easy. Also, I thought it strange how there was very, very little documentation anywhere (at least that I could find) about how to do something like this.

[popper]

as far as i know using these are the top specs that blackberry video/audio playback work at.

Output format - MPEG4
Video Scale Size - 320×240
Output Audio Codec - AAC
Output Video Codec - MPEG-4
Bitrate - 384 kbps
Frame Rate - 25 fps

should work for blackberry, "Mpeg4" being AVC/H.264 (not asp/divx), i beleave!, although thinking about it, perhaps they also mean USE an .Mp4 container for your 320×240 AVC/AAC content.

OC TCPMP/Core Player works really good , infact better high framerate playback than anything else on most CE kit, it's to be expacted though, as its from the guys that give you the fastest software "CoreAVC" AVC codec decoder on windows and now linux , AND OC portable VLC is coming your way, or is it here already devs?
http://www.wmexperts.com/vlc-coming-windows-mobile

http://tcpmp.en.softonic.com/windowsmobile

i begin to wonder if they do infact mean Mpeg4-AVC as the old page above only mentions divx/ASP, so perhaps it is only the old Mpeg4-ASP/ Divx/xvid after all ? , i dont have a blackberry on hand right not to test, so thats up to you to test and report back i guess.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthr ... 371&page=6 for other resolution sizes that might also work for blackberry!