VLC Multicast Video

With VideoLAN VLC it is possible to multicast a video stream over a network.

On the photo below the video clip (Bourne Supremacy trailer) is multi cast from Win XP to a notebook running Win XP and to another Win XP running inside a VMWare. Further to Samsung Galaxy S (Android) moby and to a Suse Linux desktop PC.

On Win XP, in VLC 0.8.6i (does not work with 1.1.5), use menu File - "Open File...", in advanced options tick stream/save and click settings.

On settings screen, tick UDP and an IP multicast addr e.g. 225.1.1.42. Use default 1234 port. On outputs tick play locally so it will also play on Win PC.

VLC on Linux does not have all codex, e.g. missing FLV. To solve it, on the Win PC select on-the-fly transcode of video/audio. Video mpv4 1024 Kbps, audio mpga 192 Kbps stereo.

Click OK to close stream output dialog.

Click OK on open dialog. The video now streams and also plays in a window.

On receiving Win XP, VLC 0.8.6.i, use menu File - "Open Network Stream...". Select radio button "UDP/RTP Multicast" and set IP address to 225.1.1.42, port 1234. Click OK. Video plays in window.

On receiving Linux PC, Open Suse 11.2, VLC 1.1.5, use menu Media - "Open Network Stream...", set URL to: udp://@225.1.1.42:1234. Click Play. Video plays in window.

Earlier versions of VLC are downloadable at Filehippo or at OldVersion

---

Tags: AVI, VLC, video multicast, network

Page link: <http://foersom.org/HowTo/VlcMulticast.html>

Edited: 2011-01-23