VLC Stream & Convert

[mjn]

I set the landscape width to 880 and 16:9 movies are just about perfectly full screen. 2.35:1 movies (widescreen) still have bars but the width goes to the edge.

Menu(on evo), then in VLC .... settings/playback/landscape width, and there are few different width resolutions to play around with.

 

[Psychokitty]

Meh. How's anyone learning all this shit, anyhow? I can't even find a place to start on the web. The problem (often) is that the authors of the instructions for this type of crap writes them as if the basics should be obvious to anyone reading them already. You visit their forum and the stickies are all about telling the clueless not to ask stupid questions.
WTF? Ya know, -not to be a pest or anything, but has everyone read some best selling book entitled, "Networking basics for Morons" that I'm unaware of? Could someone lend it to me?

Got mine to work on my local network. Dunno how, but "Big Deal". That's not why I bought it. 5 hours on this today and all I feel is stupid.
Great app, fantastic use of the technology. But if you don't want to moronify the gui for the masses (-and as pathetic as I am with this one, I prefer you didn't...) then at least have a link to where the know-nothing clueless idiots can start their education. -Right next to the donation box.
Your instructions are super simple for those who already understand port fowarding and how to maintain the security of their systems.

 

[TheDruidsKeep]

How's anyone learning all this shit, anyhow? I can't even find a place to start on the web. The problem (often) is that the authors of the instructions for this type of crap writes them as if the basics should be obvious to anyone reading them already.

This is probably due largely to the fact that most people who are reading these posts are people that are fairly tech savvy, and usually have a decent amount of experience with these concepts or at least know enough to know where to lookup what they don't yet know. As a perfect example, you managed to connect the app to your computer on your home network, thus we can safely assume you don't need an explanation on how to setup a home network - which can't be said for everyone.

at least have a link to where the know-nothing clueless idiots can start their education. -Right next to the donation box.
Your instructions are super simple for those who already understand port fowarding and how to maintain the security of their systems.

I assume that since you have it working on your local network, the part you're frustrated with is trying to stream over the internet? The easiest ways to get education assistance is to explain what part you're stuck on.

Regardless, I think the cause of the great lack of detail in this category is due to the widely varying setups, and the fact that the full setup really is fairly complex to configure.

For example, in my personal experience, using VLC over a 3G VPN connection did not work due to the VPN being too much overhead. I had to forward the ports 8080 and 5554 on my router so I could grant outside access. You can find out what port forwarding is via Google and see how to do it on your router via the infamous port forward site. However, since I don't like the idea of anyone being able to access my files, I did go through the effort to restrict outside access to only my phone (which I described in my previous post). This was possible for me since I already had my router set up with the DD-WRT firmware, but again the process to do this will vary greatly by individual setup. I understand that a lot of people may not know how to do what I described in my previous post, but that's why I tried to include key terms that could be Googled like "iptables", "ssh", "rsa-2", "private key authentication". To be honest, before this endeavor I had no clue what iptables were. Hours on Google fixed that. Unfortunately my findings will be fairly useless to anyone that doesn't either have my same router setup or obtain the same understanding of iptables that I had to.

 

[TheDruidsKeep]

Ok guys so this is my first post and looking for a little help. So I set up the VLC S&A and it seemed to do fine. It is on port 8080 and found my IP no problem. I go into it and can find my movies etc no problem. But when I select them it says "Cannot create play command". I am running VLC 1.1.7, should I downgrade to one I saw you guys say was working or should it do fine on this one?
Thanks in advance for any help!
P.S. I'm on a Mytouch 4G

I believe you fix that error by opening the menu and setting a Player Mode.

 

[djkyux]

I downloaded the lastest version VLC media player VLC-1.1.7, when I played a RMVB file it goes well on my laptop.
But when I tried to stream it to my Android phone, it made some troubleshooting.
I installed the VLC Stream & Convert on my phone, so I can see the Videos stored on my laptop through the VLC player's converting and streaming. But I found a troubleshooting while I am playing. When I played RMVB files it only show me video without audio, firts I think it can't support the RMVB files, but when I tap another RMVB file it goes well, fluency video and clearly audio. I compared the two RMVB files, I found the first one's audio is coded by COOK and the other one is MP3. I tried some other media files, they all go well except some coded by COOK.
I guess it can't decode the COOK, but if so, why it goes well when I used the VLC player to play it on my laptop.
I hope I made me understood. And someone can do me a faver.
Thanks.

 

[bernyzilla]

I can get sound and Video, but the sound is garbled.

If I stream a video file over http (audio only) then it sounds fine.

I feel like an idiot for having to ask, but how do you do this? I can't figure it out. I have a Samsung epic 4g and I don't need it to get files or remote control my computer only to stream audio from the web.

Thanks

 

[max-greece]

Quick question - has anyone tried this software on an Archos 70 or similar Gen8 tablet and got it working?

I am thinking of buying the above tablet for my daughter and it would a nice feature to have.

And now a funny, true story:

At a friends house. He and his wife had both just bought the Samsung S3 each. He has about 2.5 Tb of music on his server and wanted to stream it to his phone.

I installed the VLC S&C software on his phone and then repeated the installation on his wife's phone.

I used my phone to check the setup was working (LG GT540 Cyanogen 2.3) and set my phone to stream to the phone (rtsp - it works for everything).

When I selected an audio file from my phone it started to play perfectly - but on his phone! Then it started playing simultaneously on his wife's phone - but out of sync and then finally on my phone, again out of sync from the other 2.

In other words with 3 phones connected any one choosing a file to play starts that same file playing on the other connected phones. Funnier still - whoever initiates the playback is the last one to receive the stream.

We repeated the experiment with a video file and it does exactly the same thing.

 

[goodnooze]

OK...I have been back and forth through this thread a dozen times...and I am still stuck.

I have a G2 on T-mobile.
I forwarded all the necessary ports.
I have no problem viewing videos through wi-fi.
But when it comes to 3G...everything works right up until the message "buffering failed."
I promise...I have tried every suggestion in this thread (with the exception of the enormously complex one by TheDruidsKeep, which is quite simply, beyond me.)

Is this a T-mobile thing at this point? Does anyone think they have figured it all out and can provide me with some help?

Thanks.

 

[DallasDeckard]

anyone tried it yet?, there has been an update, but I still can't make it work!

I had loads of problems until I found out one, little, thing... you can't start a video on your computer and have it stream, which is what I was doing. I didn't know you had to browse from the phone and open the file there. I was playing it on my computer and it would give me "general error"s and say "buffering" all the time. Finally, I installed another (lesser) program and on that one you had to initiate from the program (it made it a bit clearer). So then I went back to VLC Stream & Convert, browsed to the movie, chose it, and BANG it worked like a charm.

I'm usually not clueless, but I was this time. You can't start the video on your computer and stream it to your device, you have to browse to the file on your phone and initiate the play there. Duh.

 

[Zogg]

Traveldevel, one thing I want to do is to stream live TV to my phone. I have a setup that uses Windows Media Encoder that I used to use with my WinMo phone, but since WMV streaming isn't supported by Android I've been working on a method using VLC.

But if this functionality could be added to your app it would definitely be cleaner. Instead of picking a media file to stream, you would select a tuner to capture from. Even if the channels or inputs had to be preconfigured that would be fine. For me, I stream from one of two channels using one capture card.

Do you think something like this could be added to your app? Thanks!

Thought I'd post an update to this. I spent a lot of time dorking with VLC to get it to stream to my phone, and it pretty much works. The below command line captures live from a particular channel (such as 70) and streams it live. It doesn't always start properly (just get a black screen), which I think is an issue with my capture card/driver as it's a cheap one I've had issues with before. I didn't get the video to be full screen so that needs to be tweaked, and I've had trouble getting my Verizon Fios router to open the proper ports for Internet streaming.

I made a simple web page that allows you to pick the channel, bitrate (higher if you're on LAN, lower if on 3G), and duration to stream. So here is the command string, which would just need your own capture card audio and video source changed to match your card. Some of the zero value items could be removed as they are defaults, I just didn't bother while I was tweaking:

"c:\program files\videolan\vlc\vlc.exe" dshow:// :dshow-vdev="713x BDA Analog Capture" :dshow-adev="713x BDA Analog Audio Capture" :dshow-caching=200 :dshow-size= :dshow-aspect-ratio=4\:3 :dshow-chroma= :dshow-fps=0 :no-dshow-config :no-dshow-tuner :dshow-tuner-channel=%1 :dshow-tuner-country=0 :dshow-tuner-input=0 :dshow-video-input=-1 :dshow-video-output=-1 :dshow-audio-input=-1 :dshow-audio-output=-1 :dshow-amtuner-mode=1 :dshow-audio-channels=0 :dshow-audio-samplerate=0 :dshow-audio-bitspersample=0 :sout=#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,vb=%2,fps=15,scale=1,acodec=mp4a,ab=96,channels=1,samplerate=44100}:rtp{sdp=rtsp://:554/stream.sdp} :no-sout-rtp-sap :no-sout-standard-sap :sout-keep --run-time %3 vlc://quit"

%1 = channel, i.e. 70
%2 = bitrate, i.e. 250, 500 (in kbytes)
%3 = run time, i.e. 300 (needs to be minutes x 60, so 300 = 5 min.)

I might go back and try again with a different capture card, but for now I installed the latest version of Orb and it's working well for me. Turns out Orb can take an internet stream and re-encode it, so it will take my WME stream and re-encode to Flash that plays great on the Android. So for now I'm going to use this method.

FWIW I'm capturing the output of a Fios set top box (actually one of my 2 boxes, whichever is not being used), which I can remotely change the channel. So now I can watch live sporting events and such wherever I'm at.

Hope this is helpful to someone else.

 

[bradders15]

I'm using this on Wifi with no issues at all and love it.

However, trying to stream over VPN on 3G is a different kettle of fish. Not sure if anyone has had similar issues or knows of any tips I could try, but I just cannot get S@C to work in this mode.

I've followed all the steps given here.

I can get as far as connecting to the VPN on my phone. I can can browse computers on my network using ES Explorer, but when it comes to VLC it just won't find the VLC server.

I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit and am using a Virgin Media Superhub (Virgin branded Netgear). I've forwarded port 1723 to the VLC server and as I say I can connect to my VLC server and browse it with ES exploer, I just can't connect through S@C.

Struggling to pinpoint where the issue is. Turned off Windows Firewall briefly but that didn't resolve the issue, forwarded ports 8080/8081 to VLC server temporarily, that still didn't work. Have now hit a brick wall.

Any help would be greatfully received!

 

[n9cqs]

I have the PRO version (paid for).
I am running VLC stream & convert on a Droix X Motorola - Verizon Wireless. It works fine except that randomly, it will disconnect, and then quickly reconnect. When this happens, anything that is playing stops until the reconnect successfully happens, then skips the 5 or so seconds it takes for this.

I have tried VLC 1.1.8 - the latest, and run it on Ubuntu 10.04. The issue happens on wireless with a high speed DLINK wireless router configured to be an access point or via 3G - makes no difference.

Thanks in advance.
Jeff

 

[CBMC]

I am able to stream locally, but when I try to stream over 3g or wifi (using my external ip) I run into problems. I have tried opening different ports for rstp. I am able to browse the files ok, but when I try to play a video, the video acts like it is opening (says buffering), the seek bar shows the proper video length and starts to move. Then the player says buffering, however there is no picture. I am able to receive sound over http. I have tried ports 5554, 554, 7070, 5001, and 1024. I don't think that Verizon is blocking rstp because it happens when I try to enter remotely using wifi and 3g/4g. I am using the Verizon Thunderbolt. I also have edited the hosts file per the pages direction, I even tried commenting out the "world" section of the hosts file, didn't seem to work. I have also turned on Web Interface on VLC. I am on Uverse using a 2wire 3800HGV-B router.

I have disabled my firewall to no avail. If anyone else has gotten this program working on their Verizon Wireless Thunderbolt or using Uverse please let me know how you went about doing it.

 

[Dr_Evazan]

I am using VLC Stream and Convert to stream videos via rtsp to an Android phone. I started out testing everything from an old XP box and got it working perfectly. I then implemented the same setup on my Windows 7 media server only to run into a problem that I can't seem to resolve. Both machines generate identical VLC logs up until the point where the "main stream out debug: net: connecting to [XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX]:41328" message should appear. The problem is that this message never shows up on the Win 7 machine. It just hangs immediately before it and doesn't do anything else. VLC S&C just displays "General Error".

I am running VLC 1.1.9 on both machines.
XP machine: Old HP laptop running XP 32-bit on a Pentium M and 2GB RAM
Win7 machine: Core i3 550 4GB RAM Win7 64-bit
All software firewalls are turned off on both machines. All I did to switch between the two was swap the IP addresses for port forwarding on my router. I can also reproduce the same problem on streaming over the wireless network.

Here is the block of the log file that appears immediately before the XP machine displays the "connecting" messages and starts playing and the Win7 machine stops doing anything. These two parts of the log are identical on both machines except for the computer name.

[0402e170] stream_out_rtp stream out debug: sdp=
v=0
o=- 15090392746245658458 15090392746245658458 IN IP4 MediaPC
s=Unnamed
i=N/A
c=IN IP4 0.0.0.0
t=0 0
a=tool:vlc 1.1.9
a=recvonly
a=type:broadcast
a=charset:UTF-8
m=audio 0 RTP/AVP 96
b=AS:128
b=RR:0
a=rtpmap:96 MP4A-LATM/44100/2
a=fmtp:96 profile-level-id=15; object=2; cpresent=0; config=400024203fc0
m=video 0 RTP/AVP 97
b=AS:256
b=RR:0
a=rtpmap:97 H264/90000
a=fmtp:97 packetization-mode=1;profile-level-id=42c00d;sprop-parameter-sets=Z0LA
DdoFB+wEQAAAAwBAAAAMo8UKqA==,aM4yyA==;

[0402d9d8] stream_out_transcode stream out debug: drift is too high, resetting m
aster sync

 

[chruez]

for all those who wanna have a working streaming Wifi and 3G solution follow these steps;

tested on Samsung Galaxy S Android 2.2
windows 7 pro sp1 x64
dm800 (new nigma 2)

1st Search in Market for AndroidDreamer (it's free) install it

go to General settings enter IP address of your dreambox
type in your dnydns or external ip (if you wanna use it from 3G)
use port 80
user root
password -> dreambox (if you haven't changed anything)
Enigmae Type: Enigma2
Direct Streaming Player: Any Player

VLC Settings (general)
ip address of your computer where you got running your vlc-Server
http port 8080
dst port 554
flv port 8001
quality.. is up to you.

2nd
go to the install location of your VLC usualy c:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\vlc\http edit the .hosts -File with the notepad,
remove the # in front of 192.168.0.0/16 and save it.
ensure that you got enough rights to save it, else start in Admin

192.168.0.0/ means that you open the Range 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255

then start VLC on your computer go to View -> Add interface -> Web interface

same instructions here;
AndroidDreamer (ANDR) - now with streaming in Local LAN and remotely over 3G/HDSPA/WIFI - Beta 0

so that's fro streaming over wireless..
i tried to configure it with port forwarding for 3g. but it never worked.
it looked like i got the connection but then appeard the error like video can not be played.. no idea why..
so make it easy and setup VPN for it..
it is easier then you might imagine.

3rd part
setup VPN like http://www.tillekesoft.com/ANDR_VPN_SET_UP.pdf

4th part
change settings in local windows firewall. or you firewall.
go to start -> control panel -> windows firewall -> advanced settings
-> inbound rules
look for VLC media player (public networks)
right click -> properties and allow the connection.. that's it!

5th part
create the forwarding on your router.
i'm not sure if it's necessary to forward all the following ports, in my eyes it
should work with just port 1723
but i added aswell 500 and 50

so i added on SUA/NAT on my Zywall 2 a forwarding of 1723 / 500 and 50 to my computer

in the firwall settings (wan to lan) i just added those ports for my computer AND my dreambox!

so it's done, streaming now possible over 3G in use with VPN..

good luck out there

 

[orcad]

Hello,

I buy VLC S&C two days ago.
Now my Wi-Fi sleep policy always turn to "Never" even if i change it...
"Know issues" says it arrives with older version but this is first time i try this soft.
So my battery is not suffisent for a complete day.
I must desactivate wifi et keep it good
Anyone have an idea?
Thanks

(HTC Desire)

 

[pjomaestro]

Hi, I followed instructions and test procedures as written in traveldevel.com.

VLC is running on Windows 7, from VLC S&C it is connected to VLC and I am able to browse music files in my music folder. These are mp3. When I long touch a music then a window pops out , play or enque(grayed out). After touching play, music does not start.

Using Android browser, I tried http://(global IP address of VLC machine):8080 and I am able to see VLC media player web interface and can browse. But selecting a music does not generates sound. the time moves forward but no sound.

Any advise is very much appreciated.

I could not find forum at traveldevel.com, is there any forum dedicated to VLC S&C ?

Thanks.

 

[pjomaestro]

for all those who wanna have a working streaming Wifi and 3G solution follow these steps;

tested on Samsung Galaxy S Android 2.2
windows 7 pro sp1 x64
dm800 (new nigma 2)

1st Search in Market for AndroidDreamer (it's free) install it

go to General settings enter IP address of your dreambox
type in your dnydns or external ip (if you wanna use it from 3G)
use port 80
user root
password -> dreambox (if you haven't changed anything)
Enigmae Type: Enigma2
Direct Streaming Player: Any Player

VLC Settings (general)
ip address of your computer where you got running your vlc-Server
http port 8080
dst port 554
flv port 8001
quality.. is up to you.

2nd
go to the install location of your VLC usualy c:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\vlc\http edit the .hosts -File with the notepad,
remove the # in front of 192.168.0.0/16 and save it.
ensure that you got enough rights to save it, else start in Admin

192.168.0.0/ means that you open the Range 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255

then start VLC on your computer go to View -> Add interface -> Web interface

same instructions here;
AndroidDreamer (ANDR) - now with streaming in Local LAN and remotely over 3G/HDSPA/WIFI - Beta 0

so that's fro streaming over wireless..
i tried to configure it with port forwarding for 3g. but it never worked.
it looked like i got the connection but then appeard the error like video can not be played.. no idea why..
so make it easy and setup VPN for it..
it is easier then you might imagine.

3rd part
setup VPN like http://www.tillekesoft.com/ANDR_VPN_SET_UP.pdf

4th part
change settings in local windows firewall. or you firewall.
go to start -> control panel -> windows firewall -> advanced settings
-> inbound rules
look for VLC media player (public networks)
right click -> properties and allow the connection.. that's it!

5th part
create the forwarding on your router.
i'm not sure if it's necessary to forward all the following ports, in my eyes it
should work with just port 1723
but i added aswell 500 and 50

so i added on SUA/NAT on my Zywall 2 a forwarding of 1723 / 500 and 50 to my computer

in the firwall settings (wan to lan) i just added those ports for my computer AND my dreambox!

so it's done, streaming now possible over 3G in use with VPN..

good luck out there

Can I use AndroidDreamer to stream music from VLC on Windows 7 to Android tablet (LG Optimus pad, Android 3.0) ?

Is the AndroidDreamer for streaming from VLC on Windows to VLC on Android ? Or the other way around ?

How do I find out the private IP and external IP of the Android tablet(LG Optimus pad) ? My Android is connected to WiFi router and then to 3G.

In the 1st section, dreambox is mentioned. What is dreambox ?

Direct Streaming Player: Any Player This Any Player means I can put VLC for Android ? or just leave it as Any Player ?

VLC Settings (general) This VLC settings are for the VLC running on Windows ?

If I only want streaming over 3G, I do not need VPN. So 3rd part and so on are not needed for me ?

Thanks.

 

[wintermute000]

Guys you don't need VPN to stream over 3G.
Just "port forward" (or NAT to use the technically correct term lol) port 5554 and 8080.
Thats what I had to do, it appears that the control is over 8080 and datastream is 5554.
Its very poorly documented and confusingly in the VLC preferences it appears to use 5004 for rtp but after some googling I read someone using 5554, that worked for me.

Note I'm using VLC Direct Pro as the client but the backend (VLC) is the same so....

 

[talz13]

Guys you don't need VPN to stream over 3G.
Just "port forward" (or NAT to use the technically correct term lol) port 5554 and 8080.
Thats what I had to do, it appears that the control is over 8080 and datastream is 5554.
Its very poorly documented and confusingly in the VLC preferences it appears to use 5004 for rtp but after some googling I read someone using 5554, that worked for me.

Note I'm using VLC Direct Pro as the client but the backend (VLC) is the same so....

The point of using the VPN is to prevent other people from accessing the entire directory structure of your PC at home. They can browse whatever they want on your PC if they have access to it through this.

 

[aristidesneto]

Good Night,

First I have to say that I really enjoyed this app, it works pretty well in my Droid. I already bought the PRO version.

There

 

[TheDruidsKeep]

There

 

[aristidesneto]

I found a workaround for the subtitle problem. First the movie and the subtitle must have the same name.
Then when you are browsing in the VLC Stream and Convert for the file you select the .SRT instead of the movie. This causes the movie to load with the subtitle!

 

[tank0042]

Hey guys, first post. I've read through this whole thread, and haven't seen a solution to my issue. Googling (so far) hasn't helped, either, though maybe I'm missing something obvious because until two days ago I didn't know much about port forwarding, streaming, or anything related to this app. I just knew that my buddy with his AppleTV could stream from his iPhone and his iMac to his TV, and I was like, "I wanna watch the stuff on my media drive on my phone." I already used VLC Player on a Windows XP Pro SP3 machine as my primary media center. My phone is an HTC Sensation. At each stage of getting stuff to work, I had to learn about the necessary settings in routers, firewalls, and VLC, so again... please forgive me if something is either obvious, or if I'm unclear.

Setting up streaming over my home WiFi was pretty easy. Starting VLC's http interface was no problem. I run a software firewall on my media PC (on all my PCs, actually, and it's not Windows Firewall, it's COMODO), and had to set up the following policies in my firewall to get it to work:

Allow any TCP/UDP In/Out From (Media PC's IP & Subnet) To (Phone's IP & Subnet)
Allow any TCP/UDP In/Out From (Phone's IP & Subnet) To (Media PC's IP & Subnet)

I also reserved the IPs for my Media PC and phone in the router so that these settings would always work.

So, next was trying to get streaming over mobile network. After much reading about this, it seemed like the most secure way to do this would be via VPN. As an added security measure, at this point, I set up MAC address filtering on my router (which I knew about from having a buddy who had to add my phone's MAC address to his router to get me on his WiFi a few weeks ago). Both the Media PC's and the phone's MAC address are allowed and seem to connect just fine.

I set up an incoming PPTP VPM connection on the Media PC in accordance with Traveldevel's instructions (I would link them here, but the forum is informing me that as a new user, I'm not allowed), though it was a bit tricky as they're written for windows 7 or vista. I created an account especially for connection via VPN, gave it a username and password, and it is the only account on the Media PC with permissions to connect via VPN. I set up the two IPs within my router's provision range which will be exclusively used for VPN. I then set up forwarding of port 1723 to the Media PC in the router. I set up the two VPNs on my phone using my router's external IP address (non-local) and my Media PC's IP (local). So, I can now log in to the VPN over either WiFi or 4G. Connection is stable, no trouble.

I also added the following rules to my software firewall policy:
Allow any TCP/UDP In/Out From (Media PC's VPN IP & Subnet) To (Phone's VPN IP & Subnet)
Allow any TCP/UDP In/Out From (Phone's VPN IP & Subnet) To (Media PC's VPN IP & Subnet)

If I log into the VPN using the local connection, everything works just fine. I can enter the Media PC's VPN IP, and port 8080, and browse my files and stream media. (Traveldevel suggests at the end of his instructions to disable port 8080, for security, which I don't understand... should I alter the output to some other port? Will it not matter that this port is disabled if I'm doing this via VPN? That doesn't seem to be the way it works, from what I've read about VPNs...)

Here's my problem. If I use the non-local VPN, I get the message "VLC Stream & Convert Connected," and after 7 or 8 seconds (I've timed it) the connection is lost. The VPN connection itself is stable, and the VLC Web Interface settings in VLC S&C should remain unchanged whether I'm on the local or the non-local VPN., correct?

If I select "stop and exit" from the app menu, close the VPN connection, re-open the VPN connection, and re-open VLC S&C, a connection cannot be made. If I close VLC S&C, enter the app manager, force close VLC S&C, and relaunch it having left the VPN connected, a connection cannot be made. However, if I both force close VLC S&C via the app manager AND cycle the VPN connection, I can again establish a 7-8 second connection with VLC player.

I've read about problems with 3G/4G and rtsp streaming, and it seems like someone suggested port forwarding for port 5554 because VLC is sending out packets the phone needs to receive on port 5554 using a huge range of random ports (looking at my firewall's logs, this range seems to be between 30000 and 70000). I'm probably misunderstanding how port forwarding works, but doesn't it route all incoming packets send to the specified port to the specified IP? If this is how it works, I'm not sure how to set up port forwarding on my DLink 615-DIR router, because all I can do is designate a port and a destination IP, when really what I need to do is designate that all traffic coming in along UDP ports 30000-70000 be forwarded to UDP port 5554 on a specified IP, right? Anyway, I tried setting up a port forward for UDP 5554 to my phone's VPN IP, and that did nothing. I tried setting up the same forward for UDP ports 30000-70000, and that somehow broke my wireless... I couldn't log into my router's configuration page from the browser on any computer in the network, I had to power cycle my router and connect with a cable to sort it out.

However, everything I've read where the rtsp stream problem was related to UDP port 5554 (that it needed to be this port, or couldn't be this port and needed to be 554, etc.), the user connects, and it's only when streaming that there is an issue, or the connection fails. My connection is failing immediately, regardless of whether I'm trying to browse, view a playlist, or even if I just let the app sit there and do nothing, 7-8 seconds after connection, the connection is lost.

Looking at my Media PC's software firewall logs, the requests coming in to VLC player from the phone are being passed along properly. There is no apparrent difference, from the firewall's perspective, whether those requests are coming while I'm on the local VPN or the non-local VPN. I can't see the outbound stuff, unfortunately, unless there's a log somehwere I can't see.

Any ideas? I'm completely stumped and, honestly, probably a little out of my element. I'm kind of amazed I've gotten this far.

Oh, and, yes... the problem persists if I shut down the software firewall completely.

Thanks,
Tank

PS - I also just discovered that I can connect to the Media PC's VPN IP using VLC S&C even if my phone is NOT connected to the local VPN. How does that work?

 

[tank0042]

Just bumping this as I've had no response. Also, alarmingly, nothing from the dev in response to my direct message. Anyone out there with ideas?

I haven't been able to make any headway on my own. I'm still at the point where, over local wifi, everything is working fine both through the VPN and without activating it (which I'm guessing must still work because the VPN IP is still valid on the PC running VLC, even without actually logging in as the VPN client). But, connecting to the VPN over wifi, I get a momentary connection acknowledgement, then am logged out.