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6. FAQ

  1. I cannot stream an MPEG file. What is wrong ?
  2. I cannot stream DVDs. What is wrong ?
  3. Can I use a TV card with vls ?
  4. My VLC does not have the sound
I cannot stream an MPEG file. What is wrong ?

vls can stream MPEG 1 or MPEG 2 files that meet two critera :

  1. the file must be MPEG PS (Program Stream) or TS (Transport Stream), that contain video and audio multiplexed. vls can't stream MPEG ES (Elementary Stream), i.e. a file with only audio or video. In order to know if an MPEG file is MPEG PS, MPEG TS or MPEG ES, read the file with a VideoLAN Client (vlc) and look at the messages (with the interface : Click on "View" and "Messages", or use the command line "vlc -v") and look for a line :
    module: locking demux module `mpeg_XX'
    
    If XX = ps or XX = ts, then your file is MPEG PS and MPEG TS respectively , and you may be able to stream it. If XX = es, then your file is MPEG ES and is not streamable.
  2. the sequence header of the video must repeat itself regularly, which is often the case with MPEG 2, but very rare with MPEG 1. There is no easy way to know if the sequence header is repeated regularly. Files with a .vob extension are normally MPEG 2 files and files with .mpg or .mpeg extension or usually MPEG 1 files.

You can download this streamable MPEG 2 PS file for your tests : ftp://ftp.videolan.org/pub/videolan/streams/presentation/presentation_short.vob.

I cannot stream DVDs. What is wrong ?

Check in your input.cfg: you must use the variable "Device" instead of "FileName" to configure a DVD input. If you want to stream an encrypted DVD, check you have libdvdcss installed.

Can I use a TV card with vls ?

The VideoLAN Server can only take MPEG streams on its input, so you must have a board able to produce a MPEG stream. Under linux, the only card able to do that is the kfir mpeg2 encoder developed by BMK (see http://linuxtv.org/mpeg2/). You can also do software encoding (with ffmpeg for instance) and use a named pipe (fifo) to feed the vls with the encoded MPEG stream. You can have a look in the vls mailing-lists for more practical infos about that.

My VLC does not have the sound

Starting in VLS 0.4.0, we have changed the protocol to encapsulate A/52 audio and DVD SPU. That protocol is only compatible with VLC 0.4.5 or later. If you use an older version of VLC, please upgrade.


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