<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE > What is the VideoLAN project ? </TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="VideoLAN HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="Introduction" HREF="intro.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Introduction" HREF="intro.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE=" What is a codec ? " HREF="x130.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="sect1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >VideoLAN HOWTO</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="intro.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >Chapter 1. Introduction</TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="x130.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="sect1" ><H1 CLASS="sect1" ><A NAME="AEN46" ></A >1.1. What is the VideoLAN project ?</H1 ><DIV CLASS="sect2" ><H2 CLASS="sect2" ><A NAME="AEN48" ></A >1.1.1. Overview</H2 ><P >VideoLAN is a complete software solution for video streaming, developed by students of the <A HREF="http://www.ecp.fr" TARGET="_top" >Ecole Centrale Paris</A > and developers from all over the world, under the <A HREF="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html" TARGET="_top" >GNU General Public License</A > (GPL). VideoLAN is designed to stream MPEG videos on high bandwidth networks.</P ><P >The VideoLAN solution includes :</P ><P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P >VLS (VideoLAN Server), which can stream MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 files, DVDs, digital satellite channels, digital terrestial television channels and live videos on the network in unicast or multicast,</P ></LI ><LI ><P >VLC (initially VideoLAN Client), which can be used as a server to stream MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 files, DVDs and live videos on the network in unicast or multicast ; or used as a client to receive, decode and display MPEG streams under multiple operating systems.</P ></LI ></UL ><P >Here is an illustration of the complete VideoLAN solution :</P ><DIV CLASS="figure" ><A NAME="AEN60" ></A ><P ><B >Figure 1-1. Global VideoLAN solution La solution VideoLAN globale </B ></P ><DIV CLASS="mediaobject" ><P ><IMG SRC="images/global-diagram.jpg"></P ></DIV ></DIV ><P >More details about the project can be found on the <A HREF="http://www.videolan.org/" TARGET="_top" >VideoLAN Web site</A >.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="sect2" ><H2 CLASS="sect2" ><A NAME="AEN67" ></A >1.1.2. VideoLAN software</H2 ><DIV CLASS="simplesect" ><H3 CLASS="simplesect" ><A NAME="AEN69" ></A >1.1.2.1. VLC</H3 ><P >VLC works on many platforms : Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, *BSD, Solaris, Familiar Linux, Yopy/Linupy and QNX. It can read :</P ><P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P >MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 / DivX files from a hard disk, a CD-ROM drive, ...</P ></LI ><LI ><P >DVDs and VCDs,</P ></LI ><LI ><P >from a satellite card (DVB-S),</P ></LI ><LI ><P >MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 streams from the network sent by VLS or VLC's stream output.</P ></LI ></UL ><P > VLC can also be used as a server to stream : </P ><P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P >MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 / DivX files,</P ></LI ><LI ><P >DVDs,</P ></LI ><LI ><P >from an MPEG encoding card,</P ></LI ></UL ><P > to : </P ><P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P >one machine (i.e. to one IP address) : this is called <EM >unicast</EM >,</P ></LI ><LI ><P >a dynamic group of machines that the clients can join or leave (i.e. to a multicast IP address) : this is called <EM >multicast</EM >,</P ></LI ></UL ><P >in IPv4 or IPv6 .</P ><P >To get the complete list of VLC's possibilities on each plateform supported, see the <A HREF="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html" TARGET="_top" >VLC features page</A >.</P ><DIV CLASS="note" ><P ></P ><TABLE CLASS="note" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="25" ALIGN="CENTER" VALIGN="TOP" ><IMG SRC="../images/note.gif" HSPACE="5" ALT="Note"></TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" ><P > VLC doesn't work on Mac OS 9, and will probably never do. </P ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="simplesect" ><H3 CLASS="simplesect" ><A NAME="AEN102" ></A >1.1.2.2. VLS</H3 ><P > VLS can stream : </P ><P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P > an MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 files stored on a hard drive or on a CD, </P ></LI ><LI ><P > a DVD located in a local DVD drive or copied on a hard disk, </P ></LI ><LI ><P > a satellite card (DVB-S) or a digital terrestial television card (DVB-T) ,</P ></LI ><LI ><P > an MPEG encoding card ;</P ></LI ></UL ><P >to:</P ><P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P >one machine (i.e. to one IP address) : this is called <EM >unicast</EM >,</P ></LI ><LI ><P >a dynamic group of machines that the clients can join or leave (i.e. to a multicast IP address) : this is called <EM >multicast</EM >,</P ></LI ></UL ><P >in IPv4 or IPv6 .</P ><P >A Pentium 100 MHz with 32 MB of memory should be enough to send one stream on the network. When streaming a lot of videos stored on a hard drive, the actual limitation is not the processor but the hard drive and the network connection.</P ><P >VLS works under Linux and Windows. To get the complete list of VLS's possibilities on each plateform supported, see the <A HREF="http://www.videolan.org/streaming/features.html" TARGET="_top" >streaming features page</A >.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="simplesect" ><H3 CLASS="simplesect" ><A NAME="AEN126" ></A >1.1.2.3. Mini-SAP-server</H3 ><P > You can add a channel information service based on the SAP/SDP standard to the VideoLAN solution. The mini-SAP-server sends announces about the multicast programs on the network in IPv4 or IPv6, and VLCs receive these annouces and automatically add the programs announced to their playlist. </P ><P > The mini-SAP-server works under Linux and Mac OS X. </P ></DIV ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="intro.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="x130.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Introduction</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="intro.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >What is a codec ?</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >