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Commit eb7f7ca0 authored by Henri Fallon's avatar Henri Fallon
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Added a howto. Feel free to correct it. I'll put it on the website soon.
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HEAD
* Changed broadcast handling
* Added a vlc-howto in sgml format in the doc directory.
* Fixed the continuous 'seeking position' bug in network mode.
* Support for `ts://foo:42' style input source.
* rc interface plugin for vlc control through /dev/stdin courtesy
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doc/vlc-howto.sgml 0 → 100644
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<!doctype linuxdoc system>
<linuxdoc><article>
<titlepag>
<title>VLC HOWTO</title>
<author>by the Videolan Team<tt><htmlurl url="mailto:videolan-faq@videlan.org" name="videolan-faq@videlan.org"></tt></author>
<date>v0.0.2, 21 apr 2001</date>
<abstract>
This document describes how to use the vlc (VideoLAN client) to read DVDs and mpeg files and DVDs.
</abstract>
</titlepag>
<toc>
<sect>
<heading>Introduction</heading>
<sect1>
<heading>What is VideoLAN ?</heading>
<p>
VideoLAN is a project of sudent of the École Centrale Paris which aims
to broadcast video on the campus, and provide the students with a MPEG2
software-only decoder. VideoLAN is an OpenSource project which will thus
allow anyone to watch DVD movies under Linux, BeOS, MacOS and most Unix
systems
</p>
<p>
You may want to look at the port section on our website :
<htmlurl url="http://www.videolan.org" name="http://www.videolan.org/">.
</p>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>What is the vlc</heading>
<p>
Vlc stands for VideoLAN client. It is the name of the program which is
capable of decoding MPEG streams, and displaying them onto your screen,
so you can watch you favorite movies, confortably sit in your armchair
:-).
</p>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>Translated versions of this document</heading>
<p>
No translation is currently available.
</p>
<p>
The English version is maintained by Henri Fallon,
and the VideoLAN team. It can be found at:
<htmlurl url="http://www.videolan.org/doc.html"
name="http://www.videolan.org/doc.html">.
</p>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>Disclaimer</heading>
<p>
This documentation is given "as is", and any comment and improvement
are welcome.
</p>
<p>
In this HOWTO, we consider you already have a little knowledge about Linux, and you
know how to use a DVD. If not, good howtos can be found on the Linux Documentation
Projet.
</p>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>Legal</heading>
<p>
Copyright (©) 2001 by the VideoLAN project. This document may be distributed only
subject to the terms and conditions set forth in
<htmlurl url="http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/LDP-COPYRIGHT.html" name="the LDP license">.
</p>
</sect1>
</sect>
<sect>
<heading>Installing the vlc : the packages</heading>
<p>
This is certainly the most simple way to intsall the vlc on your system,
especially if you're using a packaged OS.
</p>
<p>
The first thing to do is to get an archive, on our web site
<htmlurl url="http://www.videolan.org/download.html" name="http://www.videolan.org/download.html">
</p>
<sect1>
<heading>Linux/Unix users</heading>
<sect2>
<heading>What package to chose ?</heading>
<p>
There are different packages because vlc has "plugins" which provide functionnalities
but also enlarges the executable and requires external libs.
</p>
<p>
SDL is a lib which allows you to have an accelerated video output.
You will need libsdl > 1.1.6
</p>
<p>
If you're using the enlighted sound daemon, you may want to try
the esd-aware vlc.
</p>
<p>
Generally, when you don't know what a module name is, you don't need/use it :-)
</p>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<heading>Binary archive</heading>
<p>
Untar it typing
<verb>
tar xvzf vlc-x.x.x.tar.gz
</verb>
Go in the vlc directory and get to the 'How to play movies' section If
you wish not to keep vlc in this single directory but install it fully
on your system, you may, as root, type
<verb>
make install
</verb>
</p>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<heading>Debian package</heading>
<p>
Just use dpkg :
<verb>
dpkg -i vlc-x.x.x.deb
</verb>
</p>
<p>
Depending on the package you have downloaded, you may have dependency
problems. You have to solve them, by installing the required libs.
</p>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<heading>RPM package</heading>
<p>
Install vlc just as you would install any rpm package :
<verb>
rpm -i vlc-x.x.x.rpm
</verb>
</p>
<p>
You may have to install external libs to meet dependencies, depending on
the package you downloaded (gnome, gtk, esd, ...).
</p>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>BeOS users</heading>
<p>
Double-click on the archive. It should open your favorite archive extracter.
You can then execute the vlc from there, or extract the archive to a
diretory and run it from there.
</p>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>MacOS X users</heading>
<p>
To be completed
</p>
</sect1>
</sect>
<sect>
<heading>Using the vlc</heading>
<p>
Good job, you have installed the vlc on your system. Now, it's time to
use it. Don't worry, it's not that difficult.
</p>
<sect1>
<heading>Lauching</heading>
<sect2>
<heading>The graphical interface</heading>
<p>
Basically, double clicking on the vlc icon, or typing 'vlc' in a
console should launch a graphical interface On Linux/Unix, you may want
to specify gnome or gtk interface, with the "--intf" option.
</p>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<heading>In case it doesn't work</heading>
<p>
In case this does not work, you'll have to use command line options.
Usually, to play a file, you'll use :
<verb>
vlc [file name]
</verb>
To play a dvd, if you dvd device is "/dev/dvd", you'll type :
<verb>
vlc dvd:/dev/dvd
</verb>
On BeOS, the dvd device looks like "/dev/disk/ide/atapi/1/slave/0/raw"
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>Using the interface</heading>
<p>
By now you should see a beautiful interface, with buttons and menus.
The text should be quite self-explaining : "Open file", "Open Disc", ...
</p>
<p>
For Dvd's you can choose directly from the "open" box the title & chapter
you want to play.
</p>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>Fullscreen - chapters - features</heading>
<p>
Some of the following features don't work yet on some platforms.
We're doing our best to get the ports in sync.
</p>
<p>
At any time you can change the audio/subtitles channel using either the
"setting" menu from the interface or using the "right click" menu from
the video output window.
</p>
<p>
To change chapter, you can use the right-click menu or the interface.
Please note that the gnome interface is more advanced than the gtk or
qt ones.
</p>
<p>
Using the 'f' key when using SDL or XVideo output toggles the
fullscreen mode. Be warned that "right click" menus are a bit
unstable.
</p>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>User help</heading>
<p>
First of all, it something seems to go wrong, read and try try to
understand the error messages. If you are a confirmed user, you
may try the "-vvv" option which makes the vlc very verbose.
</p>
<p>
There is a FAQ page on our website :
<htmlurl url="http://www.videolan.org/doc.html" name="http://www.videolan.org/doc.html">.
If you think one question should be in the FAQ, please contact
<htmlurl url="mailto:videolan-faq@videlan.org" name="videolan-faq@videlan.org">
</p>
<p>
Finally, there's a users mailing list (English speaking). To subscribe, send a mail to
<htmlurl url="mailto:listar@videlan.org" name="listar@videlan.org"> containing
"subscribe vlc" as message body.
</p>
</sect>
<sect>
<heading>Advanced use of the vlc</heading>
<sect1>
<heading>Command line options</heading>
<sect2>
<heading>Choosing the video output</heading>
<p>
You have to use the "-V" otpion. For example :
<verb>
vlc -V xvideo
</verb>
</p>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<heading>Choosing the audio output</heading>
<p>
Use the "-A" option. For example :
<verb>
vlc -A alsa
</verb>
</p>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<heading>Specifying a file</heading>
<p>
Simply put the file name at the end of the command line, you won't need then
to click "open" when the interface launches :
<verb>
vlc myfile.mpeg
</verb>
</p>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<heading>Specifying the title and chapter where to start</heading>
<p>
Use the "-t" and "-T" to specify title and chapter. For example, to go to the 12th
chapter of the 2nd title, you'll type :
<verb>
vlc -t 2 -T 12
</verb>
</p>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</sect>
<sect>
<heading>For real men : building your vlc :-)</heading>
<p>
You can choose either to take the latest release, or a CVS source. Note that
CVS snapshots may be broken, although we do our best to prevent this from
happening.
</p>
<p>
From here, you have to be a little experienced, even more if you want to use
the cvs.
</p>
<sect1>
<heading>Getting an archive</heading>
<p>
You have guessed it, the first thing to do is to get the source.
Until there, everyone should understand :)
</p>
<sect2>
<heading>Web site</heading>
<p>
Source packages can be found in the "tarballs" section of the download page :
<htmlurl url="http://www.videolan.org/download.html" name="http://www.videolan.org/dowload.html">.
</p>
<p>
CVS snapshots are available from the address :
<htmlurl url="http://www.videolan.org/packages/snapshots/"
name="http://www.videolan.org/packages/snapshots/">.
</p>
<p>
Then untar the archive :
<verb>
tar xzf vlc-x-x-x.tar.gz
</verb>
</p>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<heading>Directly from CVS</heading>
<p>
Firs log in as suer anonymous with an empty password :
<verb>
cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@anoncvs.videolan.org:/var/cvs/videolan login
</verb>
Then retrieve the repository :
<verb>
cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@anoncvs.videolan.org:/var/cvs/videolan -z3 checkout vlc
</verb>
</p>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>Building the program</heading>
<p>
Go into the vlc directory and run the configure script :
<verb>
./configure
</verb>
If you want to enable options, you may add "--enable-option" to the previous line.
For example, to build with the xvideo extension, and alsa support, you should type :
<verb>
./configure --enable-xvideo --enable-alsa
</verb>
To get the list of the available options, and know if they are enabled by default,
you can try :
<verb>
./configure --help
</verb>
A very typical installation, on a XFree 4.1 system, recent video card, with gnome, is :
<verb>
./configure --enable-xvideo --enable-esd --enable-gnome
</verb>
<p>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>Plugins, builtins ...</heading>
<p>
The configure script should create a Makefile.opts file, which you can edit and modify.
Indeed you can chose to have features (as esd support, for example) built as plugins
or inside the program.
</p>
<p>
If you build a feature as a plugin, it can lead to a little loss of performance.
It you build it inside the code, i'll enlarge a bit the size of the executable.
</p>
<p>
When you're done with Makefile.opts (which also works if you leave it untouched), just
make, typing :
<verb>
make
</verb>
It should compile without any error. If there are, please check you have the required libs
installed on your system, as the configure script can't check them all.
</p>
<p>
When you're done with it, as root, type :
<verb>
make install
</verb>
if you wish to have vlc fully installed on your system. If you prefer to keep in in the
current directory, you may skip the "make install". You'll then have to cd into the vlc
directory and type "./vlc" instead of just typing vlc.
</p>
</sect1>
</sect>
<sect>
<heading>Really advanced use</heading>
<sect1>
<heading>Using the videolan network solution</heading>
<p>
I'll only speak about the vlc here. There will be a howto on the whole network solution.
You have to say to the vlc that it'll receive network streams. This can be done either by *
using the "network" button of the interface, or in the command line :
<verb>
vlc ts://server[:port]
</verb>
</p>
<p>
This works for unicast. If you are receiving a broadcasted stream, you have to specify the
broadcast address :
<verb>
vlc --broadcast broadcast_addr ts://server[:port]
</verb>
</p>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>Developping the vlc</heading>
<p>
Christophe Massiot has written a documentation for developpers.
</p>
</sect1>
</sect>
</article></linuxdoc>
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