HOW-TO stream video from VLC (VideoLAN-Client) PC
#1
i'm not sure if this is obvious to anyone here because it only just occured to me yesterday when i was trying to get some video encoded in an obscure codec to work in xbmc.

the situation was that i tried the video file in xbmc and it wasn't having any of it at all. i then tried it on pc and after a few codec installs it ran very badly within windows media player. then i tried it in videolan and it ran beautifully. ok, so if i can watch it on my pc on videolan, i should be able to set up videolan as a stream server and connect my xbox to it so that i can watch the video in the comfort of my living room, right?

so, i set up a playlist file accessable to my xbox which points right back at my pc on the right port, saved that with the .strm extension, set up videolan to stream (in ogg but that's basically irrelevant) and loaded the playlist up. tada! it worked like a dream.

now i can play anything that my pc can play, on my xbox.
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#2
this is probably something that should be added in the tips and tricks section of the wiki manual for xbmc
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| xbox1: v1.1, samsung dvd,120 gb hd,x-ecuter pro 2.2,xbmc
| xbox2: v1.2, phillips dvd, retail hd, tsop, avalaunch, xbmc
| xirremote, x2_4977, media center utils
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#3
(strawp @ may 18 2004,14:03 Wrote:so, i set up a playlist file accessable to my xbox which points right back at my pc on the right port, saved that with the .strm extension, set up videolan to stream (in ogg but that's basically irrelevant) and loaded the playlist up.
can you explain how to do this for us newbies? thanks.
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#4
right click somewhere (like your desktop) and select "new > text file".

rename that file to something like videolan.strm. if you have file extensions turned off on your computer, you may want to turn them back on by going into window explorer's "tools" menu, selecting "folder options > view" and then making sure "hide extensions for known types" is unchecked. that way you can see that the file really has been renamed to videolan.strm and not videolan.strm.txt.

next, open that file up in textpad and enter one line of text as follows:

http://192.168.0.10:1234

note that 192.168.0.10 is the ip address of your computer on the lan, so change it to whatever yours is. 1234 is the port number that you set in the videolan stream options screen, and http is assuming that you've selected the server to stream over http (you may as well since it works no worries).

next you either put this file somewhere on a share on your computer which you've already got mapped through xbmc (like your videos or music share) or you ftp it over to the xbox into the xbmc playlist folder.

when videolan is running, simply select the playlist from xbmc to connect to your pc.

edit: on the front page of my site i've got a similar little guide at the moment
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#5
hi strawp,

thanks for your videolan guide.
i edited it a little bit and put it in the xbmc manual. i haven't tried it at home yet. but i thought, i will create the manual first and then try it out myself. Image
could you check if all the info is okay?

http://manual.xboxmediacenter.de/wakka.p....g&v=4dt

thanks
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#6
cool, looks like everything's there. i haven't tested the bookmark method yet although i've got it set up. i'll give it a go tonight.
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#7
i tried method #2 and it didn't work. i'm fairly sure that with some tweaking i can get it to pick up the stream, but it's bed time now, i'm afraid :p

i'm not sure whether the <bookmark> block refers only to a folder resource somewhere or if it can be a specific file of some kind or a stream. i will try just getting a bookmark to point to one file, then a file representing a videolan stream, then the stream spooling off one port over http or some other protocol.
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#8
thanks, keep us posted. i haven't tried it myself yet.
i will do so today 'cause its weekend :d
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#9
i tried this, but i got a problem. this is my xbmc log:
28-05-2004 16:04:15 mplayer play:http://192.168.0.2:2500 cachesize:1024
28-05-2004 16:04:15 cmplayer::load() resolve imports failed
28-05-2004 16:04:15 flipping bi-directional subtitles disabled
28-05-2004 16:04:15 stating file http://192.168.0.2:2500.conf
28-05-2004 16:04:15 stating file q:\mplayer\http://192.168.0.2:2500.conf
28-05-2004 16:04:32 cmplayer::openfile() http://192.168.0.2:2500 failed

any ideas on how to fix this?
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#10
tried using videolan with mixed results. mpeg1 plays fine but xvid and divx gave me audio only which in some cases was garbled. what parameters do i need to use in the streaming wizard? can't seem to find any documentation on the wizard anywhere.

thanks
glenn
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#11
doesn't work no matter what i do. i've tried both ftping the videolan.strm file to my xbox and accessing it via my shared folder on my pc, but i just can't get xbmc to access the stream. i've done everything exactly as descibed in the guide. Confused
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#12
by the way, here's my logs for both options:

ftp:
20-08-2004 20:44:26 mplayer play:e:\video\videolan.strm cachesize:1024
20-08-2004 20:44:27 flipping bi-directional subtitles disabled
20-08-2004 20:44:27 stating file e:\video\videolan.strm.conf
20-08-2004 20:44:27 stating file q:\mplayer\videolan.strm.conf
20-08-2004 20:44:27 cmplayer::openfile() e:\video\videolan.strm failed

shared:
20-08-2004 20:56:07 mplayer play:xbms://192.168.0.1:1400/film/videolan.strm cachesize:8192
20-08-2004 20:56:07 flipping bi-directional subtitles disabled
20-08-2004 20:56:07 stating file xbms://192.168.0.1:1400/film/videolan.strm.conf
20-08-2004 20:56:08 stating file q:\mplayer\xbms://192.168.0.1:1400/film/videolan.strm.conf
20-08-2004 20:56:08 cmplayer::openfile() xbms://192.168.0.1:1400/film/videolan.strm failed

hope someone can help me out.
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#13
sorry - haven't been in for a while.

check all the obvious stuff first - i was pulling my hair out the other week because it looked like this set up had decided to stop working, where in actual fact it was just that my router had assigned me a different address on the lan than usual.

on the computer that's hosting the stream, run ipconfig to get your address.

check the port number is correct in videolan and your strm file, and check that you're using a codec that xbmc supports.

also, having a firewall turned on on the computer that's hosting the stream is likely to cause problems, i expect. i don't have one because the buck stops at my router :p
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#14
what am i doing wrong?
i'm only getting sound with the ogg codec.
the other codecs don't work at all.

i think i've read the guidens at least 10 times.

anyone?
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#15
i have followed the steps and don't get it. all i get is "unable to load playlist". my file is called videolan.strm. i tried copying the file to my xbox drive and got the same error. the contents of the file are:
http://192.168.0.200:2500
Kodi: Shield Pro 2019
Storage: Synology DS2415+, DS1815+
HT: LG 65C9 OLED, Pioneer VSX-LX503
Speakers: ProAc Super Towers/front, ProAc EBT's/rear, Polk S35/center, SVS PB-2000 Subwoofer
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HOW-TO stream video from VLC (VideoLAN-Client) PC1