Multicast IP address

[shai]

In several places in the docs a "multicast IP address" is mentioned. What is that?

For example, if I am streaming using VLC on one machine, so I use that machine's IP in order to multicast the stream?

[Murray]

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Multicast-HOWTO-1.html#ss1.1 and following pages will explain you the basis on Multicast.

You don't need to use multicast if you want to stream from a host to another: just use the standard IP address and it will be fine. You only need multicast for wider installations (one host to more than one client simultaneously).

[shai]

I want to stream to a machine that has a dynamic IP address, so I have no way of knowing that IP until it attempts to connect.

Are AVI files only possible with HTTP stream? I tried UDP and then it doesn't let you choose the Encapsulating Method, and even the local stream works with no Audio? Any help would be appreciated

[peabody]

In several places in the docs a "multicast IP address" is mentioned. What is that?

For example, if I am streaming using VLC on one machine, so I use that machine's IP in order to multicast the stream?

Multicast IP streaming is *not* what you want. The only people who want to use multicasting are people who know what it is (and for those people, multicasting is quite useful). Most ISPs don't route Multicast traffic. The average home user does not need to know what Multicast is.

Most of VLC's streaming is broadcast in nature. That means that you broadcast the file's data (upload it) at a specific host.

If you can't know that host's address, the alternative is for them to connect to you and stream it.

For that, VLC only provides VOD streaming (Video on Demand) via http, which means (that it's on demand streaming sucks... just kidding) you'll need to install a web server on your computer and put the video files in a folder that's shared out via the web server. Then your friend uses VLC on his/her computer to stream the file from your web server.

Unfortunately, if your friend is not able to download the files from the web server at an adequate enough speed, he/she won't be able to stream the file. In that case, you'll have to rencode the files at a lower bitrate/resolution/file size until your friend is able to d/l the file at an adequate enough speed to actually see it in real time. You can use a combination of VLC's stream-to-file and transcoding options to perform this re-encoding, however, VLC is far from the best program to do this (though it is adequate).

VLC's a great program but I think far too many people mis-understand it's emphasis on broadcast streaming. As far as I can tell, video-on-demand streaming was tacked on last minute as a nice feature to a suite of video playing/streaming software that emphasizes broadcast streaming.

For those people who are looking to provide streaming video services like what's seen on cnn.com, gamespot.com, ign.com, etc. the better alternative is darwin streaming server. This program actually provides streaming-on-demand over rtsp which is a much more reliable streaming-on-demand mechanism for slow/unreliable links, than streaming over http.

And you can use VLC as a client to receive RTSP streams.