The VideoLAN Forums

Don't get me wrong - I can and do appreciate all the work that must have been invested into vlc. I have been a developer since 0.9x version of Linux - so, yes, I know what I am talking about.

The task: Stream a live video from a tv-source embedded into the web, http-access, bandwidth available 512 Kbps
Software available: Fedora 13, VLC 1.1.5, pre-compiled from repo

Here's what I went through:

Try -1-: Stream Flash. Transcode with FLV1 works, poor quality, loses audio-sync pretty fast - not usable;
Try -2-: Stream Flash. Transcode h.264 / mp4a / mp3 failed to produce anything that could be embedded into a website
Try -3-: Stream VP8 - didn't work at all.
Try -4-: Stream Theora - Doesn't work with cortado applet, works within video-tag. Loses audio-sync from time to time,especially after some connection problems, isn't able to recover, needs restart to re-sync audio
Try -5-: Stream mms - Transcode with DIV3, mp3 - poor video quality, very poor audio synchronization - not usable;

I also tried a lot of mp4 variations (with mp4v, mp4a muxed into asf works best), however the vlc mozilla applet crashes the browser.

I am sure I may not have been able to grasp all of vlc's switches, options and modules. And I understand that vlc relies on other codecs and libs and that some problems are not vlc's fault.

However: Any streaming solution should provide basic transcoding functions for usage within web environments. I don't want to become a vlc specialist: I want to stream video into a web-page. In a way, that all or at least most browsers are able to view it. Without the need to restart the server every 20 minutes to re-sync audio. From my perspective, vlc fails to meet this target.

Something like $ cvlc pvr://dev/video0 --sout flash10-low,dst=0.0.0.0:8081/video.flv

Today's world is Android,IPhone, Flash and WebM. The vlc team should concentrate on providing these services flawlessly, everything else is (IMHO) gravy.

Just my two cents after spending 3 days to get anything working.

Michaela

Easy to say, dude. You're free to pay if you are not happy with what you get for free.

Easy to say, dude. You're free to pay if you are not happy with what you get for free.

I don't consider myself to be a free rider. I am just pointing my finger to the problem. If videolan would provide working solutions for the every day problems, you may have less of a headache to collect some donations. But I am willing to make the first step and to put my money where my mouth is. I am more than willing to donate a few hundred bucks, if it helps to improve the important stuff. All I am asking is a working 'all browsers compatible' http-based streaming solution that delivers acceptable quality (including audio-sync) at around 512 Kb/sec.

I don't care if its Theora (with support for the Cortado applet), Flash/H.264 or WebM.

Deal?

mm.

Donations are always low, even if people get what they want... Because they expect it to work...

I think Rémi meant to pay for another software, or find and pay a developer to improve vlc.

I think Rémi meant to pay for another software, or find and pay a developer to improve vlc.

Oh - I see. Stupid me. I thought videolan is meant to be 'the' streaming solution / alternative. But it seems (as one can see in other topics as well) suggestions or even donations are not welcome. As I don't have time to play around with other people's constructions sites, I might as well go and buy a flumotion server.

Case closed.

mm.