Please let me know if this is possible...

[Guest]

I am trying to figure out if I can run a webserver to serve up pages that have hyperlinks to tell VLS (or whatever I need) to load up a certain file for streaming. Can VLS serve a file this way and to WMP? Can VLS transcode the file to a low bitrate so it is streamable over the internet? I'd like to setup a video on demand server for occasional personal use. Thanks for any help!

[The DJ]

You should look at VLC. it can do these things.

[debennett2]

Thanks. Is there any documentation on how to set this type of thing up? I have tried to figure it out on a few different occasions. Admittedly, it wasn;t for but a few minutes each time as there are so many options to muddle through. Thanks for any detailed info!

[markfm]

VLC can basically be told to do anything through a command line, including play one or more files, transcode them to different formats, use different bitrates, use different transmission methods (http, UDP, mms).

DJ knows waay more than me about this stuff, but I suspect that you would "just" have the Web server launch the appropriate command line, based on what the user clicks. For instance they could click the "Low Bandwidth" version of a filename on a Web page, and you would run the command to play the movie with 128 kbps video, 64 kbps audio. The "High Bitrate" button might launch 512/768/1024 kbps video, and 128 or 192 kbps audio.

[debennett2]

Basically what I need to know is if I can run IIS firstly. That would make my life simple since I already am on three different PC's here.

Secondly, I'd like to know how to setup VLC to operate how I want it to (can I run it as a service on the server machine so I don't have to see the interface?)

Thirdly, I'd like these files to be playable on WMP for streaming at the client end. What do I do there?

If it's just a matter of sending the correct data to VLC through the web browser, what are the commands to do so?

Thanks for any detailed info.

[markfm]

As an example:
c:\vlc\vlc.exe C:\cygwin\home\mfm\Sail.mpg :sout=#transcode{vcodec=WMV2,vb=256,scale=1,acodec=mp3,ab=96,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=std{access=mmsh,mux=ts,url=127.0.0.1:8080}} vlc:quit


The above says:
-Start vlc
-Play sail.mpg
-Transcode to WMV2 video CODEC (an older Windows media CODEC, generally supported by more viewers), mp3 audio
-Set the output video to 256 kbps, audio to 96 kbps
-Use mmsh as the Output Method
-Use MPEG Transport Stream as the encapsulation mechanism
--Pump it out on the PC's local network interface, on port 8080
-- Quit (close) VLC when it is done playing

There is also some way to install VLC as a service -- use vlc --advanced -H to see the full set of options. I'm not sure what that would be used for, however.

A Windows Media Player can connect to this by using File -- Open URL
and plugging in: mms://server_IP_address:8080
in the space provided by WMP

Depending on if/how Windows Media Player has been linked to Internet Explorer to automate how WMP launches, you can then also use the mms:// line in IE and it will automatically open WMP and start playing the movie that VLC is streaming.

I am not sure if once you already have an http connection open to a Web server, you could "just" launch the vlc commmand and IE would automagically declare it to be something that it should open with WMP.

If it's a case of moving static content, files, any real reason you want streaming off of the server itself? Personally, I would just use VLC to transcode the movies so there were a couple of different bandwidth versions available. Make the links on IIS simply act as a straight file selection (users click on "mybigfile.avi" or "mysmallfile.avi"); IE automatically recognizes that an AVI is a file that it should open with WMP -- it will download the file to the user's local disk and automatically open it with whatever player is identified for the file type (WMP is normally default on Windows, for MPEG and AVI files).

(I would definitely use VLC if I was trying to stream live video feeds, since by definition there is no single file to move, but if you are moving/opening single multimedia files, simple is not a bad thing. If you experiment on the 'Net, you will see that even though a given location has a nominally high bandwidth, there are often "burps" as given content (whether a single file or a live stream) traverses the 'Net, delivered bandwidth varies pretty radically. To view live streams you have to crank buffers up, else get annoying pauses. My opinion only, but I would rather wait to get the whole video file locally on my disk, let IE auto-launch WMP, see the movie play nicely.)

Good luck!

[debennett2]

The problem is that these video files will change on a regular basis and are actually viewed at home at full quality. I'd just like to be able to generate webpages based on what files and filetypes are in a given directory and generate hyperlinks to tell vlc to transcode and stream in a WMP-compatible streaming format. Make sense? It doesn;t have to be super-high-quality. Just something to have fun with..not share with the world.

[markp]

I am really new to this, but if I understand what Mark is saying there are two solutions.

1) Move the file to your computer. Play file

2) Stream the file to your computer. Render stream.

Both have advantages and disadvantages.

Solution 1 -
- requires more hardware (basically a hard drive to handle the large files)
- slower start time on movie (file has to move to your computer or enough that it can play and not catch up to the current end point)
- more control of the file (this can be argued because VLC allows most of what you want to do with the file)

Solution 2 -
- less hardware (thin client or diskless w/s could do the trick)
- less control over stream (but you only really wanted to listen/watch the stream and pause it when you want to go to the bathroom)

It all depends on what you want to work with. I will say this. Move the system to GNU/Linux. It is not as hard as you think. As for the regularly changing files - I would setup LAMP to run it. You could setup WAMP if you don't want to move to linux for the backend server. I cut my teeth on WAMP and now have moved to LAMP.

My goal is -

- watch my video/dvd collection on any tv in my house (VOD)
- listen to my music collection anywhere in my house
- surf the internet from any tv in my house
- do it as cheaply as possible (hardware wise - time I am willing to invest heavily in)
- not have a large footprint/heat issue to deal with

[sunwyl]

I want to know how to play more files at the same time , thank you very much !