Copyright © 2002, 2003 the VideoLAN project
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation ; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. The text of the license can be found in the appendix GNU Free Documentation License.
Abstract
This document is the complete user guide of VLC .
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Modules and options for VLC
- 3. Installing VLC
- 4. The command line interface
- 5. The Mozilla plugin
- A. GNU Free Documentation License
- 1. PREAMBLE
- 2. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
- 3. VERBATIM COPYING
- 4. COPYING IN QUANTITY
- 5. MODIFICATIONS
- 6. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
- 7. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
- 8. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
- 9. TRANSLATION
- 10. TERMINATION
- 11. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
- 12. ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
List of Figures
Table of Contents
VideoLAN is a complete software solution for video streaming, developed by students of the Ecole Centrale Paris and developers from all over the world, under the GNU General Public License (GPL). VideoLAN is designed to stream MPEG videos on high bandwidth networks.
The VideoLAN solution includes :
VLS (VideoLAN Server), which can stream MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 files, DVDs, digital satellite channels, digital terrestial television channels and live videos on the network in unicast or multicast,
VLC (initially VideoLAN Client), which can be used as a server to stream MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 files, DVDs and live videos on the network in unicast or multicast ; or used as a client to receive, decode and display MPEG streams under multiple operating systems.
Here is an illustration of the complete VideoLAN solution :
More details about the project can be found on the VideoLAN Web site.
VLC works on many platforms : Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, *BSD, Solaris, Familiar Linux, Yopy/Linupy and QNX. It can read :
MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 / DivX files from a hard disk, a CD-ROM drive, ...
DVDs and VCDs,
from a satellite card (DVB-S),
MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 streams from the network sent by VLS or VLC's stream output.
VLC can also be used as a server to stream :
MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 / DivX files,
DVDs,
from an MPEG encoding card,
to :
one machine (i.e. to one IP address) : this is called unicast,
a dynamic group of machines that the clients can join or leave (i.e. to a multicast IP address) : this is called multicast,
in IPv4 or IPv6 .
To get the complete list of VLC's possibilities on each plateform supported, see the VLC features page.
Note
VLC doesn't work on Mac OS 9, and will probably never do.
VLS can stream :
an MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 files stored on a hard drive or on a CD,
a DVD located in a local DVD drive or copied on a hard disk,
a satellite card (DVB-S) or a digital terrestial television card (DVB-T) ,
an MPEG encoding card ;
to:
one machine (i.e. to one IP address) : this is called unicast,
a dynamic group of machines that the clients can join or leave (i.e. to a multicast IP address) : this is called multicast,
in IPv4 or IPv6 .
A Pentium 100 MHz with 32 MB of memory should be enough to send one stream on the network. When streaming a lot of videos stored on a hard drive, the actual limitation is not the processor but the hard drive and the network connection.
VLS works under Linux and Windows. To get the complete list of VLS's possibilities on each plateform supported, see the streaming features page.
You can add a channel information service based on the SAP/SDP standard to the VideoLAN solution. The mini-SAP-server sends announces about the multicast programs on the network in IPv4 or IPv6, and VLCs receive these annouces and automatically add the programs announced to their playlist.
The mini-SAP-server works under Linux and Mac OS X.
To fully understand the VideoLAN solution, you must understand the difference between a codec and a container format
A codec is a compression algorithm, used to reduce the size of a stream. There are audio codecs and video codecs. MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Vorbis, DivX, ... are codecs
A container format contains one or several streams already encoded by codecs. Very often, there is an audio stream and a video one. AVI, Ogg, MOV, ASF, ... are container formats. The streams contained can be encoded using different codecs. In a perfect world, you could put any codec in any container format. Unfortunately, there are some incompatibilities. You can find a matrix of possible codecs and container formats on the features page
To decode a stream, VLC first demuxes it. This means that it reads the container format and separates audio, video, and subtitles, if any. Then, each of these are passed decoders that do the mathematical processing to decompress the streams .
There is a particular thing about MPEG:
MPEG is a codec. There are several versions of it, called MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, ...
MPEG is also a container format, sometimes refered to as MPEG System. There are several types of MPEG: ES, PS, and TS
When you play an MPEG video from a DVD, for instance, the MPEG stream is actually composed of several streams (called Elementary Streams, ES): there is one stream for video, one for audio, another for subtitles, and so on. These different streams are mixed together into a single Program Stream (PS). So, the .VOB files you can find in a DVD are actually MPEG-PS files. But this PS format is not adapted for streaming video through a network or by satellite, for instance. So, another format called Transport Stream (TS) was designed for streaming MPEG videos through such channels.
The user documentation of VideoLAN is made up of 4 documents :
the VideoLAN Quickstart. This document will give you a quick overview of VLC, VLC's stream output, the Video On Demand solution and the channel information service system.
the VideoLAN HOWTO. This document is the complete guide of the VideoLAN streaming solution.
the VLC user guide. This document is the complete guide for VLC.
the VLS user guide. This document is the complete guide for VLS.
the VideoLAN FAQ. This document contains Frequently Asked Questions about VideoLAN.
The latest version of these documents can be found on the documentation page .
You can also have a look at the VideoLAN Wiki. This is a website that everyone can change. We use it to document everything that is not in the "official" documentation: the tips and tricks for each O.S., the graphical interfaces, etc...
If you have problems using VideoLAN, and if you don't find the answer to your problems in the documentation, please look at the online archive of the mailing-lists. There are two English-speaking mailing-lists for the users :
vlc@videolan.org for the questions on VLC ,
streaming@videolan.org for the questions on VLS, mini-SAP-server and the network .
If you want to subscribe or unsubscribe to the mailing-lists, please go to the mailing-list page.
You can also talk with VideoLAN users and developers on IRC : server irc.freenode.net, channel #videolan .
If you find a bug, please follow the instructions on the bug reporting page .
VLC has many different graphical interfaces, that are organized quite differently in order to be in harmony with the guidelines of each operating system supported. Documenting the use of each graphical interface is too long, and some features are only available via the command line interface. Therefore we decided to document only the command line interface, but in many cases it shoud be easy to guess how to use the graphical interface for the same use !
VLS has a command line and a telnet interface, but no graphical interface !
All the commands that show up in this document should be typed inside a terminal. .
Click on Start, Run and type :
cmd Enter (Windows 2000 / XP),
command Enter (Windows 95 / 98 / ME).
The terminal appears Le terminal apparait
Note
Under Windows, you need to be in the directory where the program is installed to run it.
Open a terminal :
In the documentation, we adopt the following conventions for the Unix commands :
commands that should be typed as root have a # prompt :
#command_to_be_typed_as_rootcommands that should be typed as a regular user have a % prompt :
%command_to_be_typed_as_regular_user
Go to Applications, open the folder Utilities and double-click on Terminal :
Note
Under Mac OS X, you need to be in the directory where the program is installed to run it, and start the command with ./ .
Table of Contents
VLC uses a modular system, which allows to add easily new fonctions and formats. Here is a description of nearly all the VLC modules. A few "internal" modules won't be explained here. For a complete list of all VLC modules, please have a look at the LIST file in the subdirectory "modules" of the VLC source tree.
If you installed VLC through a binary file, you will get the default modules. If, however, you want to customize VLC to your needs, you will have to compile VLC from sources.
If you don't intend to compile VLC and want only the regular functions, reading this part is not very useful.
The compilation itself is explained in the next chapter.
If you wish to compile a module which is stated disabled by default, you have to launch the configure script with :
%./configure --enable-module_name
On the other hand, if you would like to disable a module that is enabled by default, you would have to use :
%./configure --disable-module_name
Each VLC module has its own help and options. To see what options are associated with a module, use :
%vlc -p module_name
or use the "Preferences" Panel of your favorite graphical interface .
Video outputs are the modules that enable the support of some systems to display the video on your screen.
default: enabled
For Unix with X11 servers only
This is the basic x11 video output. It only requires a working X11 server. You will need xlibs headers to compile it (xlibs-dev package on Debian systems).
default: enabled
For GNU/Linux only
It requires an xvideo compliant graphic card (it is the case for nearly all modern cards). It uses hardware acceleration for YUV transformation and rescaling.
default: enabled
This video output uses sdl libraries. You need at least version 1.1.6 of this libraries.
You may indicate the path to the sdl-config program with the --with-sdl-config-path=PATH switch, when running the configre script.
default: enabled on win32
For Windows only
This video output uses Microsoft Direct X libraries. It is recommended for the win32 port.
You may indicate the path to directX libraries and headers with the --with-directx=PATH switch, when running the configure script.
default: enabled on win32
For Windows only
This video output uses GDI. It is designed for users who don't have Direct X, but the perfs are very low. If you have DirectX, do not use it.
default: enabled on GNU/Linux
For GNU/Linux only
This is the frame buffer video output. It requires that your kernel was compiled with frame buffer support.
default: disabled
This video output uses Glide libraries (hardware acceleration for 3Dfx cards).
You may indicate the path to the library with the --with-glide=PATH configure option.
default: disabled
For GNU/Linux only
This module provides hardware acceleration for Matrox cards under GNU/Linux.
default: disabled
This is the ASCII Art Video Output. This video output uses the aalib library to display video through ASCII art. It requires aalib headers (aalib1-dev package under Debian GNU/Linux) to compile.
These modules allow you to perform modifications on the rendered image .
Always enabled
This filter deinterlaces video. It is useful with streams coming from a digital satellite channel or digital terrestial television channels .
Always enabled
This filter allows you to have the video cut in pieces in several windows, which you can order as you wish. It can be used to generate image walls with several sources.
Always enabled
This filter adds a distortion effect to the video. Who said it was useless ? :-)
Always enabled
This filter allows you to set image contrast, hue, saturation and brightness
These modules allow you to choose the way the sound will be output to your audio system .
default: enabled on GNU/Linux
For GNU/Linux and Unix only
This is the audio output for OSS (Open Sound System)
output (/dev/dsp, for example, under Linux). It
requires that your kernel was compiled with support for your sound
card, or, if you use ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound System), the OSS emulation
layer must be active.
default: disabled
For GNU/Linux only
This is the sound output for ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture). It only works under Linux, and it requires that you installed the ALSA drivers and libraries.
default: disabled
For GNU/Linux & Unix only
This sound output has ESD (Enlightened Sound Daemon) support (usually used with Gnome). You must have the daemon and its libraries installed.
default: disabled
For GNU/Linux & Unix only
This sound output has aRts (KDE's sound server) support. You must have the daemon and its libraries installed .
default: enabled on win
For Windows only
This is the Wave output, which is used by the win32 port.
default: enabled on Mac OS X
For Mac OS X only
This audio output uses CoreAudio under Mac OS X
These modules allow VLC to read its streams from different sources .
default: enabled
This is the regular DVD input module. It will need libdvdcss for DVD decryption (see the libdvdcss page) and libdvdplay for DVD navigation (see the libdvdplay page) .
default: enabled
This is the old DVD input module. It uses libdvdcss for DVD decryption (see the libdvdcss page) .
default: disabled
This is an alternative to the previous ones. It uses libdvdread for DVD reading (see the Ogle download page) and libdvdcss for DVD decryption (see the libdvdcss page).
Always enabled
These are standard input modules. The HTTP input can be used for Video On Demand .
default: disabled
This is an input module that allows to read directly from a Hauppauge WinTV Nova card under GNU/Linux. It requires drivers 0.9.4 available from linuxtv.org .
default: disabled
For GNU/Linux only
This module allows to read from DVB-S, DVB-T, and DBC-C satellite, digital terrestrial, or cable cards. It uses the Video4Linux 2 API, that is only available in kernel 2.5.X and 2.6.X .
In a video stream, the video signal and the audio one are always into "containers" formats. Demuxers extract the streams from it and pass it to the decoders .
For example, an AVI file can contain a MPEG-4 video, or an uncompressed video. AVI is only a storing format, not a compression format .
Always enabled
These modules allow you to read MPEG2 Program Stream or Transport Tream files .
These modules allow you to choose the interface or interfaces you want to use (whether graphical or control interfaces).
default: enabled
The wxWindows interface is a portable interface that is currently working under GNU/Linux and Windows. It is now the best graphical interface available under both Windows and GNU/Linux .
default: enabled on win32
This skinnable interface module works under Win32 and X11. You can create your own skins very easily with XML files .
default: enabled
This is the GTK+ interface. It needs gtk libraries and headers files if you are compiling it. Note that it can also be used under Windows .
default: disabled
For GNU/Linux only
This is the Gnome interface. It needs gnome libraries (libgnome32 package under Debian) and headers (libgnome-dev package under Debian) if you wish to compile it .
default: disabled
This is the QT interface module. You will need the libraries (libqt2 package on Debian) and headers (libqt-dev package under Debian) if you wish to compile it .
default: disabled
For GNU/Linux only
This is the KDE interface module. You will need the libraries (kdelibs3 package on Debian) and headers (kde-devel package under Debian) if you wish to compile it .
Always enabled
This is the Remote Control interface module. It allows you to control VLC via commands, such as play, stop, etc... or via a script. This interface is text-based, so you should use it when you are in console mode .
Always enabled
This module allows you to remote control your VLC via a web browser. You can create custom web pages. More info here .
default: disabled
For GNU/Linux only
This is a text interface, using ncurses library. You will need ncurses headers if you want to compile it (libncurses5-dev package on Debian) .
default: disabled
For GNU/Linux only
This interface module allows you to control VLC
through a remote. A lircrc example is provided to help you configure it
to your remote (see doc/lirc/example.lircrc)
.
default: disabled
This is an interface plugin for the Qt Embedded library (iPaq graphical library) .
default: disabled
For GNU/Linux only
This module allows you to control VLC via a joystick with many options. More information can be found here .
The following modules add codec (ie, compression formats) support .
default: enabled
This is a free MPEG-4/DivX/OpenDivX codec : ffmpeg (see the ffmpeg web site) .
default: disabled
This codec allows you to read files encoded with Xvid (see Xvid web site) .
default: enabled
This codec is a very smart MP3 decoder, that only uses integers. This allows its use for CPU which don't handle floating point numbers (on PDA, for example) .
default: disabled
tarkin is a new codec (experimental) by the Ogg Project (see the Ogg Vorbis web site) .
default: disabled
theora is a new codec (experimental) by the Ogg Project (see the Ogg Vorbis web site) .
default: disabled
This is an Ogg/Vorbis codec that only makes integer calculus, which allow its use on CPU which don't have floating point support (see the Ogg Vorbis web .
The following modules add support for different OSs .
This section describes a few more modules that don't belong to any of the categories described before .
default: enabled
Stream Output is a new feature of VLC that allows it to stream an MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4/DivX file or a DVD .
For more details, please have a look at the The command line interface section .
default: disabled
This is not really a module. When enabled, a VLC-based Mozilla plugin is built .
There are a few options that you can set when running the configure script, which are not related to modules .
You can have a look at these options by typing :
%./configure --help
You can for example control all the installation directories, the system for which you want to build VLC for (if not guessed correctly),...
You can also choose to enable or disable some optimizations.
Table of Contents
There are VLC binaries available for the many OSes, but not for all supported OSes. If there are no binaries for your OS or if you want to change the default settings, you can compile VLC from sources.
VLC works under Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP.
Download the self-extracting file from the VLC Windows
download page. Launch the .exe to install
VLC.
Download the Zip file from the VLC BeOS download page. Unzip the file in a directory to install VLC.
Download the Mac OS X package from the VLC
MacOS X download page . Double-click on the icon of the
package : an icon will appear on your Desktop, right beside your
drive(s). Open it and drag the VLC application from the resulting
window to the place where you want to install it (it should be
/Applications).
Add the following lines to your
/etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://www.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian $(ARCH)/ deb-src http://www.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian sources/
Then, for a normal install, do:
#apt-get update#apt-get install gnome-vlc libdvdcss2
Add the following lines to your
/etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://www.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian $(ARCH)/ deb-src http://www.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian sources/
Then, for a normal install, do:
#apt-get update#apt-get install wxvlc libdvdcss2
You should not be using Debian testing unless you perfectly know what you are doing. It is almost impossible to support Debian testing and there are no plans to do it. For more informations on Debian testing, please look: testing page
There are VLC packages for Mandrake 9.1 and cooker.
To install them, add the following sources for either Mandrake 9.1 or Cooker (you can use Easy urpmi for that): contrib from the core distribution and plf (Penguin Liberation Front) from the external add-ons.
Then install the required packages with urpmi:
#urpmi libdvdcss2 libdvdplay0 wxvlc vlc-plugin-a52 vlc-plugin-ogg vlc-plugin-mad
Download the RPM package vlc and the packages listed in the required libraries and codecs section (the other packages are just optional) from the VLC Red Hat download page and put them all into the same directory.
Then install the RPM packages you have downloaded:
#rpm -U *.rpm
If you have not installed all the RPM packages included with your distribution, you may be asked to install a few of them first.
The method below is for any Unix system supported by VLC, for which there is no packages available. It explains how to compile and install VLC and the needed libraries from their source code.
You can also compile VLC under Linux this way if you want to modify the default supported modules.
Many libraries are needed :
libdvbpsi (compulsory) ,
mpeg2dec (compulsory) ,
libdvdcss if you want to be able to read encrypted DVDs ,
libdvdplay if you want to have DVD menu navigation ,
a52dec if you want to be able to decode the AC3 (i.e. A52) sound format often used in DVDs ,
ffmpeg, libmad, faad2 if you want to read MPEG 4 / DivX files ,
libogg & libvorbis if you want to read Ogg Vorbis files .
Download the libraries from the VLC sources download page.
For each library :
uncompress :
%tar xvzf library.tar.gzor
%tar xvjf library.tar.bz2configure :
%cd library%./configurecompile and install :
%make#make install
Check that the configuration file /etc/ld.so.conf
contains the following line :
/usr/local/lib
If the line is not present, add-it and then run (as root):
#ldconfig
Download the sources of the lastest release : get the
file vlc-version.tar.gz from the VLC sources
download page. Uncompress-it :
%tar xvzf vlc-version.tar.gz%cd vlc-version
To get the list of configuration options, do :
%./configure --help
Please note that all the modules are described in the Modules section of the VLC User Guide .
Examples of very simple configurations:
if you want a basic VLC, do :
%./configureif you want the Gnome interface instead of the GTK interface (you will need the developement packages of Gnome) :
%./configure --enable-gnome
Then, compile and install :
%make%suPassword:[Root Password]#make install
Please note that the installation (make install command) is not mandatory. You can execute VLC from where you compiled it.
Delete the vlc-version
directory. You can also remove the configuration file
/boot/home/config/settings/vlcrc
.
Remove the packages that you installed :
#apt-get remove --purge vlc-gnome vlc-mad libdvdcss2 libdvbpsi1
Uninstall the RPM packages that you installed :
#rpm -e vlc-version vlc-mad-version vlc-gnome-version libdvdcss2-version libdvdpsi1-version
Table of Contents
The following commands start VLC and add the first element to the playlist .
Start VLC with :
%vlc -vvv my_file.mpg
Although VLC should be able to recognize the file type, you may tell VLC what codec to use with the --codec option. For example to play my_file.mpg using ffmpeg audo/video decoder do :
%vlc -vvv --codec ffmpeg my_file.mpg
A list of all video and audio codecs supported by VLC is available on the VLC features list .
Start VLC with
%vlc -vvv dvd:[device][@raw_device][@[title][,[chapter][,angle]]]
or (VCD):
%vlc -vvv vcd:[device][@[title][,[chapter][peripherique][@[titre][,chapitre]]
or (Audio CD):
%vlc -vvv cdda:[device][@[title]][peripherique][@[titre]]
where device is the complete path to your DVD or CD-ROM drive .
To receive an unicast UDP stream (sent by VLS or VLC's stream output), start VLC with :
%vlc -vvv udp:[@:server_port]
To receive an multicast UDP stream (sent by VLS or VLC's stream output), start VLC with :
%vlc -vvv udp:@multicast_address[:server_port]
To receive a HTTP stream, start VLC with :
%vlc -vvv http://www.example.org/your_file.mpg
VLC tries to select the most appropriate interface, input and output modules, among the ones available on the system, according to the stream it is given to read. However, you may wish to force the use of a specific module with the following options (for the complete list of modules, see the Modules and options for VLC section) ) :
--intf <module> allows you to select the interface module .
--extraintf <module> allows you to select extra interface modules that will be launched in addition to the main one .
--aout <module> allows you to select the audio output module .
--vout <module> allows you to select the video output module .
--filter <module> allows you to add a video filter module .
--memcpy <module> allows you to choose a memory copy module .
VLC's stream output allows VLC to be used as a streaming server instead of a client ! It has very extended capabilities :
stream in unicast and multicast on an IPv4 or IPv6 network everything that VLC is able to read, via UDP, RTP or HTTP ;
save the input stream to a file in AVI, PS, TS or OGG format ;
transcode an input stream, and then, send it, to the network or to a file .
To know about the full possibilities of VLC's stream output, see the streaming features page .
the stream output has a powerful architecture that uses modules. Each module has capabilities, and you can chain the modules to enhance the possibilities .
Here is the list of the modules currently available :
standard "sends" the stream via an access output module: for example, UDP, file, HTTP, ... You will probably want to use this module at the end of your chains .
transcode allows you to transcode the audio and the video of the input stream "on the fly" (if your computer is powerful enough) .
duplicate allows you to create a second chain, where the stream will be handled in an independant way .
display allows you to display the input stream, as VLC would normally do. Used with the duplicate module, this allows you to view the stream as you send it .
es allows you to make separate Elementary Etreams (ES) out of an input stream .
Each of these modules may take options. Here is the syntax that you must use :
%vlc input_stream --sout '#module1{option1=...,option2=...}:#module2{option1=...,option2=...}:...'
For example, to transcode a stream and send it, use :
%vlc input_stream --sout '#transcode{options}:#standard{options}'
Sends a stream .
Options:
access: how to send : file, udp, rtp, http.
mux: which muxer (ie, which format) will be used. It can be one of avi (for AVI format) , ogg (for OGG format) , ps (for MPEG2-PS format) , ts (for MPEG2-TS format) .
url: if you use the file access, it will be the location where to store the stream; if you use another access, it will be the unicast or multicast IP address where you want to stream .
sap: if you use the udp or rtp accesses, use this option to announce your stream, using SAP/SDP. This option contains the name under which you want to announce the program .
slp: like sap, but use the SLP protocol. You need to have libslp on your system .
sap_ipv: if you use the sap option, use this option to specify if you want to send the SAP announces in IPv4 or IPv6. The value of this option is 4 or 6 si vous utilisez sap, utilisez ceci pour spécifier si vous désirez envoyer les annonces SAP en IPv4 -défaut- ou IPv6. La valeur à utiliser est 4 ou 6 .
Note
If you are streaming in multicast, you may want to use the global option --ttl 12 to set the TTL to a value superior to 1.
Duplicates the stream to a new stream output chain .
Options:
dst: A new stream output chain of modules, as described earlier .
Changes the codec and/or bitrates for a stream .
Options:
acodec: the new audio codec. It can be one of mpga (MPEG audio layer 2), a52 or ac3 (AC3 sound) or vorb (Vorbis)
ab: audio bitrate in Kbps .
vcodec: the new video codec. It can be one of mp4v (MPEG4), mpgv (MPEG1), DIV1, DIV2, DIV3 (DivX 1,2,3), H263 (H263), I263 (H263I), WMV1 or WMV2 (Windows Media Video 1 or 2), MJPG (MJPEG), MJPB (MJPEGB) .
width: video width .
height: video height .
vb: video bitrate in kbps .
vt: video bitrate tolerance in bps .
deinterlace: deinterlace the stream .
croptop: number of pixels removed from the top of the video .
cropbottom: number of pixel removed from the bottom of the video .
cropleft: number of pixels removed from the left of the video .
cropright: number of pixels removed from the right of the video .
hq: high quality transcoding (uses more CPU) .
qmin: minimum video quantiser scale (VBR)
qmax: maximum video quantiser scale (VBR) .
Make separate Elementary Streams .
Options:
access_audio: how to send the audio track: file, udp, rtp or http .
access_video: how to send the vidéo track: file, udp, rtp or http .
access: if you want the audio and the video tracks to use the same access, use this option instead of the two above .
mux_audio: which muxer (ie, which format) will be used for the audio track. It can be one of avi (for AVI format), ogg (for OGG format), ps (for MPEG2-PS format), ts (for MPEG2-TS format) .
mux_video: which muxer (ie, which format) will be used for the video track. It can be one of avi (for AVI format), ogg (for OGG format), ps (for MPEG2-PS format), ts (for MPEG2-TS format) .
mux: if you want the audio and the video tracks to use the same muxer, use this option instead of the two above .
url_audio: if you use the file access, it will be the location where to store the audio track; if you use another access, it will be the unicast or multicast IP address where you want to stream .
url_video: if you use the file access, it will be the location where to store the vidéo track; if you use another access, it will be the unicast or multicast IP address where you want to stream .
url: if you want the audio and the video tracks to use the same url, use this option instead of the two above .
Note
In the url options, if you use the file access, you can use the following macros in the filename:
%n = stream number ;
%c = FOURCC ;
%m = muxer ;
%a = access.
Here are a few additional global options
--no-sout-audio disables audio stream output .
--no-sout-video disables video stream output .
The stream output also offers a simplified syntax, with which you can only you use the standard module main options :
%vlc input_stream --sout access/mux:url
where access, mux and url are as defined in the options of the standard module .
--noaudio disables audio output .
--mono forces VLC to treat the stream in mono audio .
--volume <integer> sets the level of audio output .
--aout-rate <integer> sets the audio output frequency (Hz) .
--desync <integer> compensates desynchronization of audio (ms) .
--headphone activates headphone virtual spatialization effect .
--headphone-dim sets headphone characteristic dimension .
--novideo disables video output .
--greyscale turns video output into greyscale mode .
--fullscreen sets fullscreen video .
--nooverlay disables hardware acceleration for the video output .
--width, --height <integer> sets the video window dimensions .
--zoom <float> adds a zoom factor .
--aspect-ratio <mode> forces source aspect ratio .
--spumargin <integer> forces SPU subtitles postion .
--playlist launches playlist on startup .
--random plays files randomly forever .
--enqueue enqueues items in playlist .
--loop loops playlist on end .
--server-port <integer> sets server port .
--iface <string> specifies the network interface to use .
--iface-addr <string> specifies your network interface IP address .
--mtu <integer> specifies the MTU of the network interface .
--ipv6 forces IPv6 .
--ipv4 forces IPv4 .
--nommx disables the use of MMX CPU extensions .
--no3dn disables the use of 3D Now! CPU extensions .
--nommxext disables the use of MMX Ext CPU extensions .
--nosse disables the use of SSE CPU extensions .
--quiet be quiet .
--color displays color messages .
--search-path <string> specifies interface default search path .
--plugin-path <string> specifies plugin search path .
--dvd <string> specifies the default VCD device .
--vcd <string> specifies the default VCD device .
--program <;integer> specifies program (SID) (for streams with several programs, like satellite ones) .
--audio-type <integer> specifies the default audio type to use with dvds .
--audio-channel <integer> specifies the default audio channel to use with dvds .
--spu-channel <integer> specifies the default subtitle channel to use with dvds .
--verbose <verbosity> specifies verbosity level .
--help gives you all available options .
--longhelp gives you a detailled version of the available options .
--version gives you information about the current VLC version .
--list displays a list of available plugins .
--module <module> displays help about specified module .
Table of Contents
VLC can also be embeded in a web browser ! For the moment, this function is only available with Mozilla under GNU/Linux .
You should already have the following lines in your
/etc/apt/sources.list
file :
deb http://www.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian $(ARCH)/ deb-src http://www.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian sources/
Install the mozilla-plugin-vlc package :
#apt-get update#apt-get install mozilla-plugin-vlc
Install the Mozilla development package (mozilla-dev under Debian) .
Install the required librairies like for a normal VLC install (from the sources, or from the packages with the development packages).
Download the sources of the lastest release : get the
file vlc-version.tar.gz from the VLC sources
download page. Uncompress-it, configure-it, compile and install
Téléchargez les sources de la dernière version :
récupérez le fichier vlc-version.tar.gz depuis la
page
de téléchargement des sources de VLC. Décompressez-le,
configurez-le, compilez et installez
:
%tar xvzf vlc-version.tar.gz%cd vlc-version%./configure --enable-mozilla%make%suPassword:[Root Password]#make install
Here are a few examples of HTML pages that use the Mozilla plugin .
In this example, the plugin will read an HTTP stream inside the web page. If the user goes fullscreen, he will have to press f to go back in normal view .
<html>
<head><title>Demo of VLC mozilla plugin</title></head>
<body>
<h1>Demo of VLC mozilla plugin - Example 1</h1>
<embed type="application/x-vlc-plugin"
name="video1"
autoplay="no" loop="yes" width="400" height="300"
target="http://server.example.org/video1.vob" />
<br />
<a href="javascript:;" onclick='document.video1.play()'>Play video1</a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick='document.video1.pause()'>Pause video1</a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick='document.video1.stop()'>Stop video1</a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick='document.video1.fullscreen()'>Fullscreen</a>
</body>
</html>
In this example, the plugin will read a multicast UDP stream in a dedicated video output window .
<html>
<head><title>Demo of VLC mozilla plugin</title></head>
<body>
<h1>Demo of VLC mozilla plugin - Example 2</h1>
<embed type="application/x-vlc-plugin"
name="video2"
autoplay="no" loop="no" hidden="yes"
target="udp:@239.255.12.42" />
<br />
<a href="javascript:;" onclick='document.video2.play()'>Play video2</a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick='document.video2.stop()'>Stop video2</a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick='document.video2.fullscreen()'>Fullscreen</a>
</body>
</html>
Table of Contents
- 1. PREAMBLE
- 2. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
- 3. VERBATIM COPYING
- 4. COPYING IN QUANTITY
- 5. MODIFICATIONS
- 6. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
- 7. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
- 8. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
- 9. TRANSLATION
- 10. TERMINATION
- 11. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
- 12. ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
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