Like the quiet kid at school who goes on to be a mighty PC journalist, there's a tiny program probably installed on your PC that's capable of incredible feats. VLC is the Firefox of media players - rock-solid, open-source, free and completely customizable. So far it's been used for everything from beaming videos from space to generating ASCII-art versions of video files.
But its most overlooked core feature is its ability to stream video over a network. VLC was originally created for this purpose by students of the Ecole Centrale Paris, but when they realized they had created a versatile media player they chose to set it free on the net. The video streaming functionality is perfect for home networks - it's incredibly easy to set up and can even be used for streaming music. It can also be used with the multitude of Linux systems pre-installed on Eee-style crotchtops, as well as - dare we say it - Macs. That's not all it can do: one handy (albeit potentially migraine-inducing) feature is its ability to display a video as your Windows wallpaper, simply by opening a vid, right-clicking on it and clicking ‘wallpaper’.
So, next time you turn on your PC, open up VLC, play around with it and show it some love. It's probably the most underappreciated program on your desktop.
How to stream network video
First, grab the IP address of the PC you want to stream to by pressing [Windows] + [R] keys, then typing ‘cmd’. Enter 'ipconfig' to reveal the IP address. Write that down. Go to the PC you want to stream from, open VLC, and then go to File > Open File.
Click on browse to locate the video file you want to stream, then check the 'Stream/Save' option under advanced options. Click ‘Settings’ then check 'UDP' and enter the IP address.
On the second PC, open VLC and click on File > Open Network Stream. Make sure that 'UDP/RTP' is checked and the port is set to '1234'.
Click OK, then click Play on the source machine. Of course, you'll be wanting to control your media from the destination machine, so on the source PC, click Settings > Add Interface > Web Interface. On the destination PC, open a browser window and type the IP address of the source machine followed by ':8080'. This will let you access the web interface, which allows a whole host of cross-machine interaction.
If you're even more tech-minded, or just anally completist, you could even configure your Bluetooth mobile to control playback.
Author:-SANDRA PRIOR
But its most overlooked core feature is its ability to stream video over a network. VLC was originally created for this purpose by students of the Ecole Centrale Paris, but when they realized they had created a versatile media player they chose to set it free on the net. The video streaming functionality is perfect for home networks - it's incredibly easy to set up and can even be used for streaming music. It can also be used with the multitude of Linux systems pre-installed on Eee-style crotchtops, as well as - dare we say it - Macs. That's not all it can do: one handy (albeit potentially migraine-inducing) feature is its ability to display a video as your Windows wallpaper, simply by opening a vid, right-clicking on it and clicking ‘wallpaper’.
So, next time you turn on your PC, open up VLC, play around with it and show it some love. It's probably the most underappreciated program on your desktop.
How to stream network video
First, grab the IP address of the PC you want to stream to by pressing [Windows] + [R] keys, then typing ‘cmd’. Enter 'ipconfig' to reveal the IP address. Write that down. Go to the PC you want to stream from, open VLC, and then go to File > Open File.
Click on browse to locate the video file you want to stream, then check the 'Stream/Save' option under advanced options. Click ‘Settings’ then check 'UDP' and enter the IP address.
On the second PC, open VLC and click on File > Open Network Stream. Make sure that 'UDP/RTP' is checked and the port is set to '1234'.
Click OK, then click Play on the source machine. Of course, you'll be wanting to control your media from the destination machine, so on the source PC, click Settings > Add Interface > Web Interface. On the destination PC, open a browser window and type the IP address of the source machine followed by ':8080'. This will let you access the web interface, which allows a whole host of cross-machine interaction.
If you're even more tech-minded, or just anally completist, you could even configure your Bluetooth mobile to control playback.
Author:-SANDRA PRIOR
Filed under:
Internet Tricks
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