mirror of https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc
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213 lines
9.3 KiB
HTML
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
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<meta name="Description" content="Web streaming">
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<meta name="Keywords" content="MPEG, Web, streaming, VideoLAN">
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<meta name="Author"
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content="Christophe Massiot, massiot@via.ecp.fr">
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<link rev="made" href="mailto:massiot@via.ecp.fr">
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<title>How to setup VLC for web streaming (X11 only)</title>
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<h1> How to set up VLC for web streaming (X11 only) </h1>
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<h2> Abstract </h2>
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VLC is a separate application which can either read a plain file or a TS
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network stream. Using XSwallow, it is possible to incorporate VLC video
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output window right into the window of a browser. With additional
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tricks, it is also possible to launch a VLMS (VideoLAN MiniServer) on the
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server-side, and have the client read a live network stream. This document,
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intended for expert users only, describes the ways to do it.
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<h2> Installing and configuring XSwallow for plain MPEG files </h2>
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XSwallow is a software which allows any X11 window to be "swallowed"
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(technically, just reparented, so that it has no effet on performance
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anyhow) into the window of a netscape-compatible browser (Navigator,
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Mozilla, Konqueror, Galeon, Opera...). This is indeed a trick in the X11
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windowing model, and don't even expect to port this behaviour to any
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non-X11-based operating system, even supported by VLC (MS Windows,
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MacOS X, BeOS, QNX, ...). <p>
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Download it here : <a href="http://www.csn.ul.ie/~caolan/docs/XSwallow.html">
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http://www.csn.ul.ie/~caolan/docs/XSwallow.html</a>. Compilation is really
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straightforward, it basically boils down to some :
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<pre> make -f makefile.linux </pre> <p>
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Place the resulting xswallow.so in a directory scanned by your browser
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for plug-ins (for instance, /usr/lib/netscape/plugins, this scan path
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can with some browsers be read in $NPX_PLUGIN_PATH) and xswallow.conf
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in the directory indicated by the environment variable $MOZILLA_HOME. If
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it is currently unset, <b>set it</b> with for instance :
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<pre> export MOZILLA_HOME=/etc </pre> <p>
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Of course your mileage may vary. The last step is to customize xswallow.conf
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so that it launches VLC to handle MPEG files. Comment out all lines you
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don't need, and add :
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<pre>
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video/mpeg; mpeg,mpg,vob; vlc -I dummy -V xvideo %s; VideoLAN Client 0.2.83 (XVideo output); VideoLAN
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</pre> <p>
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Notes :
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<ul>
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<li> This assumes vlc is in your $PATH, if it is not the case, adapt it.
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<li> If nothing shows up, it might be because VLC cannot find its plug-ins.
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Please check that they are in an appropriate place (such as
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/usr/lib/videolan/vlc). You can try to add -vvvvv to the arguments to
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see where it fails.
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<li> The third field on the line is the actual name of the window to
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swallow. This is currently annoying, you will have to guess the
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name of the video output window, ie. changing the version number
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and the output plug-in (to SDL for instance if you use SDL). At
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present there is no way to force VLC to use a definite name, but
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it will be added by 0.2.90.
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<li> When the window is first spawned, it will appear on screen and
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then be quicky reparented, making some flickering. The usual
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workaround is to make the window appear at offset +10000+10000
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using the --geometry switch, but it is not currently supported
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by VLC. The will be addressed by 0.2.90 too.
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<li> If your window manager isn't configured for automatic placement
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of new windows, it may ask you to manually place the window before
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XSwallow can swallow it. This is annoying, too. The only workaround
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is to disable the functionality (for instance with twm, add
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RandomPlacement in .twmrc). It will be addressed at the same time
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with --geometry.
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<li> XSwallow will first download the file, and then launch VLC. There
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is no way to begin reading the stream before it is complete, <20> la
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QuickTime plug-in. This will be addressed in a future version of
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VLC (0.4). If you want to do live streaming, proceed to the next
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chapter.
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</ul> <p>
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From now on, if you have your browser reload its plug-in list, it will
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display VideoLAN as application handler for video/mpeg. You should now
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try and see what it yields.
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<h2> Tricks for live web streaming using VLMS </h2>
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With a little trick, it is possible to stream a video using VLC and VLMS,
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and make it appear in a Web browser (without having a local copy of the
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file). This will only work if there is no firewall (nor masquerading)
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between the server and the client. It requires to have a CGI support
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built into the Web server. <p>
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Here is the sketch :
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<ul>
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<li> The client requests a specific page, say video.html. This page
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contains an image tag to a file vlc.ts, AND launches a VLMS
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through a CGI script.
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<li> The client receives the vlc.ts file which contains the address
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of the VLMS server, and through a special mime-type in XSwallow
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spawns a VLC.
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<li> As soon as VLC begins to receive the stream, it is swallowed by
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XSwallow and appears in the browser's window.
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</ul>
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<h3> Configuring the Web server </h3>
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In this section I will only give configuration directives for Apache.
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You need to add a new MIME type for TS stream in httpd.conf :
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<pre> AddType video/x-mpeg-ts .ts </pre> <p>
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And relaunch your Web server (apachectl reload). Next, create the vlc.html
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page. You need two specific lines, one to load vlc.ts, the other to start
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the VLMS server ; for instance in PHP (adapt it for Perl, Java, or whatever) :
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<pre>
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<img src="vlc.ts">
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<?php system("/var/www/cgi-bin/stream.sh $REMOTE_ADDR mystream.mpg > /dev/null 2>&1 &"); ?>
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</pre> <p>
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Where stream.sh is a simple shell script :
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<pre>
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#!/bin/sh
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vlms -d $1 -a mpeg $2
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</pre> <p>
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VLMS starts streaming mystream.mpg to $REMOTE_ADDR (the IP address fetched
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by the server, this is why you cannot do it through firewalls) on port 1234.
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Notes :
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<ul>
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<li> The -a mpeg option may surprise you ; the VLMS doesn't preparse the
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stream and thus cannot know which audio channel to send. If you had
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an AC3 audio track, you could have put -a ac3. You can also
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activate subtitles with -s.
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<li> VLMS only reads MPEG-1 files from version 0.2 on. If you have an
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older version, you may want to upgrade.
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<li> It is possible that, due to the client latency, the client misses
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the first frames of the stream. I have no ideal workaround for this.
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<li> Some streams (especially MPEG-1) only have one sequence header at the
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beginning of the stream. Since the client risks missing it, it may
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be completely unable to decode the stream _at all_. If you only get
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a blank screen, please try with another stream, such as one test
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stream on <a href="ftp://ftp.videolan.org/pub/videolan/streams">
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ftp://ftp.videolan.org/pub/videolan/streams</a> before issuing
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a bug report.
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<li> You should be careful that the stream.sh script is indeed launched
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in the background. If your CGI program waits for it, it doesn't
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hang up the connection until it finishes, and Web browsers wait
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for the connection to be closed before launching plug-ins. In
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that case you have nothing on screen, not even a <em> Click to
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abort swallow </em> message.
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</ul> <p>
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Finally, create the vlc.ts file. It just contains the address of the server,
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so that VLC can bind on it (you can't retrieve that from XSwallow). For
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instance :
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<pre> streaming.idealx.com </pre> <p>
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<h3> Configuring XSwallow </h3>
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You need to add an entry video/x-mpeg-ts in you xswallow.conf :
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<pre> video/x-mpeg-ts; ts; video-streaming.sh %s; VideoLAN Client 0.2.83 (XVideo output); VideoLAN </pre> <p>
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The same provisions as before apply here. The video-streaming.sh file is a
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simple shell script which retrieves the server's name and spawns VLC :
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<pre>
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#!/bin/sh
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SERVER=$( cat $@ )
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vlc -I dummy -V xvideo ts://$SERVER
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</pre> <p>
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Here you go. This is quite a hack, but it will hold until the next major
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release of VLC.
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<h2> Acknowledgements </h2>
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This page has been written by <a href="mailto:massiot@via.ecp.fr">
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Christophe Massiot</a> for <a href="http://www.idealx.com/"> IDEALX
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S.A.S</a>. <br>
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<em> $Id: web-streaming.html,v 1.1 2001/08/22 18:47:52 massiot Exp $ </em>
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</body>
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</html>
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