How do I set up VLC?

[Dargason]

I apologize if this is a bit of a "noob" question, but I've looked everywhere I can think of for an answer and what little I found is out of date.

I am running SageTV 6.6 with nielm's webserver version 2.25. Everything seems to work fine, but I'd like to be able to stream a transcoded file. On the webpage for a file, I can click the "Watch (streamed)" and information appears at the bottom of the page that says "Cannot stream transcoded video -- vlc not found"

That was to be expected, since I hadn't installed vlc. So I downloaded and installed VLC version 1.0.3. That software appeared to install fine, and I can play media files with it. But when I try to stream a file via the nielm's server, it still says "vlc not found".

Is there some additional configuration that I need to do either with VLC or Sage? Is there a website or post somewhere that explains how this is supposed to work?

Thanks!
Mike

[matt91]

the few times I've ever done this (and gotten it to work), I think I had to "open in external program" or whatever the choice is called.

Placeshifter is, however, an overall better choice. Have you tried that?

[steven017]

Just wanted to pipe in and say it does work. Actually, it works quite well. I'm not real sure what the problem here is though.

I'd try this. 1. Restart PC used as SageTV server, then try viewing a recording on another PC on the same network. 2. If that didn't work, try reinstalling the Web Server plugin. Then, repeat step 1.

Also wanted to say that I prefer using VLC over Placeshifter. Placeshifter never worked well for me or should I say, I could never get it to work well. But VLC plus the web server plugin worked/works great. So does the Client though if you're just streaming within your home network.

Edit: Just wanted to mention, I use transcoding to stream via wireless, and it works great. Just wanted to clarify that I don't just use the web server to serve up untranscoded recordings.

Steve

[doc]

You need to use an old version of vlc. Version 0.9.8a I think.

If you look at the last couple of pages on the Web User Interface threads theres a discussion about it on there.

[steven017]

Just wanted to post a follow up to what Doc wrote. I'm running SageTV under Vista with the VLC 1.0.3, and it is working (I haven't tried the embedded version because I read somewhere the vlc plugin for firefox is broken). I usually use VLC on the client machine to watch recordings. So, perhaps your mileage varies in regard to the version of VLC, your OS and other factors. But you might look at downgrading to see if it makes a difference.

[Dargason]

Thanks for the input guys.

I'm mainly just playing around with this to see if I can stream something to PDA style phone like the droid, or watch shows on the laptop I use for work (they won't let me install programs, so placeshifter is not an option).

[wayner]

Originally Posted by matt91

Placeshifter is, however, an overall better choice. Have you tried that?

Too bad there is no Placeshifter for the:

Blackberry
iPhone
etc

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Dargason

...or watch shows on the laptop I use for work (they won't let me install programs, so placeshifter is not an option).

You can run PS directly from a USB key - it doesn't have to be installed so it still might be an option on the laptop.

[Dargason]

Oh, I didn't know that. You're right, that might be a good option for business trips. Thanks!

[David HVR1600]

I ran in to this and its becausee VLC installs to program files (x86) on my x64 Win 7 sage server. I just copied the videolan folder from (x86) over to the regular Program Files folder. Then I refreshed the browser on my desktop and the error was gone and I could stream.

Dunno if this was answered elsewhere but thought I would add this here since this thread came up in a google search.

[71_Cuda]

Originally Posted by David HVR1600

I ran in to this and its becausee VLC installs to program files (x86) on my x64 Win 7 sage server. I just copied the videolan folder from (x86) over to the regular Program Files folder. Then I refreshed the browser on my desktop and the error was gone and I could stream.

Dunno if this was answered elsewhere but thought I would add this here since this thread came up in a google search.

Thanks! I've been a Sage user for years and have always wanted to get VLC working with the Webserver. But my brief attempts in the past all failed. Your tip finally got it working for me.

[Dargason]

I tried that, and it still didn't work. But I dug around a bit more and found some configuration files the SageTV\SageTV\webserver folder that configure where the webserver looks for vlc.exe. Specifically, there is a path in the transcode.properties file that I changed to make things work. You can also customize the various VLC transcode modes and options if you want.

I now have transcoding working correctly and I can even stream transcoded videos to my Android tablet, though it requires software decoding. I noticed there's an android version of VLC in the works, so that might be interesting at some point.