Simple streaming using GUI

[Oceanwatcher]

I consider myself to be pretty ok with computers, video and digital technology in general, but the GUI and steps to set up streaming in VLC has me baffled. Should it be that hard? What I am looking for is a simple way of streaming a file, DVD or signal from firewire or capture card out on the local network. In other words -

I want VLC to be a streaming server that is streaming constantly regardless of if someone is listening or not.

So I need to stream FROM an IP address, not TO an IP address (who knows what PC's the connections will come from...)

I have a pretty vanilla switch in the network - 100Mb. No possibility to control it in any way.

The clients will all be using VLC, but the OS'es will differ.

I have been looking through a lot of pages and done some searching here in the forum, but as my native language is not English, I might have missed the obvious. What I am searching for is an up-to-date step-by-step guide (screenshots are fine) of how to set up the streaming. There must be something I am missing in this... It should not be this hard!

[Greg]

OK first check that your video source on your server PC (Eg capture card) works and plays, by selecting the source and "Play" it

OK?

Then select "Streaming"
Then select source Eg Capture Device, you may need to select and configure the device depending on what it is!
(at this point would also set "Video Size" at this point to something modest like 320x240 so as not to overload the cpu)
Then click Stream (bottom left box)
Next screen is the Source, leave at default (Eg Dshow if Windows OS) Click Next
Next screen is Destinations (perhaps where your problem is?)
Select New Destination from dropdown box, for this example "HTTP" and click on the Add button beside it.

Leave the Address at 0.0.0.0 Enter the port number you wish to use Eg 1234 for a LAN
Go back to the "+" tab and check the "Display Locally!" box probably a good idea to start with
Ensure the "Activate Transcoding" box is checked and select your desired transcoding method from the dropdown selection. ( H264 etc can be a bit CPU intensive, WMV/WMA/asf OK ish to start with)
Next Screen is Options.... Leave this at default settings for now, You can modify the output command line from here when you feel up to it
Click "Stream"
VLC should now display the stream on the server if you checked the Local display box and will be streaming? (unless you made a mistake)

On your Client PC, open up VLC and select "Open Network Stream"
Select HTTP from protocol dropdown box and enter the IP address and port number of the server PC that you are streaming from. This will be something like 192.168.0.4:1234 (yourip:1234)
Then select "Play" which should display after a few seconds.

If you want a client player or browser that that is NOT VLC you might want to stream to website. For a basic, simple solution, see here
http://wiki.videolan.org/Simple_Stream_VLC_to_Website

Final note... Using VLC is not easy to grasp at first, but well worth putting in the effort to understand and "tame" it. VLC can do all sorts of things when you get to know it. Good luck!