VLC desktop streaming

Edit

I stopped using VLC and switched to GMax FLV Encoder. It does a much better job IMO.

Original post

I am sending my desktop (screen) as an H264 video stream to another machine that saves it to a file using the follwoing command lines:

Sender of the stream:

vlc -I dummy
    --sout='#transcode{vcodec=h264,vb=512,scale=0.5}
            :rtp{mux=ts,dst=192.168.0.1,port=4444}'

Receiver of the stream:

vlc -I rc
    rtp://@:4444
    --sout='#std{access=file,mux=ps,dst=/home/user/output.mp4}'
    --ipv4

This works, but there are a few issues:

• The file is not playable with most players.
• VLC is able to playback the file but with some weirdnes开发者_开发技巧s:
• => it takes about 10 seconds before the playback actually begins.
• => seeking doesn't work.

Can someone point me in the right direction on how to fix these issues?

EDIT: I made a little progress.

The initial delay in playback is because the player is waiting for a keyframe. By forcing the sender of the stream to create a new key-frame every 4 seconds I could decrease the delay:

:screen-fps=10
--sout='#transcode{vcodec=h264,venc=x264{keyint=40},vb=512,scale=0.5}
       :rtp{mux=ts,dst=192.168.0.1,port=4444}'

The seeking problem is not solved however, but I understand it a little better. The RTP stream is saved as a file in its original streaming format, which is normally not playable as a regular video file. VLC manages to play this file, but most other players don't. So I need to convert it to a regular video file. I am currently investigating whether I can do this with ffmpeg if I provide it with an SDP file for the recorded stream.

All help is welcome!

Updating your sender command line with:

venc=x264{scenecut=20,bframes=0}

And your client command line as:

vlc -I rc rtp://@:4444 --sout='#std{access=file,mux=mp4,dst=/tmp/output.mp4}' --ipv4

should fix your problems. Which players did you test?

Sender:

$ vlc screen:// :screen-fps=5 :screen-caching=100 --sout='#transcode{vcodec=h264,venc=x264{scenecut=20,bframes=0},vb=512,scale=0.5}:rtp{mux=ts,dst=127.0.0.1,port=1234}'
VLC media player 1.1.11 The Luggage (revision exported)
Blocked: call to unsetenv("DBUS_ACTIVATION_ADDRESS")
Blocked: call to unsetenv("DBUS_ACTIVATION_BUS_TYPE")
[0x9caf8fc] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
Blocked: call to setlocale(6, "")
Warning: call to srand(1314435080)
Warning: call to rand()
Blocked: call to setlocale(6, "")

(process:11597): Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library.
    Using the fallback 'C' locale.
x264 [info]: using cpu capabilities: MMX2 Cache64
x264 [info]: profile High, level 3.2
x264 [info]: using SAR=1/1
x264 [info]: using cpu capabilities: MMX2 Cache64
x264 [info]: profile High, level 4.0
x264 [info]: frame I:1     Avg QP:16.44  size: 57235
x264 [info]: frame P:152   Avg QP:10.01  size:  2747
x264 [info]: mb I  I16..4: 33.8%  2.7% 63.5%
x264 [info]: mb P  I16..4:  0.9%  0.0%  0.9%  P16..4:  2.1%  0.4%  0.3%  0.0%  0.0%    skip:95.4%
x264 [info]: 8x8 transform intra:1.8% inter:44.3%
x264 [info]: coded y,uvDC,uvAC intra: 45.5% 42.9% 40.5% inter: 1.5% 1.5% 1.4%
x264 [info]: i16 v,h,dc,p: 45% 54%  0%  0%
x264 [info]: i8 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 24% 41% 22%  2%  2%  2%  4%  1%  3%
x264 [info]: i4 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 16% 49% 13%  2%  3%  3%  5%  2%  7%
x264 [info]: i8c dc,h,v,p: 43% 49%  7%  2%
x264 [info]: Weighted P-Frames: Y:0.0% UV:0.0%
x264 [info]: ref P L0: 85.8%  4.5%  9.1%  0.7%
x264 [info]: kb/s:124.12
^C[0x9d4ee6c] signals interface error: Caught Interrupt signal, exiting...

Receiver:

$ vlc udp://:1234
VLC media player 1.1.11 The Luggage (revision exported)
Blocked: call to unsetenv("DBUS_ACTIVATION_ADDRESS")
Blocked: call to unsetenv("DBUS_ACTIVATION_BUS_TYPE")
[0x8c728fc] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
Blocked: call to setlocale(6, "")
Warning: call to srand(1314469032)
Warning: call to rand()
Blocked: call to setlocale(6, "")

(process:11707): Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library.
    Using the fallback 'C' locale.
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 1, expected 0) for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 1, expected 0) for PID 66
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 6, expected 5) for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 8, expected 7) for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 10, expected 9) for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 14, expected 13) for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 0, expected 15) for PID 66
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 2, expected 1) for PID 66
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 12, expected 11) for PID 66
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 14, expected 13) for PID 66
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 0, expected 15) for PID 66
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 2, expected 1) for PID 66
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 7, expected 6) for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 9, expected 8) for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 11, expected 10) for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 13, expected 12) for PID 66
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 15, expected 14) for PID 66
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 1, expected 0) for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 8, expected 7) for PID 66
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 11, expected 10) for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 13, expected 12) for PID 66
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 4, expected 3) for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 8, expected 7) for PID 66
[0xb740070c] main input error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR  is called too late (pts_delay increased to 300 ms)
^C[0x8d11cec] signals interface error: Caught Interrupt signal, exiting...