Guide to Streaming Video in LAN

Guide to Streaming Video in LAN

Most of the people think that video streaming is a very complicated process
Lets make it easy
This is my first effort in writing a Tutorial.

After reading this Tutorial you also will be able to stream
VCD .dat , AVI [Normal , Divx , Xvid , 3ivx] , WMV , mpg files

Hardware Requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Minimum 2 Computers in LAN with any IP address
Server - PIII 450Mhz , 128/256MB Ram
Client - PIII 450Mhz , 128/256MB Ram

If You dont have a LAN you can also try this on a Single Computer.

Operating System Supported
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Windows , Mac OS X , BeOS , Debian GNU/Linux , Mandrake Linux , Fedora Core , Familiar Linux ,
SuSE Linux , Red Hat Linux , WinCE / PocketPC

Software Requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Video Lan Client - VLC - The Cross - Platform media player and streaming server

VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats
(MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.
It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

Web:- www.videolan.org
Download:- http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Features:- http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html

Installation
~~~~~~~~~
Video LAN Client has to be installed on the Server and every Client Computer.
Usually it comes as a zip package you need to extract it to a folder anywhere on the server and client.

Tutorial
~~~~~~

This Tutorial is demonstrating a VLC Streaming and Stream Playback on Windows Platform
Server IP Address:- 192.168.0.1
Client IP Address:- 192.168.0.2

On Server Side
1.> Double Click on VLC.exe to Launch it.


2.> Click on "Open File" to Browse the .dat , .avi , .mpg , .wmv file
Here "Test.avi" File




3.> Now Click the "Stream output" Checkbox and click on "Settings" button.



4.> When you click on "Settings" button a new interface is displayed where nothing is clicked

- Now Click on HTTP Check Box
- Enter Server Address and any empty server port number for eg. 1234
- Under Encapsulation Method Select "MPEG TS"
- Dont click anything under Transcoding Options
- Click Ok now



After Clicking OK


Note:- The Encapsulation Method is different for different files you stream from the server side
Dat File - MPEG TS
AVI File - MPEG TS
MPG File - MPEG TS
MPEG File - MPEG TS
WMV File - ASF

5.> After Clicking OK the Server "192.168.0.1" will start streaming the select video file on Port Number 1234

It Will be displayed as follows


Now the File is Streaming from the Server.

On the Client Side
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1.> Double Click on VLC.exe to Launch it.


2.> Select "Open Network Stream"


3.> After Clicking there this will be displayed


4.> Now Click on "HTTP/FTP/MMS" and enter the Server IP address with the port number as "192.168.0.1:1234"



5.> After Clicking OK , The following streaming video file from the server will be displayed on the client side



6.> You can also view the Streaming Video on the Client Side in FullScreen Mode Like this



Done
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Note:- For people those who dont have LAN also can try out this tutorial like this
For any Computer 2 instances of VLC can be run and your same Computer as Server and Client.
Only thing you have to do is wherever i have used Server IP as 192.168.0.1 replace that with 127.0.0.1
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Hope you enjoyed my First Tutorial

Do try this and give me your feedback as it will help me improve with time.

Also Rate this Tutorial on a Scale of 5 [No Need for those Stars]
Only write it as Score:- X/5 [where X is any number from 1 to 5 and your Score]

If you have any sort of doubts related to this Tutorial feel free to ask me here

Thanks
Quad Master