VideoLAN Wiki - User contributions [en]

User talk:H2g2bob

2012-02-19T16:06:10Z

H2g2bob: /* You still here? */

I see that you've been working on the main page. Would you like to have access to the real main page in order to change it instead of a copy ? [[User:Dionoea|Dionoea]] 21:44, 14 January 2006 (CET)

: I think the page is pretty much finished (so if you only want to copy it that's fine), but it would be quite useful to have access to it in case I need to change anything --[[User:H2g2bob|H2g2bob]] 21:53, 14 January 2006 (CET)

:: I installed the wikimedia SpamBlacklist filter so it should be ok to unprotect the Main Page. You can now edit it [[User:Dionoea|Dionoea]] 22:10, 14 January 2006 (CET)

::: Brilliant: thank you. Just copied it over now --[[User:H2g2bob|H2g2bob]] 22:20, 14 January 2006 (CET)

Is there any way to become an admin (sysop) for this site - it would be nice to be able to change pages like [[Help:Contents]] to have something on them. --[[User:H2g2bob|H2g2bob]] 19:06, 16 January 2006 (CET)

: there you go :) Thanks for the help btw. [[User:Dionoea|Dionoea]] 23:41, 16 January 2006 (CET)

I started a bit of cleanup of the Main Page, and would like to clean a bit more all the wiki. What do you think of it ? [[User:J-b|J-b]] 02:28, 15 December 2006 (CET)
: That's pretty good - it's a bit more ordered now, so much better for finding where you want to go. I shifted the "help the project" bit up to be directly under the "support/get help", as it was quite a bit below on my screen. It certainly gets the h2g2bob [[wikipedia:WP:BARN|barnstar]] of approval! --[[User:H2g2bob|h2g2bob]] 06:40, 15 December 2006 (CET)
:: Thanks, I was not able to do that correctly, I was not really aware of the wiki syntax. I am discovering it. So now, the following tasks are to clean the rest of the wiki. I think a Portal:Developers would be a good idea, don't you think ? What about a greater use of categories. And report the Wikipedia description of VLC here ? [[User:J-b|J-b]] 11:35, 15 December 2006 (CET)
::: Wouldn't Portal:Developers just be [[Developers Corner]] :-) Categories is a must: I think it would be easiest to add them through templates, eg a template for muxers like [[ASF]] and [[AVI]] saying what their name is when you use them in the command line. --[[User:H2g2bob|h2g2bob]] 02:01, 16 December 2006 (CET)
:::: Ok. You are right. I'll try to understand templates [[User:J-b|J-b]] 19:13, 16 December 2006 (CET)
:::: I finished the Developers corner. And I try to reduce the number of orphan page. It seems that your talk page is becoming a redesignWiki Page. good night [[User:J-b|J-b]] 03:57, 17 December 2006 (CET)

: I added a [[Template:mux]] for [[container]] formats (eg: [[ogg]], [[mkv]]). I was thinking that perhaps a similar thing would work for video / audio codecs, but have them all different colours or something. Any views on whether this is a good thing, or what else could be done to it? --[[User:H2g2bob|h2g2bob]] 03:37, 16 December 2006 (CET)
:: I think it is a good thing. But would it be used ? [[User:J-b|J-b]] 19:13, 16 December 2006 (CET)
: I changed the left menu. Comments ? A lot of more work to do ![[User:J-b|J-b]] 19:13, 16 December 2006 (CET)
:: I think that's better too - I like the way it's split, it makes sense. --[[User:H2g2bob|h2g2bob]] 23:17, 16 December 2006 (CET)

Check out [[VideoLAN_Wiki:TODO]] [[User:J-b|J-b]] 01:58, 18 December 2006 (CET)

== Good work ==

For the categories stuff! [[User:J-b|jb]] 10:54, 8 March 2007 (CET)

== VideoLAN team map ==
Hi. I've added a VideoLAN team map on http://www.videolan.org/team/. I'd be glad to add you to the map if you want to. Have a look at http://www.videolan.org/team/team.xml to see what data is required (latitude and longitude can be found on http://maps.google.com, the ll=<lat>,<lon> value in the URL).
Regards [[User:Dionoea|Dionoea]] 16:27, 28 March 2007 (CEST)
: Ta, I will --[[User:H2g2bob|h2g2bob]] 17:53, 24 April 2007 (CEST)

== You still here? ==

Do you still come here? [[User:The thing|The thing]] ([[User talk:The thing|Talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/The thing|Contribs]]) 19:33, 18 February 2012 (CET)

: Not as much as I used to :( But I'm still around! How's it going? --dave

VLC Awards

2007-06-23T01:39:40Z

H2g2bob:

This page lists some of the awards given to VLC media player. There's probably quite a number I haven't mentioned here: if I missed some feel free to add to the list.

{| class="wikitable"
! Given by !! Award !! Date
|-
| [http://www.paris-libre.org/ Paris Capitale du Libre]
| Lutèce d'or
| 2007
|-
| [http://www.softpedia.com/ Softpedia]
| Softpedia pick 5/5
| 2006
|-
| [http://soft32.com Soft32.com]
| Editor's Review Award, 5/5
| 2006
|-
| [http://www.tropheesdulibre.org/ Trophées du Libre]
| Winner, Trophées du Libre (Multimedia category)
| 2005
|-
| [http://opensource.org Open Source Initiative (OSI)], [http://builder.com builder.com]
| Open Source Award
| 2004
|-
| [http://www.macgeneration.com/ MacGeneration]
| MacGeneration Trophy for developers support
| 2003
|-
| [http://apple.com Apple]
| Best Mac OS X Use of Open Source, runner up
| 2003
|}

[[Category:About VideoLAN]]

VideoLAN Wiki:List of templates

2007-05-27T21:49:47Z

H2g2bob: /* Other */

== Formatting ==
{| class="wikitable"
! Name !! Description
|-
| {{tl|Clear}} || If there are elements (eg wikipedia box) to the left or right of the page, this will place text under those, rather than beside it.
|}

== Interwiki links ==
{| class="wikitable"
! Name !! Description
|-
| {{tl|Mmwiki}} || Box to [[Multimedia Wiki]]
|-
| {{tl|Website}} || Box to official website
|-
| {{tl|Wikipedia}} || Box to [[Wikipedia:]]
|-
| {{tl|Xiph}} || Box to [[Xiph Wiki]]
|-
| {{tl|Open}} || Marks [[free]] [[open source]] projects
|}

== Links to VLC project ==
{| class="wikitable"
! Name !! Description
|-
| {{tl|Doc}} || Link to documentation
|-
| {{tl|Faqlink}} || Link to FAQs
|-
| {{tl|Forum}} || Link to forum thread
|-
| {{tl|File}} || Link to source code
|}

== Maintenance ==
{| class="wikitable"
! Name !! Description
|-
| {{tl|Delete}} || Places a page in [[:Category:Delete]] for deletion.
|-
| {{tl|Stub}} || Is a stub. Adds to [[:Category:Stubs]]
|-
| {{tl|Check}} || Adds [Please check] and adds to [[:Category:Pages to check]]
|}

== Page type banners ==
{| class="wikitable"
! Name !! Description
|-
| {{tl|Documentation}} || Marks as being from the official documentation
|-
| {{tl|Howto}} || Marks as part of the [[how to]] pages
|-
| {{tl|Mux}} || Marks as a [[container]].
|-
| {{tl|Codec audio}} || Marks as an audio codec.
|-
| {{tl|Codec video}} || Marks as a video codec.
|-
| {{tl|Protocol}} || Marks as an access module (http, cdda, etc).
|-
| {{tl|Top box}} || A box with a square and a bit for text, used for {{tl|mux}}, etc.
|-
| {{tl|example code}} || Page is example code
|}

== Yes and no ==
; Test status
{| class="wikitable"
! Name !! Description
|-
| {{tl|Yes}} || {{yes}}
|-
| {{tl|No}} || {{no}}
|-
| {{tl|Ok}} || {{ok}}
|-
| {{tl|Middle}} || {{middle}}
|-
| {{tl|Untested}} || {{untested}}
|-
| {{tl|Up-to-date}} || {{up-to-date}}
|}

; Needed
{| class="wikitable"
! Name !! Description
|-
| {{tl|Needed}} || {{needed}}
|-
| {{tl|UnNeeded}} || {{unNeeded}}
|}

== Modules ==
{| class="wikitable"
! Name !! Description
|-
| {{tl|Module}} || Module info box
|-
| {{tl|Option}} || Module option
|}

== Other ==
{| class="wikitable"
! Name !! Description
|-
| {{tl|Compat}} || Asks for compatability information, eg for hardware.
|-
| {{tl|Tl}} || For templates, does the groovy {{tl|tl}} thing.
|-
| {{tl|Unsupported}} || Not compatible box
|-
| {{tl|VLC}} || Expands to {{VLC}}.
|-
| {{tl|VLC:latest version}} || Expands to VLC latest version. Currently {{VLC:latest version}}
|-
| {{tl|%}} || Expands to {{%}} for use at the start of console stuff
|-
| {{tl|BasedOnRev}} || Link to a diff of a file between a given revision and SVN HEAD.
|-
| {{tl|GPL}} || GPL notice ("Permission is granted to...")
|}

[[Category:Wiki maintenance]]

VideoLAN Wiki:Add a skin

2007-04-30T12:26:59Z

H2g2bob:

{{howto|Upload skins to the VideoLAN website}}
<div class="widebox" style="border-color: red;"> This page is designed for those with access to videolan@ganesh.videolan.org. </div>

Skins are on ganesh. Log on ganesh as videolan.

== Add a skin ==
Download the skin and its image in ~videolan/www/vlc/skins2/

Connect to the postgresql database:
% psql -d www-videolan

Add the skin to the skins table:
INSERT INTO skins (name,min_version,author,image,url) VALUES ('<name>','<VLC version number>','<author>','<image name>','<vlt name>');

And rate the skin:
INSERT INTO "skins-rating" (skin_id,rating) VALUES ((SELECT LAST_VALUE FROM skins_id_seq), '5');
(ratings can be 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, 5 being the best rating)
We need to rate the skin at least once or it won't appear on the webpage (unless someone fixes the SQL query).

Add a thumbnail for the skin, add it to the skin pack and update the skins size in the database:
% skins-update

== Update a skin ==
Download the new skin and its new image in ~videolan/www/vlc/skins2/. Be sure the image and the skin have the same name.

Connect to the postgresql database:
% psql -d www-videolan

When connected, find the id of the skins like that
% SELECT Id FROM skins WHERE name LIKE '<name>%';
Check that you only got ONE id. :D

And update the time
% UPDATE skins SET date_modified = date(now()) WHERE id = <id>;

If needed, update the minimum VLC version requirement too
% UPDATE skins SET min_version = '<the version>' WHERE id = <id>;

Update the thumbnail and size for the skin, update the skin pack:
% skins-update

MediaWiki:Monobook.css

2007-04-30T12:24:43Z

H2g2bob:

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table.wikitable th,
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/*
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Template:Stub

2007-04-30T12:19:02Z

H2g2bob: css

<div class="widebox" style="text-align: center;"> Help VideoLAN by adding to this page. Click on edit to add to this article. </div><includeonly>[[Category:Stubs]]</includeonly>

Template:Howto

2007-04-30T12:17:27Z

H2g2bob: style -> monobook.css

{| cellspacing="2" cellpadding="3" class="widebox"
|align="left"|This page describes how to {{{1}}}.
|align="right"|[[How to|Other "how to" pages]]
|}

:[[Category:How To]]

MediaWiki:Monobook.css

2007-04-30T12:16:58Z

H2g2bob: Added widebox class

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background-color: #f9f9f9;
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margin-bottom: 0.5em;
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QtIntfTODO

2007-04-24T19:36:48Z

H2g2bob:

= Main interface =

== Icons ==
=== Controller Icons ===

* ''Playback:''
** Play / Pause / Stop / Next / Previous
** Faster / Slower (not urgent, unused at the time)

* ''Volume Control:''
** Sound (and sound muted if clicked)

* Open
** Open File
** Open URL
** Open Disc

* ''Other:''
** Playlist
** Open extended GUI / Equalizer ( 1 ? 2 ?)
** FullScreen (not urgent, unused at the time)

* ''Playlist :''
** Add file 
** Add Folder 
** Shuffle 
** Repeat One / Repeat All / Search

* Playlist item types
** File
** Folder/Node
** Playlist
** Network stream
** Disc
** Acquisition card

Size is up to you to decide as long as it doesn't look too big (or too small) ...

=== Prefs Icons ===

Approx size: 50x50 pixels for Simple prefs
25x25 pixels for normal prefs (like what we have in current wxWidgets)

Icons needed:
* "Video"
* "Audio"
* "Input and Codecs"
* "Playlist"
* "Interface"
* "Subtitles"

''DONE'' on March 14th.[[User:J-b|jb]] 20:15, 14 March 2007 (CET)

== General missing things ==

=== Open ===
* Open file and advanced Open file merging ** => Integration of a QFileDialog ? ''Done [[User:J-b]]''
* Open rep and Open file merging ** ''Done [[User:J-b]]''
* Generic stuff ** ''Done [[User:J-b]]''
* Acquisition tabs ** TODO

=== Other ===
* VLM **
* extended dialogs *
* Help *
* Bookmarks
* Systray icon

== Dialogs to check ==
* Messages (verbosity and Save) - ''Done [http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/changeset/18673 R18673]''
* Information Stats to be better - ''Done [http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/changeset/18669 R18669]''

== Main design ==
* Subclass of buttons ?

= Playlist =

* Finish Popup handling ** (especially to move things between PL and ML)
* A -> B repeat (loops from point to point B) *
* Go to time ** Done.[[User:J-b|jb]] 00:53, 2 April 2007 (CEST)

= Preferences =

* Widgets *** Mostly done by [[User:J-b]]

Missing :
* DIRECTORY_ITEMS ''Done in'' [http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/changeset/19229 19229]
* FONT items
* debug
* tootltip
* icons centering

= Streaming =

* Profiles
* We have to find an intelligent way to deal with recording

= Machine State =

There are three entry states to Qt Interface

* Mode Integrated
In this state, you start {{VLC}} as a MPC or WMP. When you start VLC, you have a black video with a cone in the interface, like this one ([http://www.softpedia.com/screenshots/Media-Player-Classic-for-Win2kXP_1.png]).
Your playlist is integrated in the interface like WMP. When you play music, the video_plugins are integrated in the intf.
Extended GUI is separated (?)

* Mode Desintegrated
In this states, you start {{VLC}} as a vlc -Iwx --no-wx-embed, everything is separated, Video, playlist, etc...
You can stack the extended GUI.

* Mode Minimal
This is the same mode as the Mode Integrated, but has no menu, no control at all. Everything is controlled by right click !
A hotkey combinaison can lead you to show the menu and the controls and you are back to Mode Integrated.

* ASCII schema
<pre>
MM
↑
↓
MI <====> MI_pl_detached
↑ ↑
↓ ↓
MI_video_detached <=> MD <====> MD_extended_GUI_integrated

</pre>

Notes :
* Extended GUI is always detached by default (?)

= Issues =

Some current issues being worked on or looked into.. latest reference svn-16791.

Bugs:
* Add a file to the playlist, drag and drop to the left panel on Playlist or Media library icon, double click on that icon (that will expand it and show the element just added), double click on the element -> CRASH
* Tools, Interface, Console (problem only applies to this option), File open file, play, close with X -> continues playing (while the vout is destroyed, audio goes on) until the Console window is "selected", then the clip really "quits".
* Height consistency on Tools, Preferences, "Basic". The Video, Audio etc. option text consists of about 4 lines height. On "All", the Advanced is only one line, while the expanded options like CPU features, Filters etc. are 2 lines again.
* File location of playing item in Windows shows forward instead of backslash (also in playlist items) -- Hum ? Looks like a core issue ? [[User:Zorglub]] -- CRASH issue when opening a 2nd file. main debug: adding item <garbage>. Does not happen in WX. When media files are in the default folder (Application Data?) then no problems occur since no path needs to be selected. Also qt4 in gdb refuses to open a file [[User:Trax]]

Unreproducible (in linux):
* Preferences, All, Audio, Filters, select Headphone then Equalizer, the show settings (to select Basic or All) and the whole left section suddenly becomes very wide/stretched. Same goes for selecting Filters, parametric equalizer right away.
* Interface, Main Interface, Skins, 2 entries of enable transparency effects

Missing stuff:
* File, Open .. think there should be a "All media types, or all supported types" listed which is default. (Also some File type listings have a space in front of them).

No fix possible or invalid:

Fixed:

= Mockups =

Since I (pherthyl) am (going to be) helping with the Qt interface, I thought I'd keep a page of mockups for new UI ideas. While there are some things we need to copy from the wxWidgets interface, there are also lots of non-optimal bits of UI in the old interface that I think we should improve. Since the Qt interface isn't out yet, now is the time to make changes like this.

[[QtIntfMockups]]

[[Category:Activities]]

QtIntfMockups-DericksIdea

2007-04-24T19:36:41Z

H2g2bob:

This is [[User:Zephyrxero|Derick Eisenhardt's]] concept for how VLC 0.9's new interface should look.

I think there are a few slight changes that would help VLC look better and be more usable. What I have done here is simply move around the buttons a bit, and made a quick and dirty mock-up for layout's sake. I can make a pretty version of it later if you guys like this button layout.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/140/341949646_a69b4ccbdb_o.png[http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=341949646&size=o]
*Play/pause has been moved to the far left and enlarged because it is the most commonly used button
*Playlist button has been moved to the far right for easy access
*FastForward and Rewind Buttons have been moved to the sides of the progress bar
*The volume bar and mute button are also now right justified

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/149/341949651_514218be74_o.png[http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=341949651&size=o]
*All buttons (besides the standard File/Main Menu) have been moved to reside below the video portion
*A fullscreen button has been added right after the new position of the eject button
**do note there is a spacer on both sides of the eject button
**the fullscreen button can either be "grey'd out" or completely removed when there is no video
*The text box with the current play speed has been removed to save space and can easily be replaced with an icon overlayed on top of video just as you would see when pressing pause
*Also in the text box I think it would be great (if possible) to have the media file's title scroll when too long to fit into the box (ala WinAmp and XMMS).

Modification idea for this concept (video only) (by [[User:atomas|Thomas Seifried]]):

http://www.detonation.org/~atomas/vlc-mod.png[http://www.detonation.org/~atomas/vlc-mod.png]
* Move the full screen button to the upper right side (into the menu). So its near to the maximize button.
* Insert a audio and subtitle stream switcher (drop down boxes) in the empty space between file open and volume control
* Another idea would be to have a drop down box on the forward / backward buttons, that opens the navigation in chapters (if someone holds the button for some time)

[[Category:Activities]]

QtIntfMockups

2007-04-24T19:36:35Z

H2g2bob:

This page is for mockups of new ways of doing the interface. We have chance at a clean break with the new Qt interface, I think it should be used to get rid of the some of the complexity and ambiguity in the old interface. NOTE: I literally JUST got into VLC development, so some of what I put here might be completely unworkable, or need some modifications. Please tell me when that happens --[[User:Pherthyl|Pherthyl]] 23:44, 23 November 2006 (CET)

==Open Network==

The open network stream is a mess in the old interface. Most of the protocols require basically the same info, and yet we have 4 radio buttons to select from protocols, then 2 URL fields, 2 Port selectors, 1 address field (URL/Address, why the distinction).

I propose to change it to something simpler: [http://www.mushroomstamp.ca/vlc/qtintfmockup1.png Open Network]

Basically, you select the protocol from the dropdown, then you type in your address. If you just paste a url into the address field, the dropdown automatically detects the correct protocol from the url (if it can) and sets the correct value. If you have a url, and then change the protocol from the dropdown, it will modify the url appropriately. If you select a protocol where the port or the options are meaningless, they will be disabled (either that or they won't be shown unless they are relevant.

:Looks better indeed :) The port number thing is kind of problematic though. If you get stuff like an mms url on the web it'll use something like "mms://host.example.com:8080/myteststream". If the user specified port is left null, like in your screen shot, i guess that we can disregard it. But what happens if the user specifies the port number ? (maybe that port input should only be available for udp/rtp (and their multicast conterparts)) [[User:Dionoea|Dionoea]] 11:42, 24 November 2006 (CET)

::Good point. I think we have 2 options here:
:: 1. When a user types/pastes an address like "mms://host.example.com:8080/myteststream" with a port number, we detect this and set the port correctly. If they change the port number in the combobox, we update the textual URL to match. While this probably wouldn't be a problem to implement, it's kind of redundant to show the port in two places.
:: 2. Only show/enable the port selector for protocols that cannot specify the port in the address, or where it is more common to get an address without a port (UDP/RDP). This is more consistent with the previous way of doing things, probably preferrable. --[[User:Pherthyl|Pherthyl]] 21:05, 24 November 2006 (CET)

::: I'd do number 2. [[User:Dionoea|Dionoea]] 15:34, 25 November 2006 (CET)

== Mock-up Submissions ==
*If it is not too late, I have created some mock-ups and ideas that can be found on [[QtIntfMockups-DericksIdea|this page]]. --[[User:Zephyrxero|Zephyrxero]] 06:02, 2 January 2007 (CET)

[[Category:Activities]]

VoutReworkUserRequirements

2007-04-24T19:35:50Z

H2g2bob:

== User-side requirements ==

* working hotkeys in embed, windowed, or fullscreen mode
** Partially related to GUI, but some work will have to be done, see lower
* ability to position subtitles virtually anywhere (eg outside the picture)
** Ok, planned. See vout_render, cropping/padding
* screen-resolution OSD
** Planned, see subpictures
* ability to switch from embed to windowed vouts with the mouse
* screenshots
** Already existing ... Want something more ? Answer: yes. The current architecture is meant for interactive use, but is not really usable from an external application embedding VLC (cf [[MediaControlAPI]] for an example). Screenshot functionality should at least provide :
*** the ability to use a destination other than a file (think embedded)
*** a small cache of pictures to take into account the reaction time
*** precise timestamp of the snapshot (in movie time)
*** Replace image video output cleanly
* close helper vouts without stopping the stream
** More or less planned
* chained video filters
* on-the-fly AR correction
* enable/disable video filters on the fly
** Should work, currently buggy (suxxor thread suxxing). Planned
* stream video filters with stream output (eg start a stream, deinterlace it, invert the colors, distort the picture, add a logo and a rss feed and stream the result to your grandmother).
* Screensaver desactivation
* Screensaver output : maybe having sub-module with screensaver capatibilities and a way to ask the core to use a screensaver module instead of a regular vout module

[[Category:Activities]]

VoutReworkOrganization

2007-04-24T19:35:43Z

H2g2bob:

= Roadmap =

For more on the concepts (not very formalized) please see [[VoutRework]]

* Make a SVN branch (0.8.5-vout)
* Make the vout singleton that manages windows and inputs
** Create the singleton
** Create the notion of vout_window , vout_region, vout_input. See [[VoutRework]]
* Make the Great Unified Crop/Pad/AR thing
** Core part
** Modular part (standard C, or using OS capabilities)
* Rework SPU Unit
** Allow "absolute timing" (OSD) or "stream timing" (subs)
** Ability to work at video resolution (DVD Subs) or output resolution (OSD, text subs) (handled in vout)
* Sort the filters mess
* Add ability to add "video_filter2" in the chain

* Add additionnal flags to windows
* Fix hotkeys so they act on the selected window
* Fix subtitles

[[Category:Activities]]

VoutRework

2007-04-24T19:35:36Z

H2g2bob:

= Draft design for the vout rework effort =

[[VoutReworkUserRequirements]]

[[VoutReworkOrganization]]

== Overall architecture ==

The current system (one vout_thread_t per window) will be splitted

* vout_core that manages all vout instances and windows. also takes care of vout_filters (wall, clone)
* vout_window object per displayed window. provides a "region for vout_renderers" to draw in.
* vout_render that renders the actual video, text and image

== OSD and subpictures ==

We need to be able to display them either:

* At video resolution, for DVD subtitles (on the "render")
* At screen resolution (text subtitles, OSD control) (on the "output")
** This will also allow us to draw subtitles outside of the video rendering
** Probably needs specific code for each vout

At the moment, subpictures have very annoying timing constraints. subpictures should be timed either on the stream (for subpictures) or absolute, from the vout_core
(for subfilters)

We should create two seperate systems. a vout_render level system which basically draws extra things into the region provided by vout_window. This can be both text, images and possibly even video. Material should be drawn in the resolution of the provided region, instead of the resolution of the main video. It should be seperate from the spu streams. However it should be possible to feed SPU based material to the vout_render system instead of the normal SPU stream pipeline and vice versa.

Comments from Gibalou: I agree overall but be aware that rendering on the vout window can be quite tricky. For instance on platforms which only support 1 overlay (already used by the video), we will have to constantly refresh the OSD (to handle resizing / refreshing of the vout window).
For this reason I would suggest we keep this feature as simple as possible and only make it support displaying of subpictures (subpicture_t/subpicture_region_t).

== Filters ==

Make a clean separation:

* vout_filters should not be the same as real vouts anymore (will come from the split)
Comments from Gibalou: they don't really need to be changed since they alreday don't create any window.
* pic_filter
** Currently called video_filter2, should be renamed
** Works on a single pic buffer
** Can be streamed
Comments from Gibalou: video_filter2 is not just about 1->1 picture conversion. It is actually designed to work on video and could for instance allow for temporal de-interlacing, inverse telecine, etc... So it really is a video_filter and not merely a pic_filter.

Two big areas of work to be able to integrate video_filters into the vout core will be:

- Proper support for direct-rendering.
Some filters won't actually modify the video frames directly (eg. auto-cropping) or will do in-place modifications so they will need to be able to allocate their pictures from the next filter in the chain and pass it on to the previous filter when requested. In short, picture allocation needs to be reviewed so it is done in an optimized way.

- Dynamic modification of the filter chain.
Again this is tricky because the decoder (which does direct-rendering) will be using pictures allocated from the filter. If this filter changes or is removed, we will need a way replace the pictures in use by the decoder. That could be done by having a mechanism that progressively replaces the picture buffers used by the decoder by indirect buffers and when non of the direct buffers are in use anymore then we switch the filter.
That will be a lot better then the current way of stopping/starting the decoder.
* subpicture_filter

== Modularization of specific calls ==

For many of the operations we need, OS specific calls exist (OpenGL, Quartz, DirectX). This should be modularized, with a native "C" fallback.
OS specific calls are often faster.

There should be only one module for all the calls, if possible. The best module would be loaded by the vout_core singleton, and function pointers set up for each of the functions we need. perhaps a vout_Control type could take care of all these things in the vout_renderer.
paramaters that should be handled this way are at least: alignment, AR, crop, pad

Comment from Gibalou: AR, crop (and soon pad) are already implemented in the vouts (see below). Alignment is also already supported and is only about placing the vout subwindow (frame or whatever you call it) into the main window.

== Misc ==

* Vout plugins (that provide vout windows) should allow reusing a vout by reusing it. This would much improve the experience)
* Vout windows must have a flag to tell if they are "main" or "helper" (audio visualization, ...). Helper vouts should get no OSD (if another vout is present) and should not "steal" the accelerated vout"
* cropping and padding (do at OS level, but provide a core call to set it up and configure) '''=> Done'''
* vout windows should indicate if they are on a 4:3 or 16:9 screen (we can calculate this trough resolution). Note that this can change, because a window could be moved from one screen to another. Use callbacks. '''=> Why would you want to know the AR of the screen ? Aren't you confusing with the PAR ? This information could be used by the core to facilitate selection of cropping/padding etc for instance 4:3 display on a 16:9 screen. you might want to crop the top/bottom or stretch the view by default. Especially when you are also gonna add padding for subtitle rendering for instance, this information might become useful.
* better hotkeys integration: need hotkey module redesign to act on selected vout and relevant input instead of the first we find
* pseudo-hotkeys: ability to move the window by clicking on the video and dragging it (in particular for borderless windows).
* interaction between interfaces and embedded vouts: if the vout window is moved and/or resized (due to a hotkey), how to notify the interface (skins engine in particular)?
'''

== cropping padding functionality ==

* add padding in order to display subs under the video. what if we have a 4:3 movie in a 4:3 screen? do we create blackbars to the left and right sides? do we crop a part of the video ???
* 4:3 cropping to 16:9 (in order to remove blackbars at top and bottom
* 16:9 cropping to 4:3 (in order to remove blackbars left and right side)
* 4:3 to 16:9 (AR correction)
* 16:9 to 4:3 (AR correction)
* AR Freeform
* Support Moviescreen AR? (2.39:1 or 1.85:1)
* More info on AR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image)
* If we let the window provider pass/calculate the AR of the display, then we can even do some of this automatically if the uses desires.
* cropping should have priority over padding. Then we can first crop blackbars, then add padding for subs.
* coordinate specified cropping and padding

Comment from Gibalou: AR / Cropping (and soon Padding) has already been reworked and is now handled directly in the vout module (makes sense since cropping and resizing are supported by most sane graphic APIs).
All this is controled from the core by setting the relevant parameters in vout_format_t.
Now, what could be done is to add extra logic (eg. in video_filters) to do some clever things like auto-cropping, etc... All they need to do is to modify video_format_t to change the final cropping/padding/AR.

[[Category:Activities]]

G.728

2007-04-24T19:33:22Z

H2g2bob:

{{codec video}}
{{wikipedia|G.728}}
'''G.728''' is a codec for storing speech created by [[ITU-T]]. It is based on Low Delay Code Excited Linear Prediction ([[LD-CELP]]).

==28_8==
'''28_8''' is a variation on G.728 which uses 28.8 kbits/sec. It is used in [[RealMedia]] files.

FourCC

2007-04-24T19:32:50Z

H2g2bob:

{{stub}}
Four bytes which specify the format of datas contained in a media file.

[[Category:Glossary]]

SubRip

2007-04-24T17:35:23Z

H2g2bob:

'''SubRip''' is the native subtitle format of the [http://zuggy.wz.cz/ SubRip program]. It is one of the most used formats for subtitles. It may have the [[file extension]] .srt.

==Specification==
Subtitles are formatted as follows: 
:n 
:h1:m1:s1,d1 --> h2:m2:s2,d2 
:Line1 
:Line2 
:... 
:<blank line> 

'''n''' = sequential number. This may also appear on the same line as start/stop times. 
'''h1:m1:s1,d1''' = start time 
'''h2:m2:s1,d2''' = stop time 

[[Category:Subtitles]]

SubViewer

2007-04-24T17:34:08Z

H2g2bob:

'''SubViewer''' is a file format for storing [[subtitles]]. It may have the [[file extension]] .sub.

==Specification==
A sample SubViewer document may look like;
:[INFORMATION] <-- beginning of optional info section, closing tag required 
:[TITLE] Title of film. 
:[AUTHOR] Author of film. 
:[SOURCE] Arbitrary text 
:[FILEPATH] Arbitrary text 
:[DELAY] (time in frames to delay all subtitles 
:[COMMENT] Arbitrary text 
:[END INFORMATION] 
:[SUBTITLE] <-- beginning of subtitle section, no closing tag required. 
:[COLF]&HFFFFFF,[SIZE]12,[FONT]Times New Roman 
:00:01:00.10,00:02:00.20 
:Oh, no. 
:The eggs are hatching! 
:<blank line> 
:00:02:00.30,00:03:00.40 
:No, never mind, I was hallucinating. 

Note: SubViewer 2.0 format, the whole subtitle is written on one line, with line breaks indicated by [br], as follows:

:00:01:00.10,00:02:00.20 
:Oh, no.[br]The eggs are hatching! 

==References==
[http://divxstation.com/article.asp?aId=27 Divxstation] article by Stachken

[[Category:Subtitles]]

SubStation Alpha

2007-04-24T17:32:43Z

H2g2bob:

'''SubStationAlpha''' is a [[subtitle]] format. It may have the [[file extension]] .ssa

==Specifivation==
An example document looks like this:
[Script Info]
Title:
Original Script:
Original Translation:
Original Editing:
Original Timing:
Original Script Checking:
Synch Point:
Script Updated By:
Update Details:
ScriptType: v4.00
Collisions: Normal
PlayResY: 864
PlayDepth: 0
Timer: 100.0000

[V4 Styles]
'''(Format: "Style: Name, Fontname, Fontsize, PrimaryColour, SecondaryColour, TertiaryColour, BackColour, Bold, Italic, BorderStyle, Outline, Shadow, Alignment, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, AlphaLevel, Encoding")'''
Style: Default,Arial,20,65535,65535,65535,-2147483640,-1,0,1,3,0,2,30,30,30,0,0

[Events]
'''(Format: "Dialogue: Marked, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text")'''
Dialogue: Marked=0,0:02:32.85,0:02:34.33,*Default,1,0000,0000,0000,,Oh no! The eggs are hatching!

[[Category:Subtitles]]

SubStation Alpha

2007-04-24T17:32:27Z

H2g2bob:

SubStation Alpha

2007-04-24T17:32:05Z

H2g2bob:

VPlayer

2007-04-24T17:27:36Z

H2g2bob:

'''VPlayer''' is a format for containing [[subtitle]] information. It may have a .txt [[file extension]].

==Specification==
The VPlayer format is one of the following:

Frame Type Structure: 
 
{1000}{2000}This is a subtitle.|This is a second subtitle. 
{3000}{4000}This is a third subtitle.|This is a fourth subtitle. 
{5000}{6000}This is a fifth subtitle.|This is a sixth subtitle. 
 
Time Duration Structure 1: 
 
01:00:10:This is a subtitle. 
02:00:20:This is a second subtitle. 
03:00:30:This is a third subtitle. 
04:00:40:This is a fourth subtitle. 
 
Time Duration Structure 2: 
:Leading zeros may be omitted.

[[Category:Subtitles]]

Hacker Guide/VLC source tree

2007-04-24T17:25:33Z

H2g2bob:

This page lists the directories in the source tree of VLC, aimed at giving new beginners an overview of the code. Because VLC has evolved with not so much accumulation in mind, when a new coder looks at the code, s/he is terrified by the abundance of directories. This page is prepared to remedy that situation.

The directories are listed in alphabetical order, with an overview of their contents on the right.
{| class="wikitable"

|-
! Directory Name
! Directory Explanation
|-
|activex
|activex bindings
|-
|bindings
|Java and Python bindings
|-
|doc
|Documentation (not up-to-date)
|-
|evc
| Deprecated, embedded Visual Studio files.
|-
|extras -
|contrib (subdirectory of extras) - for required libraries (contains Makefiles to automatically download and compile (or cross-compile) and patch those. Please first attempt to get the development headers precompiled for your distribution.
''extras also contains the emacs.init file (useful for coding in Videolan style)''
|-
|include
|Header files for vlc
|-
|ipkg
|A package distribution system used by some Linux disrtibutions. This probably contains definition files for the packages.
|-
|libs
|Containts the loader (win32 dmo codec loading on Linux) and a SRTP library
|-
|lxdialog
|FIX ME! I guess this is not important, last modified 1 year ago!
|-
|m4
|Macro files needed for automake and autoconf
|-
|modules
|The most important directory with src/. See [[Modules source tree]].
|-
|mozilla
|Mozilla plugin
|-
|msvc
|Deprecated, Microsoft Visual C files I guess
|-
|po
|i18n files
|-
|python
|Probably related to the Python bindings
|-
|share
|icons, scripts to make VLC the default player etc.
|-
|src
|The most important directory with modules/. See [[src source tree]]
|-
|test
|scripts to see if everything is OK

|}

[[Category:Building]]

Telnet rc rewrite

2007-04-24T17:22:41Z

H2g2bob: /* References */

==Abstract==
Rewriting the remote control and telnet interfaces has been a long standing issue. Once the new playlist is finished in 0.8.6, we can begin merging those two interfaces ... well in fact rewriting most of the stuff.

==Ideas/goals/...==
* use new playlist
* advanced shell/telnet features (autocompletion, history, ...)
* allow multiple remote connections on the interface
* authentification: should we have only one level or several ?
* make it possible to "browse" the modules like a file system. This would be usefull to change variables which registered callbacks on the fly. (On a developer's point of view it would also simplify visualisation of the different module's interaction)
* keep backwards compatibilty with old telnet and rc modules. telnet is definitively a must have, i don't really know about rc.

==TODO==
* define all the commands and different features which will be needed.
* authentification method like this: Executing any script when user connecting via VoD link rtsp://server/test. If return 0 then starting streaming else not starting.

==References==
* [https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/203 Trac ticket #203]
* [http://www.via.ecp.fr/via/ml/vlc-devel/2005-04/msg00069.html old mailing list discussion]

[[Category:Activities]]

Talk:SIP

2007-04-24T17:21:56Z

H2g2bob:

{{stub}}

==Compatability==
It seems that the VideoLan support streaming base on the SDP file.Is anyone has the experiences on using the VideoLan as a sip endpoint to give out the streaming while the other sip endpoint send a sip invite?

SAMI

2007-04-24T17:18:24Z

H2g2bob:

The SAMI (*.smi) subtitle format is a '''rare''' HTML-format with startframes given for each subtitle.

Example:
<pre>
<TITLE>Title of film
<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
<blank line>
<BODY>
<blank line>
<SYNC Start=30886>
Oh no! The eggs are hatching!
<blank line>
<SYNC Start=34037>
Wait, never mind. I was hallucinating.
</pre>

==References==
[http://divxstation.com/article.asp?aId=27 Divxstation] article by Stachken

[[Category:Subtitles]]

SVCD

2007-04-24T17:17:52Z

H2g2bob:

{{wikipedia|SVCD}}
'''SVCD''', or '''Super Video CD''' is a way of storing a video on a [[CD]] in a similar way to storing it on a [[DVD]]. It is (of course) generally lower quality than a DVD due to the smaller size of a CD rather than a DVD.

==Compatibility==
SVCDs often do not work in VLC Player. VLC can sometimes play SVCDs using [[libcdio]] and [[libvcdinfo]] - the [http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html features] page has more details. For a complete VCD/SVCD which includes menu selections, hot spots and playback control, see [http://www.xinehq.de xine].

[[Category:Physical media]]

Use in Media Center

2007-04-24T17:17:12Z

H2g2bob:

= Presentation =
A plugin exist to integrate {{VLC}} in Windows Media Center 2005 and Vista.

This has been done by [http://home.versatel.nl/mauricevankruchten/ Maurice van Kruchten].

Screenshot:

http://home.versatel.nl/mauricevankruchten/MCEscience-soft/Images/vlchoofd.jpg

= How to =

Use VLC 0.8.5 or 0.8.6.

Download [http://home.versatel.nl/mauricevankruchten/MCE/VLCplayerMCE.rar the RAR file]. UnRAR the file and enjoy!

[[Category:Embedded]]

Sorenson Video

2007-04-24T17:16:35Z

H2g2bob:

{{codec video}}
{{stub}}
Sorenson Video is developed by Sorenson?. The codec is most known for its use in online QuickTime? content produced by Apple?, most prominently the [http://www.apple.com/trailers/ Apple Trailers].

There are 2 versions so far, SVQ1 and SVQ3. Their quality is quite good, but unfortunalty only QuickTime? and FFmpeg based players can play it.

VLC supports SVQ

* [http://www.sorenson.com/ Sorenson Media]

Sorenson Video

2007-04-24T17:16:12Z

H2g2bob:

{{codec video}}
Sorenson Video is developed by Sorenson?. The codec is most known for its use in online QuickTime? content produced by Apple?, most prominently the [http://www.apple.com/trailers/ Apple Trailers].

There are 2 versions so far, SVQ1 and SVQ3. Their quality is quite good, but unfortunalty only QuickTime? and FFmpeg based players can play it.

VLC supports SVQ

* [http://www.sorenson.com/ Sorenson Media]

SoC 2007 projects

2007-04-24T17:07:25Z

H2g2bob:

Here is a list of the accepted projects for the [[SoC 2007|Google Summer of Code 2007]].

== List of current projects ==

=== Avanced subtitle support for VLC ===

* '''Project page: [[SoC 2007 Project Advanced Subtitle Support|Advanced Subtitle Support]]'''
* '''Student''': Philip David Lamparter
* '''Mentor''': Sigmund Augdal
* '''Abstract''':

: Nowadays, with international shipping and multi-cultural nations, an increasing number of people prefers to watch videos with the original audio track. However, since most people wouldn't be fluent with all the source languages they come across, subtitles are in widespread use to overcome this.

: The set of subtitling formats supported by the VLC player currently covers simple formats. One of the rather widely used formats, SSA/ASS, is not properly supported though - probably due to its capabilities for advanced styling, animation effects, and even drawing commands.

: My goal for this Summer of Code project is to provide VLC with rendering capabilities for this format. Ultimately, I'm desiring 99% compatibility with what's considered the reference for it: the Windows renderer "VSFilter".

: To achieve this goals, I already started implementing a standalone filter for this purpose, called asa. Therefore, a rough outline of my plans is:
: 1. Create bindings between VLC and asa.
: 2. Fix the remaining bugs and missings in asa.
: 3. Look for and cover extended usage cases in both VLC and asa (subtitle picture streaming, drawing mode, OpenType glyph substitution support)

=== VLC Mac OS X Framework Implementation ===

* '''Project page: [[SoC 2007 Project Mac OS X Framework|Mac OS X Framework]]'''
* '''Student''': [[User:Pdherbemont|Pierre d'Herbemont]]
* '''Mentor''': [[User:Fkuehne|Felix Paul Kühne]]
* '''Abstract''':

: Proposition: Write a Cocoa Mac OS X (and possibly GNUStep) Framework that would serve as a foundation to the 2 differents Mac OS X VLC binaries.

: Those binaries are the standard VLC.app executable, and the VLC web browser plugin.

: This Framework could also be used as a library for other applications that need a video output.

=== Matroska Muxer for VLC ===

* '''Project page: [[SoC 2007 Project Matroska Muxer|Matroska Muxer]]'''
* '''Student''': Hugo de Jesús Garza Gómez
* '''Mentor''': Steve Lhomme
* '''Abstract''':

: In recent years the digital video industry has seen a boom in the number of users; thanks originally to the DVD for bring digital video in mass quantities, but more recently to innovative websites such as YouTube and peer to peer applications where users can share their videos. The reason that these applications are successful is because their users use a standard container for video files which for years has been the AVI container. However as time went on the AVI container was outgrown by the rapid pace of change and the needs of the consumer. To satisfy these needs new containers were created with more features such as menus, chapters, and multiple audio streams.

: The AVI format was originally created by Microsoft as an extension to the RIFF format for its video for windows technology thus establishing it as the standard format for distributing video files. In recent years newer audio and video codecs have been released which brought to light many deficiencies in the AVI format. As a solution to this problem the matroska container was created to be an opensource flexible and cross-platform Audio/Video container format. In order to play matroska streams it is necessary to use a media player capable of reproducing them, such as VLC by the VideLAN project. VLC is a cross-platform media player, but is unique in that it supports a large number of multimedia formats without the need for additional codecs. One of the major strength of VLC is also that it can receive and broadcast videos streams, which is where Matroska could find a new use.

: The proposal for this project is to create a matroska muxer for the VLC media player in C++ using the libmatroska library which would allow the creation of new matroska streams and modification of existing streams. The muxer would support various audio/video codecs and most of the features of the matroska spec: multiple audio streams and multiple subtitles.

=== RTSP Streaming Server in VLC ===

* '''Project page: [[SoC 2007 Project RTSP Streaming Server|RTSP Streaming Server]]'''
* '''Student''': Sourav Pal
* '''Mentor''': [[User:Jpsaman|Jean-Paul Saman]]
* '''Abstract''':

: The main goal as mentioned in the project listing is to enable VLC with RTCP features, interleave RTP stream over RTSP when firewall is encountered, perform rtsp tunneling over http and perform per account options. If time permits follow-up with a performance evaluation of the streaming server code and pinpoint bottleneck issues.

=== Fullscreen Controller and Advanced Subtitle Support on VLC media player ===

* '''Project page: [[SoC 2007 Project Fullscreen Controller and Advanced Subtitle Support|Fullscreen Controller and Advanced Subtitle Support]]'''
* '''Student''': Richard Guo
* '''Mentor''': [[User:Yoann|Yoann Peronneau]]
* '''Abstract''':

: VLC is known as a lightweight media player that shines in playing files regardless of format. However, its UI is underdeveloped in comparison to competitors. While a revamped UI might not be first and foremost on the developers' minds, adding a basic control interface in fullscreen mode would greatly enhance VLC's adoption.

: From a usability standpoint, it is a hassle for users to exit fullscreen mode just to operate the controls controlling pause, play, fast forward, and the position of playback. Power users and developers usually have customized keybindings for use in fullscreen mode, but the vast majority of users expect a controller in fullscreen mode. Moreover, it is inconsistent to support fullscreen controls on the Mac OSX version but not on *nix or Windows.

: The second proposal concerns displaying and rendering subtitles. VLC's current subtitle capabilities is rather rudimentary. Work on this aspect of VLC will consist of three parts: detection of subtitle streams (either with DVD input on disc or in a file in the same directory as the video), automated parsing (must handle all formats and errors in syntax), and display (smart rendering, advance rendering, positioning, size, shape, font, colour, HTML tags, etc.).

=== Audio Extensions for VLC media player ===

* '''Project page: [[SoC 2007 Project Audio Extensions|Audio Extensions]]'''
* '''Student''': Biodun Osunkunle
* '''Mentor''': Derk-Jan Hartman
* '''Abstract''':

: The VLC media player's audio post processing capabilities can be improved. Currently, preset equalizer values, an option for a graphic equalizer with the extended GUI, and a headphone virtualization option.

: The goal of this project is to extend these audio capabilities to include such features as Dolby Prologic 2 like features, (psycho acoustic audio processing), and other effects such as artificial reverberation.

=== Overlay Video Filter for VLC ===

* '''Project page: [[SoC 2007 Project Dynamic Video Overlays|Dynamic Video Overlays]]'''
* '''Student''': [[User:Avacore|Søren Bøg]]
* '''Mentor''': [[User:Dionoea|Antoine Cellerier]]
* '''Abstract''':

: The goal for this project to develop a video filter for VLC to allow third party applications to overlay static and dynamic alpha-blended images ontop of a VLC video. The idea here is to provide VLC with a video filter that is comparable to what bmovl and bmovl2 provide for MPLayer. What that is, is a video filter that enables third party applications to get access to a piece of shared memory or similar, in which the third party application can draw something. The third party application can then notify VLC that the shared memory has been updated, and VLC will then composite the image into subsequent frames.

[[Category:Activities]]

SoC 2007

2007-04-24T17:07:16Z

H2g2bob:

Google Summer of Code 2007.

''VideoLAN is a mentoring organization — List of accepted projects can be found [[SoC 2007 projects|here]]''

== Introduction & Informations ==

This wiki page covers the attempt by the [[VideoLAN]] project to act as a mentoring organization for [http://code.google.com/soc/ Google Summer of Code], in order to improve {{VLC}}.

We are now (15 March, 2007), an official mentoring organization!

=== VLC media player ===
{{VLC}} is a cross-platform Multimedia player, and encoding and streaming application.
It is one of the most successful open-source projects without any professional structure underneath.

{{VLC}} is downloaded at an approximate monthly rate of 4 millions from the main website (not including third-party distributions (Linux)), which means about 30 million people have downloaded VLC 0.8.5 from the main website!

You can find more information on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLC_media_player VLC on Wikipedia] or on this [[Main_Page|wiki]].

=== Summer of Code ===
We are now a mentoring organisation ([http://code.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=60303&topic=10727 mentors on SoC Website]).

If selected and developed, SoC ideas will be included in the VLC 0.9.1 release, and covered by the GPL licence. 0.9.0, our upcoming release, should be out before the summer.

=== Ideas ===
'''Read this'''

We (the VideoLAN team, and [[User:J-b|jb]], the author of this page) have split this page in two lists of ideas:
* The ''main ideas'' are the ones we would like to focus on, and seem to be key projects for VLC and a lot more ''thrilling'' than the other ones; we have assigned a potential mentor to each of these.
* The other ideas are less detailled but could be good ideas too.

We don't want to impose anything. This is free and Open Source software.

If you don't want to apply for SoC but want other ideas to develop on, check the [[Mini Projects]] page!
And on IRC channel, you can have even more ideas.

== Main ideas ==

=== GUI interfaces for the browsers plug-ins ===
This project focuses on adding interfaces to our browser plug-ins, in order to have, in the web pages embedded mode, buttons to control {{VLC}} as in WMP or Youtube player. These buttons need to be cross-platform and cross-browsers.

The second part of this project aims to provide a replacement for all preconfigured media players embedded in web pages, if possible.

For example, when a webpage asks for WMP embedded plugin, youtube player, quicktime player or any other, VLC would detect the stream and display it. This would mean less CPU needed than Flash based players...

This project may need to work in concert with some improvements on the cache handling module access.

The look of the interface should not be a problem (it can be added later on).

''Proposed mentor: Quovodis.''

=== Fullscreen Controller ===
This project is easy to describe, it would provide a fullscreen controller for Linux/Unix and Windows, as {{VLC}} already has on MacOS X version since 0.8.6.

It should be draggable, clickable and support the classical control buttons to control VLC playback in fullscreen mode.

With this project, which is not too long, there should be some related work on Vout (Making sure the video output does not close and reopen between files for example...)

''Proposed mentor: Not defined yet''

=== Subtitle support ===

This project would work on the subtitle infrastructure and freetype module in order to read more types of subtitles:

* support for advanced SSA/ASS rendering using libass or asa or any other mean,
* support bold, italic, underline, RGB colors, size changes and font changes for a whole line or part of one line, (not all of these are supported now),
* support for the subtitles HTML tags, and add all the most used subtitles types that are not yet in,
* detecting overlap of two subtitle pictures and moving them so that this is less annoying,
* capability of displaying subtitles with no video enabled for audio books,
* ease the automatic extraction to a filebased format of subtitles. These subtitles can come from videos used in different formats (DVB, line 23...),

Optional related work:
* capability of moving the subtitles in the picture (freetype renderer),
* support for Karaoke subtitles ( :D )

''Proposed mentor: Dnumgis'' (Backup dionoea)

=== Vista acceleration and DirectX improvements ===
Current versions of {{VLC}} have a lot of problems on Windows Vista (check the forums for specifics).

We need support for the new EVR (enhanced video renderer) in Windows Vista, and make it the default Video Output module for that OS.

See [http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/b/9/5b97017b-e28a-4bae-ba48-174cf47d23cd/MED134_WH06.ppt Windows Vista Video Pipeline Architecture And Implementation] and [http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms788119.aspx DirectShow Improvements in Vista]

Some rework and enhancements of the DirectX and Direct3D Video Output modules may also be necessary.

''Proposed mentor: Quovodis''

=== MacOS X and Leopard ===
There are a few MacOS X specific projects, especially for Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5)

* Creation a {{VLC}} framework that can be used by both VLC.app and VLCplugin.bundle to integrate better with other Mac applications
* Adapt and use Leopard enhancements in {{VLC}}: QTKit Capture API, Resolution independence, iChat Theatre, ...

''Proposed mentor : TheDJ'' (Backup feepk)

=== RTSP streaming server ===
The RTSP server implementation in VLC is inefficient and lacks support for traversal mechanisms. Possible improvements include:

* Support for RTSP interleaved RTP media
* RTSP over HTTP tunneling
* Per-asset accounting options
* Profiling and performance improvements of the RTSP, HTTP and RTP server code
* (RTCP support on the VLC '''server side''')

''Proposed mentor: jpsaman'' (backup Courmisch)

== Other Ideas SoC 2007 ==

=== Matroska (mkv) muxing ===

This project is about writing a mkv muxer for VLC with advanced support (chapters, multiple audio and multiple subtitles, etc...) like when you need to rip or archive a DVD.

FFMPEG project has a similar project, and we could use the libavformat muxer and adapt ourselves, but we are not sure if we will be able to use therefore all the advanced features.

robUx4 can do the mentoring. He has already wrote the demux and has worked for matroska, so knows it very well.

=== VLM Schedule and recording ===
VLM is under rework by fenrir on these days. But some work of our scheduler and recorder might be an interesting and needed project to improve recording with VLC.

=== WinCE port ===
The WinCE port has been broken for some time now before 0.8.4. Reparing the builds of all the external libraries build and making VLC build and work should take some time :D

Then a rework of the interface should happen.

=== Phonon Back-End ===

KDE4 will be out with a new framework for multimedia, this year. Using {{VLC}} as a back-end for phonon would be great!

''Proposed mentor: Courmisch'' (unless someone feel easier with this, jb? thresh? or...?)

=== Mini Projects - More ideas ===

We have a more general page for ideas for Project in {{VLC}}, that could give you ideas: [[Mini_Projects]].

== Questions? Contact us? ==
If you need to contact us for any questions, you can:
* use this [[Talk:SoC_2007| Talk page]],
* use the [http://www.videolan.org/developers/lists.html vlc-devel] mailing list,
* come on IRC irc://irc.videolan.org #videolan
* contact one of the mentors or the backup mentors,
* or contact [[User:J-b| Jean-Baptiste Kempf]]

=== Mentors ===
The proposed mentors are:
* Quovodis,
* thedj,
* jpsaman,
* Dnumgis,
* robUx4 (if needed)

With backups:
* dionoea,
* feepk,

=== Administrators ===
* jb
* xtophe

[[Category:Activities]]

Media resource locator

2007-04-24T17:06:36Z

H2g2bob:

A '''media resource locator''' ('''MRL''') is a string of characters used to identify a multimedia resource or part of a multimedia resource. A MRL may be used to identify inputs or outputs to {{VLC}}.

The MRL syntax is:
<PRE>
[[access][/demux]://]URL[@[title][:chapter][-[title][:chapter]]] [:option=value ...]
</PRE>

{| class="wikitable"
! MRL section
! Description
! Possible values
|-
| access
| How to obtain the media data
|
cdda: CD Digital Audio 
dir: Filesystem-based directory 
dv: Digital Video/FireWire 
file: Filesystem-based file 
ftp: FTP 
gnomevfs: GnomeVFS 
http: HTTP 
mms: Microsoft Media Server 
pvr: PVR 
rtp: RTP 
rtsp: RTSP 
smb: Server Message Block 
tcp: TCP 
udp: UDP 
vcdx: Video CD
|-
| demux
| The format of the source data
|
a52sys/Raw A/52 demuxer 
aiff/AIFF demuxer 
asf/ASF v1.0 demuxer 
au/AU demuxer 
avi/AVI demuxer 
demuxdump/File dumpper 
dtssys/Raw DTS demuxer 
flac/FLAC demuxer 
h264/H264 video demuxer 
m3u/Playlist metademux 
m4a/MPEG-4 audio demuxer 
m4v/MPEG-4 video demuxer 
mjpeg/M-JPEG camera demuxer 
mp4/MP4 stream demuxer 
mpga/MPEG audio / MP3 demuxer 
mpgv/MPEG-I/II video demuxer 
nsc/Windows Media NSC metademux 
nsv/NullSoft demuxer 
nuv/Nuv demuxer 
ogg/OGG demuxer 
playlist/B4S playlist import 
playlist/DVB playlist import 
playlist/M3U playlist import 
playlist/New winamp 5.2 shoutcast import 
playlist/PLS playlist import 
playlist/Playlist 
playlist/Podcast parser 
playlist/XSPF playlist import 
ps/MPEG-PS demuxer 
ps/MPEG-PS demuxer 
pva/PVA demuxer 
rawdv/DV (Digital Video) demuxer 
real/Real demuxer 
sgimb/Kasenna MediaBase parser 
subtitle/Text subtitles parser 
tta/TTA demuxer 
ty/TY Stream audio/video demux 
vobsub/Vobsub subtitles parser 
voc/VOC demuxer 
wav/WAV demuxer 
xa/XA demuxer
|-
| URL
| The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier URI] of the source
| See http://www.w3.org/TR/uri-clarification/
|-
| title
| Which title to select for input
| Positive integer
|-
| chapter
| Which chapter to select for input
| Positive integer
|-
| option
| Options to apply only to the specified MRL
| See [[VLC command-line help]] for a full list
|}

[[Category:Glossary]]

Hacker Guide/Modules source tree

2007-04-24T17:05:29Z

H2g2bob:

This page lists the content of the Modules directory in the source tree of VLC, aimed at giving new beginners an overview of the code.

The directories are listed in alphabetical order, with an overview of their contents on the right. Any first level subdirectories are shown as well.

'''''Note:''''' This table is by no means exhaustive. Note that only plugins with their own subdirectories are listed; plugins inside the parent directories are not emphasized unless they are too important. A comprehensive list of the plugins VLC makes use of can be found [http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/browser/trunk/modules/LIST here].

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Directory Name
! Subdirectory Name
! Directory Explanation
|-
|access
|
|protocols to access streams through network (http,ftp,fake,tcp,udp etc.), access to physical media like cd's and dvd's
|-
|
|cdda
|input module to read audio CDs
|-
|
|dshow
|DirectShow access plugin for encoding cards under Windows
|-
|
|dvb
|input module for DVB-S/C/T streaming using v4l2 API
|-
|
|mms
|MMS over TCP, UDP and HTTP access module
|-
|
|rtsp
|
|-
|
|screen
|an input module that takes screenshots of the primary monitor
|-
|
|vcd
|input module for accessing Video CDs.
|-
|
|vcdx
|input module for accessing Video CDs with navigation & stills
|-
|
|
|
|-
|access-filter
|
|Includes the following filters: [[Documentation:Modules/timeshift|timeshift]], [[Documentation:Modules/record|record]], [[Documentation:Modules/dump|dump]], which are used for ?????
|-
|
|
|
|-
|access-output
|
|
|-
|
|
|
|-
|audio-filter
|
|Various audio filters like decoders, equalizers, converters.

|-
|
|channel-mixer
|Various mixers and decoders like Dolby decoder
|-
|
|converter
|Fixed and floating-point audio format conversions such as AC/3 or MPEG I-II Audio Layer 1, 2, 3 decoding
|-
|
|resampler
|Various audio resampler
|-
|
|
|
|-
|audio-mixer
|
|Mixer plugins.
|-
|
|
|
|-
|audio-output
|
|Audio output plugins like ALSA, OSS and DirectX audio.
|-
|
|
|
|-
|codec
|
|This directory includes various codecs, notably ''ffmpeg'' which is used for encoding and decoding various formats.
|-
|
|cmml
|Continuous Media Markup Language annotations/hyperlinks decoder
|-
|
|dmo
|a DirectMediaObject decoder that uses DirectMedia to decode video (WMV3)
|-
|
|ffmpeg
|Video decoder using the ffmpeg library
|-
|
|spudec
|RLE DVD subtitles decoder
|-
|
|xvmc
|XVMC video output and decoder
|-
|
|
|
|-
|control
|
|Various interfaces to control the player: gestures, hotkeys, lirc, remote control (rc) and telnet
|-
|
|[[Documentation:Modules/http inft|http]]
|HTTP remote control webinterface
|-
|
|
|
|-
|demux
|
|Various demuxers
|-
|
|asf
|ASF demuxer
|-
|
|avi
|AVI File stream demuxer
|-
|
|mp4
|MP4 file input module
|-
|
|mpeg
|
|-
|
|playlist
|playlist import module???
|-
|
|
|
|-
|gui
|
|GUI's for different platforms and the [[Documentation:Modules/ncurses|ncurses ]] interface
|-
|
|[[Documentation:Modules/beos|beos]]
|Audio output, video output and interface module for BeOS.
|-
|
||[[Documentation:Modules/macosx gui|macosx]]
|Video output, and interface module for Mac OS X.
|-
|
|pda
|interface for iPaq using the Gtk2+ widget set.
|-
|
|qnx
|QNX RTOS plugin
|-
|
||[[Documentation:Modules/Qt4|qt4]]
|interface module using the cross-platform Qt4 library: Multi-platform. This interface will be the default one upon subsequent releases.
|-
|
||[[Documentation:Modules/skins2|skins2]]
|Skinnable interface, new generation
|-
|
|wince
|Pocket PC interface
|-
|
|wxwidgets
|interface module using the cross-platform wxWindows library: Multi-platform. The default interface as of VLC 0.86a.
|-
|
|
|
|-
| meta-engine
|
|
|-
|
|
|
|-
|misc
|
|
|-
|
|dummy
|Dummy (no GUI) audio output, video output, interface and input modules.
|-
|
|memcpy
|memory chunk copying module.
|-
|
|notify
|notifications using libnotify
|-
|
|playlist
|
|-
|
|probe
|
|-
|
|testsuite
|
|-
|
|xml
|LibXML and xtag xml parsers
|-
|
|
|
|-
|mux
|Various Muxers
|
|-
|
|mpeg
|
|-
|
|rtp
|
|-
|packetizer
|
|Packetizers for H264/AVC and MPEG 4 audio and video streams.
|-
|
|
|
|-
|services-discovery
|
|
|-
|
|
|
|-
|stream-out
|
|-
|
|transrate
|
|-
|
|
|
|-
| video-chroma
|
|Image conversions such as YUV to RGB
|-
|
|
|
|-
| video-filter
|
|Various video filters like [[Documentation:Modules/deinterlace|Deinterlace]], [[Documentation:Modules/transform|Transform]], [[Documentation:Modules/wall|Wall]], [[Documentation:Modules/crop|Crop]], [[Documentation:Modules/panoramix|Panoramix]] etc.
|-
|
|
|
|-
| video-output
|
|-
|
|directx
|Video output module using the [[Documentation:Modules/direct3d|Direct3D]] and [[Documentation:Modules/directx vout|Direct X]] API's ; [[Documentation:Modules/glwin32|OpenGL]] for Windows.
|-
|
|qte
|video output module for Qt Embedded.
|-
|
|[[Documentation:Modules/x11|x11]]
|video output module using the X11 API.
|-
|
|
|
|-
|visualization
|
|Several visualizations, including [[Documentation:Modules/goom|goom]]
|-
|
|galaktos
|a visualization module that outputs OpenGL
|-
|
|visual
|visualisation system
|}
[[Category:Building]]

GStreamer

2007-04-24T17:02:56Z

H2g2bob:

{{wikipedia|GStreamer}}
{{open}}
'''GStreamer''' is an Open Source Multimedia Framework that allows the construction of graphs of media-handling components, ranging from simple mp3 playback to complex audio (mixing) and video (non-linear editing) processing. Applications can take advantage of advances in codec and filter technology transparently. Developers can add new codecs and filters by writing a simple plugin with a clean, generic interface.

GStreamer is released under the LGPL.

* [http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/ GStreamer]

[[Category:Player]]

Frequently Asked Questions

2007-04-24T17:02:13Z

H2g2bob: /* What to do if I can't find an answer to my question here? */

Copyright © 2002 - 2006 the VideoLAN project

Frequently Asked Questions about VideoLAN.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. The text of the license can be found on [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html the GNU website].

= VLC media player =

== Where can I download VLC for Mac OS 9? ==
Where did you read VLC for Mac OS 9 exist? There is not, and will not be, a version for Mac OS 9.

== Does VLC support DVDs from all regions? ==
Well this mostly depends on your DVD drive. Testing it is usually the quickest way to find out. The problem is that a lot of newer drives are RPC2 drives these days. Some of these drives don't allow raw access to the drive untill the drive firmware has done a regioncheck. VLC uses '''''libdvdcss''''' and it needs raw access to the DVD drive to crack the encryption key. So with these drives it is impossible to circumvent the region protection. (This goes for all software. You will need to flash your drives firmware, but sometimes there is no alternate firmware available for your drive). On other RPC2 drives that DO allow raw access, it might take VLC a '''''long''''' time to crack the key. So just pop the disc in your drive and try it out, while you get a coffee. RPC1 drives should 'always' work regardless of the regioncode.

== Where does VLC store its config file? ==
Currently, a config file is created on a per user basis (there is no global configuration file). If you modify the available options in VLC and save the new configuration, then a configuration file will be created in your user directory. The precise location of this file depends on the Operating System you are running:
* Linux / Unix: <code>$(HOME)/.vlc/vlcrc</code>
* Mac OS X: <code>HOME/Library/Preferences/VLC</code>
* Windows 95/98/ME: <code>C:\Windows\Application Data\vlc\vlcrc</code>
* Windows XP/2000: <code>C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\vlc\vlcrc</code>
* BeOS: <code>config/settings/vlcrc</code>

== VLC has a strange behavior... ==
The first thing to do is to reset the VLC preferences in the preferences dialog of the application and restart VLC. If VLC doesn't even start anymore, delete VLC's configuration file (see the previous question to know about its location). Then restart VLC. If it does not get any better, read the following questions!

== Videos are too dark ==
Often this is caused by video hardware overlay problems:
* If it is only one video then use the "Settings" menu, option "Extended GUI" and try to increase the Gamma value in the "Video" tab.
* Check your video card settings and turn off hardware video overlay. If the videos now play with proper lighting, then deinstalling and reinstalling the video drivers might help.

== I cannot read DVDs! ==
Here are a few things to check:
* If you are on Linux, did you install the '''''libdvdcss''''' package?
* Do you have write access to your DVD device? For instance, under Unix:
# chmod 666 /dev/dvd

where <code>/dev/dvd</code> is the device corresponding to your DVD drive.

== The video runs but the picture is distorted ==
There is probably a problem with the output layer. There are several ways of troubleshooting it. First, try with another output plugin, for instance:
% vlc -V sdl
% vlc -V x11
Second, change your screen depth and/or definition. It quite often helps. Lastly, if running Unix, have a look at your XFree86 video driver.

== Video is choppy ==
Your system might be too slow to decode all pictures. It might be that your CPU basically is not fast enough. It can also be that the subsystem is misconfigured/misdriven, this happens for example under Redhat Linux. Here are some elements to improve speed:
* Turn on DMA on your DVD device, for instance:
** Under Linux:
# hdparm -d1 /dev/dvd
** Under Windows, go to the '''''System''''' section of the control panel, and go to the '''''Hardware manager''''' (it is sometimes in a separate tab, and sometimes, you have to go to the '''''Advanced''''' tab. Then, righ-click on your DVD player, and check the '''''DMA''''' checkbox.
* Upgrade to the latest driver for your video board
If you are running Linux, you can additionnaly upgrade to the latest XFree86 version. If supported, check that the xvideo plug-in is effectively used with:
% vlc -vvvv
* Stop other running applications...
* Try disabling framedropping. Framedropping allows VLC not to decode some pictures when the CPU is overloaded, but can result in choppier playback under certain conditions.

Framedropping behaviour can be configured in the Video preferences of VLC.

== Audio and video are out of sync ==
Try using another audio output plugin and, under Unix, kill '''''esd''''' or '''''artsd''''' if they are running. If the problem is due to the input file, have a look at the "Audio desynchronisation compensation" option.

== VLC crashes. ==
Increase the verbosity level (either in the preferences or with a '''-vvvv''' command line option) and look at the debug messages (in the terminal or in the Messages window).

If you are convinced that it is a bug in VLC, have a look at the [http://www.videolan.org/support/bug-reporting.html bug reporting page].

On Debian Sarge, if it segfaults on TS or V4L, try removing <code>/usr/lib/vlc/demux/libty_plugin.so</code>.

== How can I take screenshots? ==
To take a snapshot of the video displayed by VLC, you just need to press the pre-defined snapshot hotkey:
* Windows / Linux / Unix: '''Ctrl-Alt-s'''
* Mac OS X: '''Command-Alt-s'''

To change it, go to ''Preferences -> Interface -> Hotkeys settings'', check ''Advanced options'', and set '''''Take video snapshot'''''.

You can also take a snaphot via the menu ''Video -> Snapshot''.

To change the snapshot format or directory, go to ''Preferences -> Video''.

== Where are my screenshots? ==
If you haven't changed the snapshot directory in your preferences, your screenshots should go to:
* Windows: <code>My Documents\My Pictures\</code>
* Linux / Unix: <code>$(HOME)/.vlc/</code>
* Mac OS X: <code>Desktop/</code>
To change it, go to ''Preferences -> Video -> Video snapshot directory''.

== My file doesn't seem to work! ==
Are you sure VLC supports the file? Try checking the [http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html features page]. If it supported and you compiled VLC yourself, check if you have downloaded and installed all the codecs correctly. If it is not supported, then you are out of luck for now.

: '''Note'''
: At present, especially WMV3, the most Real Player, and the most Indeo Video ("IV50", etc.) files are not supported by VLC and are not going to be in the near future.

== VLC doesn't display all subtitles ==
If VLC has autodetected your subtitles file, or if you opened it manually, but VLC only diplays some subtitles from time to time, you will need to change the subtitles file encoding.

Go to ''Preferences -> Input / Codecs -> Other codecs -> Subtitles'', and set ''Subtitle text encoding'' to the right one.

See this reference: [http://alis.isoc.org/codage/iso8859/jeuxiso.en.htm ISO Standard for various characters sets].

= VideoLAN streaming solution =

== Do I need a "streaming server"? ==
Well, there are in fact two kinds of streaming: passive streaming in which a movie is sent by a server and watched by one or several client, and Video On Demand (VOD) in which each client asks for its own stream.
* In passive streaming, the client has no control upon the server, and must subscribe for instance to a multicast group to receive the stream. This kind of streaming needs a server able to send data on a network with a protocol such as UDP multicast or RTP, for instance VLS or VLC stream output. The client side needs a player supporting such protocols, as VLC does.
* In Video On Demand, no specific "streaming server" is required, but the client must be able to read the stream in real time, instead of just dowloading the whole video before one can start viewing it. A simple protocol such as HTTP is sufficient for Video On Demand, so you just have to put your movie on a web server, and use a clever player to view it in real time, VLC for instance ;-) However of course you will not be able to view movies in real time if your network is too slow, so you MUST check that the average bandwith of your network link is higher than the average bandwith of your movie (size / duration). If it is not the case, VLC will try to keep in real time as much as possible, so you will probably get only the audio track and no video.

== VLC vs. VLS ==
Yes, both programs can be used to stream video, as explained in the [http://www.videolan.org/doc/ VideoLAN HOWTO]. The streaming features of each program are described on the [http://www.videolan.org/streaming/features.html streaming features] page.

Technically, there is an important difference:
* VLC opens all the system layers of the input stream, regenerate them all and then stream the result on the network or write it to a file. So VLC is good at streaming untrusted video and/or audio sources, like the video files found on the Internet and/or produced by non-professionnal software. VLC implements many muxers/demuxers (ps, ts, avi, ogg, mp4, ...) and many codecs, which allows to convert encapsulation formats and/or transcode an input stream on-the-fly ! VLC also has nice graphical interfaces.
* VLS only opens the highest system layers of the input stream and only has PS and TS demuxers. So VLS is good at streaming from trusted video and/or audio sources in PS or TS format produced by professional software or hardware like DVDs and DVB channels (satellite or digital terrestial TV) because it only regenerate the system layers that need to be regenerated, and no more. VLS is specially well designed to stream multiplexed TS streams, for instance a whole DVB transponder. VLS only has a TS muxer, doesn't do transcoding and doesn't have graphical interfaces.

== Is it not a waste of time to develop both? ==
To understand this situation, you must consider the history of VideoLAN. Before VLC's stream output, we had two very different programs:
* VLS, a program written in C++ running under Linux, Mac OS X and Windows only, that is basically a MPEG Transport Stream engine, with a very basic telnet interface, which was used as a server;
* VLC, a multi-platform program written in C, that implements demuxers, codecs, video and audio outputs and graphical interfaces, which was used as a client only.
In september 2002, some VLC developers had the idea of taking advantage of the multiple demuxers and codecs implemented in VLC to build a Stream Output whose ultimate goal was to be able to do transcoding. They wrote a stream output for VLC, that was released with VLC 0.5.0 in late January 2003. Introduced with the 0.8.0 release, VLC is able to transcode to any format it can read. Furthermore, starting with the 0.7.x series, VLC is able to stream multiple sources with one instance. This can be controlled with the VideoLAN (Media) Manager (VLM), which can be accessed through the telnet interface only. The http interface will be supported in future releases.

But what is more important is that VLS and VLC developers are not the same people, and that they are free to write the software they prefer! That is how free software runs, and it has shown in the past that is was a good engine for innovation and enhancement.

= Legal concerns =

== May I use the VideoLAN logo? ==
You may freely use the VideoLAN logo using the following copyright:

''''' Copyright (c) 1996-2003 VideoLAN. This logo or a modified version may be used or modified by anyone to refer to the VideoLAN project or any product developed by the VideoLAN team, but does not indicate endorsement by the project. '''''

== May I redistribute a piece of VideoLAN software? ==
You may distribute an original or modified version of a piece of VideoLAN software as long as you comply with its license terms. It is the GNU General Public License Version 2 (referred herein as GPL), and it is in the file named COPYING in our products. The easiest way to conform to the GPL is to accompany the product you want to distribute with its sources. For example, if you plan to distribute the lastest binary version of VLC, you should also include all the files listed on the [http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-sources.html VLC source code page]. You do not need to bother explaining where the sources are, but the sources have to share the same media as the products. There are other ways to comply with the GPL, but this should be the simplest because it does not rely on a contract.

: '''Note'''
: You do not need to ask the VideoLAN team the permission to do so!

== Is libdvdcss legal? ==
The use and distribution of the libdvdcss library is controversial in a few countries such as the United States because of a law called the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). If you are unsure about the legality of using and distributing this library in your country, please consult your lawyer.

: '''Note'''
: Beware: VLC media player binaries are distributed with the libdvdcss library included.

== What about personal/commercial usage? ==
Some of the codecs distributed with VLC are patented and require you to pay royalties to their licensors. These are mostly the MPEG style codecs.

With many products the producer pays the license body (in this case [http://www.mpegla.com MPEG LA]) so the user (commercial or personal) does not have to take care of this. VLC (and ffmpeg and libmpeg2 which it uses in most of these cases) cannot do this because they are Free and Open Source implementations of these codecs. The software is not sold and therefore the end-user becomes responsible for complying to the licensing and royalty requirements. You will need to contact the licensor on how to comply to these licenses.

This goes for playing a DVD with VLC for your personal joy ($2.50 one time payment to MPEG LA) as well as for using VLC for streaming a live event in MPEG-4 over the Internet.

= Miscellaneous =

== How may I help VideoLAN? ==
You might either contribute time, material, or money. We are also always needing some translators. You will find all information you need on the [http://www.videolan.org/contribute.html contribute page].

== Why are your mailing-lists and your website in english? ==
VideoLAN's developers come from all around the world and english is the only language they can use to communicate together. Although great care is given to the translation of VLC in various languages, maintaining translations of our website costs too much more time than we can afford.

== What to do if I can't find an answer to my question here? ==
Have a look at the [http://wiki.videolan.org/ Wiki]. There is another FAQ, which answers more questions on using and compiling the VideoLAN applications. Technical terms on streaming and multimedia are discussed too.

Search the [http://forum.videolan.org/ forums] for your question. There are many solutions to problems on using our programs.

If your question still was not answered, post it on the forums or mail a fitting [http://www.videolan.org/support/lists.html mailing-list]. More information on support provided by the project or consulting companies can be found on the [http://www.videolan.org/support/index.html support page].

[[Category:Documentation]]

Knowledge Base

2007-04-24T17:01:33Z

H2g2bob:

This page is the starting point for the VideoLAN Knowledge Base. Its goal is to document as much information about codecs, fileformats, protocols etc. Although mainly consisting of technical information, it is intended to be easily understandible by all users. It is something like a dictionary or a encyclopedia on video/audio streaming/playing. We can then link to these definitions from our user documentation and stuff.

Mike Melanson and Diego Biurrun from the FFmpeg project also started the [http://wiki.multimedia.cx/ MultimediaWiki] where you can find tons of information about multimedia technology, and mostly about codecs.

{|
|- width="90%"
|width="50%" align="center"|
* '''[[Codec]]'''
: About audio and video formats, like DivX and AC2
* '''[[Fileformat]]'''
: About different file types, like .avi and .mpg
* '''[[Protocols]]'''
: How data is sent from one place to another
* '''[[Dictionary]]'''
: Look up VideoLAN related words and concepts
* '''[[Players]]'''
: Other Multimedia Software
* '''[[Companies]]'''
: Software companies related (or not related) to VideoLAN
* '''[[Links]]'''
: Related web links

|width="50%" align="center"|
* '''[[Servers]]'''
: VLS, VLC and server software and hardware
* '''[[Projects]]'''
: 3rd party projects related to VideoLAN
* '''[[History|A brief history of VideoLAN]]'''
: About VideoLAN
* '''[[Video Output]]'''
: Different ways to display output
* '''[[Interface]]s'''
: Different ways to control VLC
* '''[[Buying Media to Play with VLC]]'''
: How to get [[DRM]]-free music.
* '''[[Hardware Compatibility list]]'''
: Hardware that works with VLC/VLS.
|}

[[Category:Documentation]]

Git

2007-04-24T17:00:48Z

H2g2bob:

For your convenience, a git mirror of the VLC svn tree has been set up. Here is a tutorial on how to use the git VLC repository.

You can read more about the VLC svn tree on our [[Subversion| Subversion wiki page]].

= Basic Git usage =
== Getting VLC source code via Git ==
$ git clone git://git.videolan.org/vlc.git
Voilà! The full VLC history should be on your hard disk in vlc/. Type
$ git log
to see the full log of the trunk.
$ gitk
to see the log graphically.

You can also browse the sources via [http://git.videolan.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi gitweb].

== Configure your local git repository ==
Tell git your name. (use mostly by git-commit)
$ git repo-config user.name "Your Name"
$ git repo-config user.email "me@example.com"

== List the local branch ==
You can now list your local branch by doing
$ git branch
which should ouput
$ git branch
* master

== List your local non committed changes ==
$ git status | less

== Commit ==
Now you can start to work on your tree. As soon as you feel you've reached a step in developement you can commit '''locally''' your work by
$ git commit -a
or
$ git commit <specific files>

== List your commits ==
$ git log

== Keeping your local working branch in sync ==
$ git fetch origin
$ git rebase origin
voilà! Your commit will be re-applied on top of the origin (the svn trunk).

== Submitting patches to the vlc-devel ==
If you have been developing on vlc locally and (still) don't have write access, you can submit all your commit in one shot using:
$ git format-patch -o out origin
which will produce the patches for each local commit in the directory "out".
You can also use the [http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-imap-send.html git-imap-send] command:
$ git format-patch --stdout --attach -n origin | git-imap-send
which will directly produces the emails and store them in a imap mail box, provided that you have properly set up [http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-imap-send.html git-imap-send].

= Advanced usage =
== Creating a secondary local branch ==
If you want to work on a specific project that could require a branch of the trunk, create a local branch of the current branch by doing:
$ git branch mywork
and to actually use it do:
$ git checkout mywork
Which could be summarized by:
$ git checkout -b mywork

Then do some commit on it... And you can go back to your original master branch by doing:
$ git checkout master

== Revert your non-committed local changes ==
$ git checkout -f

==Undo commit ==
This will undo the last commit
$ git reset HEAD^
which is the same as
$ git reset master^
(if you are checked-out copy of your tree is master)
And also the same as
$ git reset a44a594 # note that there is no need to use the full sha id
if you have:
$ git log
commit ff7004b70fd239e4120deb160e2991bd5237b8df
Author: fkuehne <fkuehne>
Date: Thu Apr 12 18:44:47 2007 +0000
* added sanity flags for future darwin releases and potentionally fixed OSX
commit a44a594898f981a145cfcace5f16f8973f9eb46f
Author: jb <jb>
Date: Thu Apr 12 16:24:49 2007 +0000
Qt4 - MouseWheel support - patch by Sergey Volk.

== Diff-ing ==
* You can diff between two branches using
$ git diff branch1 branch2
* You can diff between the previous 10th commit and current using
$ git diff HEAD~10 HEAD
* You can diff between the previous 10th commit and current of the branch "mywork" using
$ git diff mywork~10 mywork
* Imagine that git log is like
$ git log
commit e0394f269305edd09843257e7c1d1a66aaf48ab3
Author: jb <jb>
Date: Fri Apr 13 07:14:48 2007 +0000
qt4 - Mousewheel (2)
commit e80b339081aa6755f67c9bd8e2aacf93a9a79d95
[..]
commit ff7004b70fd239e4120deb160e2991bd5237b8df
[..]
commit a44a594898f981a145cfcace5f16f8973f9eb46f
[..]
commit 690df705c963cf6bf6f5746d54bc97a85ff91919
[..]
commit 679f8b1c3e0baa469efa970588b95a625c595d64
[..]

$ git diff a44a594898f981a145cfcace5f16f8973f9eb46f~2 e80b339081aa6755f67c9bd8e2aacf93a9a79d95
Will be equivalent to:
$ git diff ff7004b70fd239e4120deb160e2991bd5237b8df e80b339081aa6755f67c9bd8e2aacf93a9a79d95
And to:
$ git diff HEAD~4 HEAD^

* Remember that to produce a patch you should rather use git-format-patch than git-diff most of the time.

== Tracking regression ==
git has a great tool called [http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-bisect.html git-bisect] to help you to track a faulty commit. Imagine you are tracking a bug that is known to appear after 0.8.6 (assuming 0.8.6 is tagged):
$ git bisect start
$ git bisect bad # tell git current version has the bug you are tracking
$ git bisect good 0.8.6 # tell git 0.8.6 didn't has the bug
And then git will checkout a certain revision, and ask you to test it. And you simply say whether this version has the bug.
If it has the bug:
$ git bisect bad
if the bug is not present:
$ git bisect good
And so on by bisection... At the end git will indicate the faulty commit. Most of the time this tool is really efficient to track regression.

If you can provide a script that test the presence of the bug
$ git bisect run <script_name>
will be able to track down the regression by itself. See [http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-bisect.html git-bisect Documentation].

= Using Git (and git-svn) to commit on VideoLAN svn trunk =
== Initial checkout ==
First get the official VLC svn trunk within git
$ git-svn init svn://your_committer_login@svn.videolan.org/svn
If you want the full history skip this step:
$ git-svn fetch -r19800
Now get the get the rest
$ git-svn fetch
Compress the tree:
$ git repack -d

== Keeping in sync ==
$ git-svn fetch
$ git rebase

== Commit to VLC svn through git-svn ==
Once you've locally committed your changes you should be able to commit them to the remote svn branch by doing:
$ git-svn dcommit

Note that with git-svn, you'll lost some of the git advantages, and it will probably introduce some overhead in some cases.

= Using Git to publish your work (for SoC student?) =
First get the official VLC '''Soc''' trunk
$ git clone git://git.videolan.org/vlc-soc.git
$ cd vlc-soc
Ask for write access to a branch (called your_name_branch). Now we will make git know that you want to publish on this branch
$ git config remote.my_soc_public_branch.url ssh://videolan@altair.videolan.org/home/videolan/gitroot/vlc-soc.git
Now tell git that you want to automatically push the local master branch to the public your_name_branch:
$ git config remote.my_soc_public_branch.push +master:your_name_branch # the "+" will tell git to force update ignoring conflicts

Do some work and commit it to your master branch.
$ git commit -a
You can also sync with the trunk (origin) as needed
$ git fetch origin
$ git rebase origin
And don't forget to publish your changes:
$ git push my_soc_public_branch
Now you should be able to see your latest changes in your branch via [http://git.videolan.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi gitweb].

= Documentation about git =
* [http://git.or.cz/ Official Git Website]
* [http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/tutorial.html Git Tutorial]
* [http://git.or.cz/course/svn.html Switching from SVN to git using cogito]

[[Category:Building]]

InteractionSystem

2007-04-24T16:57:44Z

H2g2bob: cat

== Goal ==

Reference : https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/27

The goal is to implement a system to:

* Alert the user of critical errors (cannot play file). Should be blocking.
* Ask the user a question
** Are you sure?
** Try to Fix index of avi?
** Overwrite File ?
* Inform the user, without disturbing him. (Buffering stream). This might require a displaytime or something. Because how do we know how long this information should be displayed? Also think of buffering 0-100%
* present a user/passwd dialog when we get an authentication failure on a stream.

== Roadmap ==

Scheduled for implementation in 0.8.5

Some work will have to be done in all interfaces

== Objects architecture ==

* Interaction object
** void * pointer for interface specific stuff

* Widget object
** for input, associated with a vlc_value_t

* Interaction manager
** Maintains a list of currently active interaction displays
** When a new interaction is requested, forward the request to the interface (ASYNCHRONOUS !)
** Asks the interface to show/modify/remove a display
** Active polling ?

* Signalling the interface :
** function pointer
*** easier to know if interface does not support
** variable
*** cleaner ?
** "control" function

* Requester
** Builds the interaction object
** Add it to the interaction manager request queue.
*** Queue or single with lock ?
*** Analyze deadlock possibility

[[Category:Activities]]

VLC HowTo

2007-04-24T16:56:25Z

H2g2bob: /* Transcoding and Streaming */

__NOTOC__
Below are some handy guides for using VLC

===Playing Video and Audio===
;How to...
* [[What can vlc do#How to enable/use subtitles|Use Subtitles]]
*: Playing movies with subtitles
* [[How to Use a Capture Card|Use a Capture Card]]
*: This explains how to watch TV or get video from your capture card.
* [[What can vlc do#Play DVD/SVCD/VCD iso's / Images|Play DVDs and Disks from the image file]]
*: This explains how to use movies encoded onto an ISO file.

===Adjusting Settings===
;How to...
* [[What can vlc do#How to adjust picture brightness/colors/contrast..|Adjust Picture Brightness and Contrast]]
* [[What can vlc do#How to control the aspect ratio of the video|Edit the Aspect Ratio of a video]]
* [[How_to_disable_acceleration_in_Win32|Disable video acceleration in Win32]]
* [[How_to_save_bookmarks | Save bookmarks]]
* [[How_to_play_multiple_instances_of_VLC | How to play multiple instances]]

===Transcoding and Streaming===
;How to...
* [[Play_on_IPod|Play videos on your iPod]]
*: This explains how to convert your videos so they play on your iPod.
* [[Play_on_Yan Micro|Play videos on your Play-Yan Micro]]
*: This explains how to convert your videos so they play on your Play-Yan Micro.
* [[Play_on_Xbox|Play videos on your Xbox]]
*: This explains how to convert your videos so they play on your XBox.
* [[Play_on_Zune| Play video on your Zune]]
*: This explains how to convert your videos so they play on your Zune.
* [[Fixing .flv to .avi with Ffmpeg]]
*: This explains how to use ffmpeg to a convert broken .flv files to a perfectly good .avi file '''DEPRECATED'''
* [[Transcode_WM_to_Mov_or_MP4|Convert Windows Media audio/video files to MOV or .MP4]]
*: This explains how to convert Windows Media-encoded files to Quicktime or MPEG-4 files
* [[Streaming_to_ActiveX_for_Windows_Media_Player | Streaming from a webcam to an ActiveX embedded object page]]
* [[How_to_add_logo | Add a logo on your videos]]
* [[Mosaic| Create a Mosaic]]
*: This explains how to set up a mosaic from a few streams like a portal TV.
* [[How to DBox|Set up Video on Demand on a Dreambox]]

===Using VLC in other Applications===
;How to...
* [[ActiveX]]
*: Specification for ActiveX control
* [[ExternalAPI|Use VLC's External API]]
*: Information for using libvlc
* [[Use in Media Center]]

===Other Stuff===
;How to...
* [[How to Create a DVD|Create a DVD]]
*: This explains how to make a DVD from your home videos
* [[ActiveX/Delphi|Use the ActiveX control with Borland's Delphi]]
*: Using the VLC ActiveX plug-in in your programs
* [[ActiveX/HTML|Use the ActiveX control within a webpage.]]
* [[Control VLC via a browser]]
*: This explains how to use the HTTP [[interface]]
* [[Change the brightness or contrast of a video|Change a video]]
*: This explains how to edit a video and save the changes
* [[How to create thumbnails]]
* [[How to Use Lirc]]
* [[How to Use Creative Remote]]
*: Explains how to control {{VLC}} with Creative brand remote controls
* [[How to shut down computer]] when {{VLC}} playback is over...

== See also ==
* '''See also [[:Category:How To]]'''
[[Category:How To]]

VLC HowTo

2007-04-24T16:55:57Z

H2g2bob: /* Transcoding and Streaming */

__NOTOC__
Below are some handy guides for using VLC

===Playing Video and Audio===
;How to...
* [[What can vlc do#How to enable/use subtitles|Use Subtitles]]
*: Playing movies with subtitles
* [[How to Use a Capture Card|Use a Capture Card]]
*: This explains how to watch TV or get video from your capture card.
* [[What can vlc do#Play DVD/SVCD/VCD iso's / Images|Play DVDs and Disks from the image file]]
*: This explains how to use movies encoded onto an ISO file.

===Adjusting Settings===
;How to...
* [[What can vlc do#How to adjust picture brightness/colors/contrast..|Adjust Picture Brightness and Contrast]]
* [[What can vlc do#How to control the aspect ratio of the video|Edit the Aspect Ratio of a video]]
* [[How_to_disable_acceleration_in_Win32|Disable video acceleration in Win32]]
* [[How_to_save_bookmarks | Save bookmarks]]
* [[How_to_play_multiple_instances_of_VLC | How to play multiple instances]]

===Transcoding and Streaming===
;How to...
* [[Play_on_IPod|Play videos on your iPod]]
*: This explains how to convert your videos so they play on your iPod.
* [[Play_on_Yan Micro|Play videos on your Play-Yan Micro]]
*: This explains how to convert your videos so they play on your Play-Yan Micro.
* [[Play_on_Xbox|Play videos on your Xbox]]
*: This explains how to convert your videos so they play on your XBox.
* [[Play_on_Zune| Play video on your Zune]]
*: This explains how to convert your videos so they play on your Zune.
* [[Fixing .flv to .avi with Ffmpeg]]
*: This explains how to use ffmpeg to a convert broken .flv files to a perfectly good .avi file '''DEPRECATED'''
* [[Transcode_WM_to_Mov_or_MP4|Convert Windows Media audio/video files to MOV or .MP4]]
*: This explains how to convert Windows Media-encoded files to Quicktime or MPEG-4 files
* [[Streaming_to_ActiveX_for_Windows_Media_Player | Streaming from a webcam to an ActiveX embedded object page]]
* [[How_to_add_logo | Add a logo on your videos]]
* [[Mosaic| Create a Mosaic]]
*: This explains how to set up a mosaic from a few streams like a portal TV.
* [[How to Dbox|Set up Video on Demand on a Dreambox]]

===Using VLC in other Applications===
;How to...
* [[ActiveX]]
*: Specification for ActiveX control
* [[ExternalAPI|Use VLC's External API]]
*: Information for using libvlc
* [[Use in Media Center]]

===Other Stuff===
;How to...
* [[How to Create a DVD|Create a DVD]]
*: This explains how to make a DVD from your home videos
* [[ActiveX/Delphi|Use the ActiveX control with Borland's Delphi]]
*: Using the VLC ActiveX plug-in in your programs
* [[ActiveX/HTML|Use the ActiveX control within a webpage.]]
* [[Control VLC via a browser]]
*: This explains how to use the HTTP [[interface]]
* [[Change the brightness or contrast of a video|Change a video]]
*: This explains how to edit a video and save the changes
* [[How to create thumbnails]]
* [[How to Use Lirc]]
* [[How to Use Creative Remote]]
*: Explains how to control {{VLC}} with Creative brand remote controls
* [[How to shut down computer]] when {{VLC}} playback is over...

== See also ==
* '''See also [[:Category:How To]]'''
[[Category:How To]]

VLC HowTo/Use with Dreambox

2007-04-24T16:54:48Z

H2g2bob:

{{howto|Set up Video on Demand on a Dreambox}}
{{stub}}
I have spent some time now to figure out how to get Video on Demand to work on my dreambox. I have a DreamBox DM500S running the Gemini Image (Gemini Project), and this howto is based on that, however I believe the procedure will be similar on other DB's running the Gemini image as well...

Sources I have used:
http://digsat.net/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=36965&hilight=vlc
http://forum.videolan.org

First we need to get a plugin called VLC FrontEnd installed on the dreambox, it might already be there; check under blue panel - plugins. If it is not there, install it by doing the following.

<todo install vlc frontend>

Now, the front end is installed and almost ready to use. We still have nothing that can feed the frontend, so first we must create an xml file for the frontend to use:

<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="/XSLMPSettings.xsl"?>
<vlc>
<server ip="192.168.1.10" webif-port="8080" stream-port="9090" user="admin" pass="admin" />
<config startdir="c:/movies" cddrive="d:" />
<codec mpeg1="mpgv" mpeg2="mp2v" audio="mpga" />
<setup name="SVCD" ext="NONE" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="0" Videocodec="mpeg2" Videosize="352x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="0" />
<setup name="VCD" ext="NONE" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="0" Videocodec="mpeg1" Videosize="352x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="0" />
<setup name="DVD" ext="NONE" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="0" Videocodec="mp2v" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="1" />
<setup name="File" ext="MPG" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="1" Videocodec="mp2v" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="1" />
<setup name="File" ext="MPEG" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="1" Videocodec="mp2v" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="1" />
<setup name="File" ext="M2P" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="0" Videocodec="mpgv" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="0" />
<setup name="File" ext="MPV" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="0" Videocodec="mpgv" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="0" />
<setup name="File" ext="DAT" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="0" Videocodec="mpgv" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="0" />
<setup name="File" ext="AVI" Videorate="2048" fps="25" Videotranscode="1" Videocodec="mp2v" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="1" />
<setup name="File" ext="ASF" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="1" Videocodec="mpgv" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="1" />
<setup name="File" ext="TS" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="0" Videocodec="mp2v" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="0" />
</vlc>
</pre>

Use a unix compatible editor, like UltraEdit, edit lines 4 and 5. The server ip to fit the IP-address of the backend PC. Startdir and cddrive to fit correspondingly the movie folder and the cddrive on the backend pc.
Save it to a file called movieplayer_My_Server.xml to your dreambox's /var/etc folder. (save the file locally and FTP it to your dreambox, log in to your dreambox with default username root and password dreambox, or set up UltraEdit to save directly using FTP; your choice).

Now that the xml file has been made and transferred to the dreambox it is time to set up the backend VLC to feed the frontend.

'''VLC for Windows:''' 
Start VLC on the PC. 
Select File - Open Network Stream (Ctrl-N) 
Click Advanced Options 
- check Stream/Save and click Settings 
- check HTTP 
- check Video codec and select mp2v from the dropdown list. 
- check Audio codec and select mpga from the dropdown list. 
- click Ok 
- click Ok 
 
Now, activate the WebInterface (WEBIF) by selecting Settings - Add Interface - Web Interface from the VLC menu.

'''VLC for Linux (ubuntu):''' 
First, install vlc by running this command:
<pre>apt-get install vlc</pre>
This will in general install a ****load of stuff, codecs and other things needed. As I learnt, it is also required to install something called the avahi-daemon. This is done by running this command:
<pre>apt-get install avahi-daemon</pre>
If you are having trouble finding these packages, you might want to run:
<pre>apt-get update</pre>
Now that all this has been installed, you need to launch VLC using the following command-line:
<pre>vlc -d -I http --sout="#transcode{vcodec=mp2v,vb=1024,scale=1,acodec=mpga,ab=192,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=std{access=http,mux=ts,dst=:9090}}"</pre>
This specifies that the web interface is to be used, together with some transcoding stuff ;-)

At the time of writing this, I am still trying to tune the vlc backend a bit. It is currently using 50%+ cpu when streaming...

Now it is time to start the VLC frontend on the dreambox and set it up to use the correct xml file.
Start VLC frontend plugin by starting blue panel (blue button on the remote) and selecting Plugins. VLC Frontend will show up as a plugin, select it and press Ok.

VLC frontend is now started, select settings (blue button). 
In the dropdown list, select the xml file you created earlier, movieplayer_My_Server.xml. 
Then select Switch. 
You will now be told to restart VLC Frontend; do this by using the exit button until you are back at the plugins page. 
Now start VLC Frontend again. 
Use the red button (File). 
You will now be able to see the movie files that is in the folder specified as startdir in the xml file. 
Select the file you'd like to watch and press Ok. 
Then wait for the buffering to complete, sit back and enjoy the movie...

VLC HowTo/Use with Dreambox

2007-04-24T16:54:19Z

H2g2bob:

{{howto|Set up Video on Demand on a Dreambox}}
I have spent some time now to figure out how to get Video on Demand to work on my dreambox. I have a DreamBox DM500S running the Gemini Image (Gemini Project), and this howto is based on that, however I believe the procedure will be similar on other DB's running the Gemini image as well...

Sources I have used:
http://digsat.net/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=36965&hilight=vlc
http://forum.videolan.org

First we need to get a plugin called VLC FrontEnd installed on the dreambox, it might already be there; check under blue panel - plugins. If it is not there, install it by doing the following.

<todo install vlc frontend>

Now, the front end is installed and almost ready to use. We still have nothing that can feed the frontend, so first we must create an xml file for the frontend to use:

<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="/XSLMPSettings.xsl"?>
<vlc>
<server ip="192.168.1.10" webif-port="8080" stream-port="9090" user="admin" pass="admin" />
<config startdir="c:/movies" cddrive="d:" />
<codec mpeg1="mpgv" mpeg2="mp2v" audio="mpga" />
<setup name="SVCD" ext="NONE" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="0" Videocodec="mpeg2" Videosize="352x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="0" />
<setup name="VCD" ext="NONE" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="0" Videocodec="mpeg1" Videosize="352x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="0" />
<setup name="DVD" ext="NONE" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="0" Videocodec="mp2v" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="1" />
<setup name="File" ext="MPG" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="1" Videocodec="mp2v" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="1" />
<setup name="File" ext="MPEG" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="1" Videocodec="mp2v" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="1" />
<setup name="File" ext="M2P" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="0" Videocodec="mpgv" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="0" />
<setup name="File" ext="MPV" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="0" Videocodec="mpgv" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="0" />
<setup name="File" ext="DAT" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="0" Videocodec="mpgv" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="0" />
<setup name="File" ext="AVI" Videorate="2048" fps="25" Videotranscode="1" Videocodec="mp2v" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="1" />
<setup name="File" ext="ASF" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="1" Videocodec="mpgv" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="1" />
<setup name="File" ext="TS" Videorate="1000" fps="25" Videotranscode="0" Videocodec="mp2v" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="0" />
</vlc>
</pre>

Use a unix compatible editor, like UltraEdit, edit lines 4 and 5. The server ip to fit the IP-address of the backend PC. Startdir and cddrive to fit correspondingly the movie folder and the cddrive on the backend pc.
Save it to a file called movieplayer_My_Server.xml to your dreambox's /var/etc folder. (save the file locally and FTP it to your dreambox, log in to your dreambox with default username root and password dreambox, or set up UltraEdit to save directly using FTP; your choice).

Now that the xml file has been made and transferred to the dreambox it is time to set up the backend VLC to feed the frontend.

'''VLC for Windows:''' 
Start VLC on the PC. 
Select File - Open Network Stream (Ctrl-N) 
Click Advanced Options 
- check Stream/Save and click Settings 
- check HTTP 
- check Video codec and select mp2v from the dropdown list. 
- check Audio codec and select mpga from the dropdown list. 
- click Ok 
- click Ok 
 
Now, activate the WebInterface (WEBIF) by selecting Settings - Add Interface - Web Interface from the VLC menu.

'''VLC for Linux (ubuntu):''' 
First, install vlc by running this command:
<pre>apt-get install vlc</pre>
This will in general install a ****load of stuff, codecs and other things needed. As I learnt, it is also required to install something called the avahi-daemon. This is done by running this command:
<pre>apt-get install avahi-daemon</pre>
If you are having trouble finding these packages, you might want to run:
<pre>apt-get update</pre>
Now that all this has been installed, you need to launch VLC using the following command-line:
<pre>vlc -d -I http --sout="#transcode{vcodec=mp2v,vb=1024,scale=1,acodec=mpga,ab=192,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=std{access=http,mux=ts,dst=:9090}}"</pre>
This specifies that the web interface is to be used, together with some transcoding stuff ;-)

At the time of writing this, I am still trying to tune the vlc backend a bit. It is currently using 50%+ cpu when streaming...

Now it is time to start the VLC frontend on the dreambox and set it up to use the correct xml file.
Start VLC frontend plugin by starting blue panel (blue button on the remote) and selecting Plugins. VLC Frontend will show up as a plugin, select it and press Ok.

VLC frontend is now started, select settings (blue button). 
In the dropdown list, select the xml file you created earlier, movieplayer_My_Server.xml. 
Then select Switch. 
You will now be told to restart VLC Frontend; do this by using the exit button until you are back at the plugins page. 
Now start VLC Frontend again. 
Use the red button (File). 
You will now be able to see the movie files that is in the folder specified as startdir in the xml file. 
Select the file you'd like to watch and press Ok. 
Then wait for the buffering to complete, sit back and enjoy the movie...

FLIC

2007-04-24T16:52:55Z

H2g2bob:

{{codec video}}

[[Wikipedia:Autodesk Animator|Autodesk Animator]] '''FLIC''' animations, also known as '''FLC''' or '''FLI''' animations, are a sequence of 256 colour bitmaps shown in sequence, similar to a [[GIF]]. To save space, only the pixels changed since the last image are stored in the new image. (There may also be [[RLE]] compression in there, I can't remember).

FLC files are mainly used in some types of computer games, due to the ability to draw FLC files very quickly and compatability with some [[libraries]], such as [http://alleg.sourceforge.net Allegro]. Elsewhere, they are not common due to the low quality image (from the 256 colours) and low compression rates.

Programs like [http://ase.sourceforge.net/ ASE] can create and edit these files easily.

CMML

2007-04-24T16:45:56Z

H2g2bob:

{{xiph|CMML}}

'''CMML''' is a way or storing [[meta]] information about a file. This information can change as the file is played. It is used with [[Ogg]] media files.

[[Category:Meta-tags]]

FFmpeg

2007-04-24T16:44:01Z

H2g2bob:

{{website|FFmpeg|http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/}}
{{open}}

'''FFmpeg''' is an [[open source]] library for [[encoding]] and [[decoding]] different types of media files, generally [[MPEG]] and MPEG-based files.

FFmpeg supports lots of [[codec]]s: the main ones are included on the codecs page. If you want the full list, (including different spellings for the same codec), the [[source code]] lists them all (theres way to many to list them all here ;-). In [http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/file/trunk/modules/codec/ffmpeg/ffmpeg.c modules/codec/ffmpeg/ffmpeg.c] look under ''Codec fourcc -> ffmpeg_id mapping'' (that bit changes the codecs you type in to vlc to ffmpeg's internal codec names).

==Source code==
{{file|modules/codec/ffmpeg/ffmpeg.c|codec}}

[[Category:Libraries]]

User talk:Dionoea

2007-04-24T16:08:00Z

H2g2bob: Google map

== The thing ==

Hello! I'd like to suggest [[User:The thing|The thing]] is considered for sysop status. His [[Special:Contributions/The_thing|contributions]] have lots of reverts to previous versions (ie, spam removed), and this task is a million times easier with the ability to rollback pages. His user page is a bit strange, but other than that he's doing a great job. --[[User:H2g2bob|H2g2bob]] 16:32, 28 May 2006 (CEST)
:Well, uh of course I 2nd that. [[User:The thing|The thing]] 18:40, 28 May 2006 (CEST)
::Done :) Thanks for the help -- [[User:Dionoea|Dionoea]] 21:20, 2 June 2006 (CEST)
:::Your Welcome. [[User:The thing|The thing]] 20:40, 3 June 2006 (CEST)

== Google map ==

I know you posted ages ago (sorry, was doing my dissertation like a crazy fool over easter) but if you still want to add me to Google map thing, I'm at:
:<marker username="h2g2bob" fullname="David Batley" location="Exeter, UK" blurb="" lat="50.749056" lon="-3.530045" title="Developer"/>
I can't edit /team/team.xml myself - no SVN access :( It's interesting to see how many Europeans there are. Plus Xtophe is just (well 100km) down the road - how cool! --[[User:H2g2bob|h2g2bob]] 18:08, 24 April 2007 (CEST)

User talk:H2g2bob

2007-04-24T15:53:33Z

H2g2bob: /* VideoLAN team map */

SongSubtitles.org

2007-03-20T16:16:56Z

H2g2bob:

SongSubtitles.org is a not-for-profit project aimed at cooperatively '''creating a base of music subtitles'''.
They advertise for VLC because of its ability to display subtitles along with music.

With SongSubtitles.org and VLC, you can store lyrics files on your computer once for all, and have them displayed automatically when you listen to music.

== Project's Contents ==

The project consists of two different things:
*a website for sharing subtitles
*a software you can use to create subtitles easily.

== Current Problems ==

Currently in VLC, one thing prevents subtitles to be loaded automatically under Windows: the use of DOS-type filenames limited to 8 characters. However it will probably be fixed in the next versions of VLC.

Another small problem is that when you use the scrolling bar to move to another place in the file, subtitles stop being displayed.

Both of these problems are not specific to subtitles with music, they happen with movies too.

== Links ==

* [http://www.songsubtitles.org www.SongSubtitles.org]

* the subtitling software's wiki: http://soft.songsubtitles.org

* the project's Forum: http://forum.songsubtitles.org

[[Category:Companies]]