I was trying for a while to get this working and just couldn’t – until now. There is documentation but I never find it clear enough so here’s my explanation.

NOTE:/ VLC doesn’t actually support streaming very well so if you follow this guide and it is unwatchable just share the folder with your video files and open them as you would a normal file using VLC.

FIRST OFF

You need to run VLC to ‘SEND’ the video and another instance to ‘RECIEVE’ the video and these CAN be on the same computer. So, open up VLC and click Media then either “Streaming” or “Advanced Open File”

You will then get this. Add some files and then click the drop down arrow at the bottom to select STREAM then click the button.

A few things here. After clicking the STREAM button you’ll get a page that says “Source” and shows a string with the selected file names, just click the NEXT button on that and you will then get the below. Select RTP/MPEG and click ADD. I’ve also highlighted the ‘pages’ with a green underline in this image so you can see what I mean by ‘page.’  Also, note that I have put a red box around the NEXT button – this is just to point out where it is.

Once you have clicked the ADD button you’ll get this screen and this is where things get confusing (or at least they did for me). You need to know what your network’s broadcast address is as this IP is the destination you want to send to. You could read up on networking to find out what a “broadcast address” actually is or you could just use http://www.tech-faq.com/calculate-broadcast-address to figure it out for you based on your computer’s IP address (use ipconfig or network properties to get that). Enter the address as shown and click next.

You will get the general Options page, tick SAP announce and enter a name for your stream – ignore Group Name – then click STREAM.

You are now STREAMING!!!! Now you know the quick and dirty way to get it done you can play with the other options and learn how to make it work smoothly and so you can remotely control it – I know these things are possible with VLC but I haven’t figured them out yet.

NOW TO WATCH!

Open another VLC instance either on the same computer or a different one on the SAME network. Click Media then Open Network Stream.

Now enter RTP:// followed by your network’s broadcast address and click PLAY.

Sit back and enjoy the film 🙂

 

 

NOTE:/ You can listen to rtp://@:5004 where ‘5004’ is the pot selected in your DESTINATION.