A Project Report On VLC Media Player
A Project Report On VLC Media Player
A Project Report On VLC Media Player
VLC media player is an open source software. In this project we tried to get the information about the working of VLC media player and history. We found this project helpful in upgrading our knowledge.
SUBMITTED TO:
Ms. RICHA SHARMA
SUBMITTED BY:
SHIVANSHU BANSAL RAJAT BAJPAI SIDDHANT MARWAH BHARAT GARG SHANTANU GUPTA
ABSTRACT
Now a days internet technology is the leading technology all over the world. One of the major subjects in the area of internet with information technology having an outstanding influence in the field of software development. In this project we have studied about the VLC media player as open source software. We worked to understand its working and got the information about its history. How it was developed and came to the market? , is the interesting fact to know. We have learnt many things other than its working. This project influenced us. Apart from the review of technology related developments, the study is focused on identifying the thrust areas, resulting benefits and implementation strategies by the companies. We need to improve our knowledge of our customers. We must improve our listening to our customers by really hearing what they are telling us and then having the ability to respond rapidly. (IBM CEO, 2004)
Acknowledgements
An endeavour over long period can be successful only with advice and guidance of many well-wishers. I am very grateful to the well-known Professor Ms Richa Sharma, as being the professor in Software Engineering, for her feedback on the structure of my project report. She played a very significant role of my tutor for her support and guideline. I would especially like to give thanks to those who had given their precious time. Without them results could not be concluded. I whole heartedly express my thanks to the Project Manager for his valuable technical knowledge, experience and suggestions for rectifying many of the technical problems and the open source communities which helped me to complete this project. Last, but not the least thanks to all my friends and classmates who gave me spirit and their complete support in completing my project.
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 1.4. 1.5. 1.6. 1.7. 2.1. 2.2. 2.3. 2.4. 2.5. 2.6. 2.7. 2.8. 2.9. 2.10. 2.11. 2.12. What is Open Source? What is Free Software? Free Software vs. Open Source software FOSS does not mean no cost What is source code? Misunderstandings (?) of ``OpenSource:Some Open Source Softwares History Features Format support VLC Interface on Windows Installation Of VLC in Various OS Playing Audio in VLC Playing Videos IN VLC Playback on VLC Troubleshooting in VLC Uninstallation of VLC Hotkeys in VLC Answers We Found
1. INTRODUCTION
In the last few years the Open Source movement has changed the face of computing more than almost anyone would have thought possible. Many people in the computer industry believe that these changes are the most important changes in computing since IBM contracted Microsoft to write an operating system for their personal computers. This article is intended to discuss the history, philosophy, and legal issues relating to Open Source.
1. Free Redistribution
The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.
2. Source Code
The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.
3. Derived Works
The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.
The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.
7. Distribution of License
The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.
Figure 1: The Open Source Model: Source code is available to public. The public is free to make improvements.
The user is free to use the software for any purpose. The user is free to study the mechanisms by which the program operates and to adjust these mechanisms to a specific purpose. The user is free to redistribute the software to another user. The user is free to adapt and improve the program and release these adaptations and improvements to the public.
Free Software shares much of its philosophy with Open-Source software, but many people within the open source community feel that there are important distinctions between the terms, as described in the section Free Software vs. Open-source software. Often Free Software is referred to as "free as in speech, not as in beer", stressing the idea that the Free-software movement is concerned with freedom, not with price. Throughout this book the reader should assume that the word "free" is referring to freedom.
programs behaviour and add functionality. (Weber, 2004, p.4) Figure shows an example of a very basic piece of source code and its result.
This code is written in the web language PHP. By pointing a browser to the file on the server, the result as shown on the left is displayed. The lines in the code preceded by two slashes (//) are comments. These are ignored when the code is executed, and are used to explain what certain code does and why. The words preceded by a dollar sign ($) are variables in which values of executed code can be stored.
1.6 Misunderstandings (?) of ``OpenSource:The Open Source Definition is clear enough, and it is quite clear that the typical non-free program does not qualify. So you would think that ``Open Source company'' would mean one whose products are free software (or close to it), right? Alas, many companies are trying to give it a different meaning.
At the ``Open Source Developers Day'' meeting in August 1998, several of the commercial developers invited said they intend to make only a part of their work free software (or ``open source''). The focus of their business is on developing proprietary add-ons (software or manuals) to sell to the users of this free software. They ask us to regard this as legitimate, as part of our community, because some of the money is donated to free software development. In effect, these companies seek to gain the favorable cachet of ``open source'' for their proprietary software products--even though those are not ``open source software''--because they have some relationship to free software or because the same company also maintains some free software. (One company founder said quite explicitly that they would put, into the free package they support, as little of their work as the community would stand for.)
a) Application software
7-Zip file archiver Blender 3D graphics editor Eclipse development environment comprising an IDE GIMP graphics editor Inkscape - Vector graphics editor for .svg Mozilla Firefox web browser Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client NASA World Wind virtual globe, geobrowser
b) Operating systems
Android - operating system derived from Linux FreeBSD operating system derived from Unix Linux family of Unix-like operating systems OpenIndiana a free Unix-like operating system Symbian real-time mobile operating system[citation needed] ReactOS operating system built on Windows NT architecture Haiku free and open source operating system compatible with BeOS
c) Programming languages
Perl a general purpose programming language PHP scripting language suited for the web Python general purpose programming language Ruby general purpose programming language
d) Server software
MediaWiki logo
Apache HTTP web server Drupal content management system MediaWiki wiki server software, the software that runs Wikipedia MongoDB document-oriented, non-relational database Moodle course management system or virtual learning environment
2.1 History
The VideoLan project was originally started as an academic project in 1996. It was intended to consist of a client and server to stream videos across a campus network. VLC was the client for the VideoLAN project, with VLC standing for VideoLan Client. Originally developed by students at the cole Centrale Paris, it is now developed by contributors worldwide and is coordinated by the VideoLAN non-profit organization. Rewritten from scratch in 1998, it was released under the GPL on 1 February 2001. The functionality of the server program, VideoLan Server (VLS), has mostly been subsumed into VLC and has been deprecated.[5] The project name has been changed to VLC because there is no longer a client/server infrastructure. The cone icon used in VLC is a reference to the traffic cones collected by Ecole Centrale's Networking Students' Association.[6] The cone icon design was changed from a hand drawn low resolution icon[7] to a higher resolution CGI-rendered version in 2006, illustrated by Richard iestad.[8] After 13 years of development, version 1.0.0 of VLC media player was released on July 7, 2009.[9] VLC is 3rd in the sourceforge.net overall download count.[10] VLC was available for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch from the Apple AppStore, but was pulled due to a licensing conflict between the GPL and the iTunes Store agreement.[11]
2.2 FEATURES
Because VLC is a packet-based media player, it can play the video content of some damaged, incomplete, or unfinished videos. (For example, files still downloading via peerto-peer (P2P) networks). It also plays m2t MPEG transport streams (.TS) files while they are still being digitized from an HDV camera via a FireWire cable, making it possible to monitor the video as it is being played. The player can also use libcdio to access .iso files so that users can play files on a disk image, even if the user's operating system cannot work directly with .iso images. VLC supports all audio and video formats and all file formats supported by libavcodec and libavformat. This means that VLC can play back H.264 or MPEG-4video as well as support FLV or MXF file formats "out of the box" using FFmpeg's libraries. Alternatively, VLC has modules for codecs that are not based on FFmpeg's libraries. VLC is one of the free software and open source DVD players that ignores DVD region coding on RPC-1 firmware drives, making it a region-free player. However, it does not do the same on RPC-2 firmware drives. VLC media player has some filters that can distort, rotate, split, deinterlace, mirror videos, create display walls, or add a logo overlay. It can also output video as ASCII art. VLC media player can play high definition recordings of D-VHS tapes duplicated to a computer using CapDVHS.exe. This offers another way to archive all D-VHS tapes with the DRM copy freely tag. Using a FireWire connection from cable boxes to computers, VLC can stream live, unencrypted content to a monitor or HDTV. VLC media player can display the playing video as the desktop wallpaper, like Windows DreamScene, by using DirectX, only available on Windows operating systems. VLC media player can create screencasts and record the desktop. On Microsoft Windows, VLC also supports the Direct Media Object (DMO) framework and can thus make use of some third-party DLLs. On most platforms, VLC can tune in to and view DVB-C, DVB-T, and DVB-S channels. On Mac OS X the separate EyeTV plugin is required, on Windows it requires the card's BDA Drivers. VLC can be installed or run directly from a USB flash drive or other external drive. VLC can be extended through scripting. It uses the Lua scripting language.[14] VLC can play videos in the AVCHD format, a highly compressed format used in recent HD camcorders. VLC can generate a number of music visualization displays.
VLC running under KDE VLC can read several formats, depending on the operating system VLC is running on.[23] Input UDP/RTP unicast or multicast, HTTP, FTP, MMS, RTSP, RTMP, DVDs, VCD, SVCD, CD Audio, DVB, Video acquisition (via V4l and DirectShow),RSS/Atom Feeds, and from files stored on the user's computer.
b) Container formats
3GP,[24] ASF, AVI, FLV, Matroska, Musical Instrument Digital Interface (.mid/.midi),[25] QuickTime, MP4, Ogg, OGM, WAV, MPEG-2 (ES, PS, TS, PVA, MP3), AIFF, Raw audio, Raw DV, MXF, VOB.
c) Video Format
Cinepak, Dirac, DV, H.263, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (8-bit; nightly builds also have 10-bit H.264 support), HuffYUV, Indeo 3,[26] MJPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2, RealVideo 3&4,[27] Sorenson (thus enabling direct playback of the modified Sorenson H.263 encoded videos downloaded from YouTube), Theora, VC1,[28] VP5,[28] VP6,[28] VP8, and some WMV.
d) Subtitles
DVD, SVCD, DVB, OGM, SubStation Alpha, SubRip, Advanced SubStation Alpha, MPEG-4 Timed Text, Text file, Vobsub, MPL2,[29] Teletext.[29]
e) Audio formats
[30] AAC, AC3, ALAC, AMR,[24] DTS, DV Audio, XM, FLAC, MACE, Mod, MP3, PLS, QDM2/QDMC, RealAudio,[31] Speex, Screamtracker 3/S3M, TTA, Vorbis, WavPack,[32] WMA (WMA 1/2, WMA 3 partially).[30] Output formats for streaming/encoding VLC can transcode into several formats depending on the operating system.
f) Container formats
ASF, AVI, FLV,[29] Fraps,[29] MP4, Ogg, Wav, MPEG-2 (ES, PS, TS, PVA, MP3), MPJPEG, FLAC, QuickTime, Matroska
g) Video formats
H.263, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, MJPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2, VP5,[28] VP6, VP8,[28] Theora, DV
h) Audio formats
AAC, AC3, DV Audio, FLAC, MP3,[33] Speex, Vorbis
i) Streaming protocols
UDP, HTTP, RTP, RTSP, MMS, file
How to open a file(click Open, select a file and open it by double clicking on the file or click once on it and press open)
VLC media player is compatible and works under Windows Operating Systems 2000/XP/Vista/7. It can also be used under Windows 95/98/Me usingKernelEx. 1. Download the self-extracting package (or the 7-zip/zip package, which requires an extraction first) from the VLC Windows download page. 2. Launch the .exe to install VLC. 3. Follow the steps in the installer.
b) Mac OS X
1. Download the Mac OS X package from the VLC MacOS X download page. 2. Double-click on the icon of the package: an icon will appear on your Desktop, right beside your drives. 3. Open it and drag the VLC application from the resulting window to the place where you want to install it (it should be /Applications).
c) BeOS
1. Download the Zip file from the VLC BeOS download page. 2. Unzip the file in a directory to install VLC.
d) Linux Mandrake
There are VLC packages for Mandrake 9.1 and Cooker. To install them, add the following sources for either Mandrake 9.1 or Cooker (you can use Easy urpmi for that): contrib from the core distribution and plf (Penguin Liberation Front) from the external add-ons.
e) Debian
f) Linux (EL5)
1. Download and install the latest rpmforge-release rpm (eg rpmforge-release-0.3.61.el5.rf.i386.rpm) 2. Either;
Download the RPM package vlc and the packages listed in the required libraries and codecs section (the other packages are optional) from the VLC Red Hat download page and put them all into the same directory. Then install the RPM packages you have downloaded:
# rpm -U *.rpm
If you have not installed all the RPM packages included with your distribution, you may be asked to install a few of them first.
b) Recording Audio
You can record an audio track by pushing the record button ( ). In the default interface, you will not see the record button, but you can choose View->Advanced Controls or customize the interface (View->Customize) and add the record button to Line 2 (which is shown by default). The recording from a shoutcast stream is stored somewhere in your files under a name like vlc-record-Date-Time-Channel-Track.mp3 (e.g.: "vlcrecord-2011-09-22-10h19m48s-Radio CAFF-Silencio Arrabal Salvaje.mp3", when recording from Radio CAFF (or more precisely from the underlying WinAmp stream). Under my german Windows XP it was stored under "Eigene Dateien/Eigene Music" so I guess that you find it in an english Windows under "My Documents/My Music/", I don't know where it will be stored under Linux or any other OS (updates are welcome). You can automagically cut the stream into tracks by relaying the stream through Streamripper, i.e. by directing StreamRipper to the ShoutCast stream and directing VLC to the relaying port of StreamRipper (default http://localhost:8000).
c) Audio Device
This option helps you to listen to audio files in two modes: stereo and mono. 1. To listen to an audio track in either the Stereo or Mono mode, select Open File or Open Disc from the Media menu. The Open dialog box is displayed. 2. Select an audio file and click on the Play button. The selected track is played. 3. Select Mono in Audio Device from the Audio menu if you want to listen to the audio track in the Mono mode. Mono refers to monaural sound that uses a single channel for sound reproduction. 1. Select Stereo in Audio Device from the Audio menu if you want to listen to the audio track in the Stereo mode. Stereo refers to sound that uses two channels for sound reproduction or stereophonic sound.
c) Full Screen
This option is useful if you want to watch the video in the full screen mode. 1. Select Full Screen from the Video menu. The video will then occupy the entire screen. 2. To return to the original mode, press Esc on the keyboard or right-click the mouse and select the Leave Full Screen option. The video will then return to its original mode. Note: When you switch to full screen, the controls may appear for a short period of time. To
restore the controls after they disappear, move the mouse or press any key on the keyboard.
d) Always on Top
This option is useful if you want the VLC media player to remain on the top of the screen always when other applications or files are open. 1. To make the VLC media player appear on top of the screen, select Always on Top from the Video menu. 2. If you do not want VLC to appear on the top of the screen, select the Always on Top option from the Video menu and manually minimise the VLC application.
e) DirectX Wallpaper This option is useful if you want to display the video which is being played as your desktop wallpaper. To view the current video file as wallpaper 1. Select Advanced File Open from the Media menu. The Open Media dialog box is displayed. 2. Select a file and click Play. 3. Select DirectX Wallpaper from the Video menu. The wallpaper mode will then display the video as the desktop background. Note: that this feature works only if you deactivate the overlay under Windows XP.
f) Snapshot
This option is useful if you want to capture a portion of the video as an image. 1. Select Advanced File Open from the Media menu. The Open dialog box is displayed. 2. Select a file and click Play. 3. To capture an image from the video, select Snapshot from the Video menu. The image is captured in the .png picture format and is saved in the C:\My Pictures folder by default (C:\Users\Username\Pictures).
g) Zoom
You can enlarge videos in different sizes. This option is useful if you want to change the size of a video track which is being played. The supported sizes are 1:4 Quarter, 1:2 Half, 1:1 Original (default) and2:1 Double. To view a video in a particular dimension, select a dimension from Zoom in the Video menu. The track is then resized based on the selected zoom ratio.
h) Aspect Ratio
Aspect ratio refers to the width of a picture in relation to its height. For example, the ratio 4:3 means four units wide to three units high. VLC provides a list of aspect ratio values which are Default, 1:1, 4:3, 16:9, 16:10, 2.21:1, 2.35:1, 2.39:1 and 5:4. To select an aspect ratio, select a value from Aspect Ratio in the Video menu. The video is then adjusted based on the selected ratio.
i) Crop
This option is helpful if you want to capture a small portion of a video as an image. This also helps crop the black bars of the top and bottom of a video. The cropping values that are supported are Default, 16:10, 16:9, 1.85:1, 2.21:1, 2.35:1, 2.39:1, 5:3, 4:3, 5:4, and 1:1. To crop a video that is played, select a value from Crop in the Video menu. The video is then cropped based on the selected value.
j) Deinterlace
Deinterlace refers to a process where interlaced video signals are converted into noninterlaced signals. VLC provides the Discard, Blend, Mean, Bob, Linear, X, Yadif and Yadif (2x) deinterlacement modes. 1. Select Deinterlace from the Video menu and choose the appropriate setting. 2. To change the deinterlacement mode select 'Deinterlace mode' is the Video Menu 3. Select a mode and observe the change in the video being played.
a) Bookmarks
You can mark and locate particular places in an audio or video file using the Bookmarks feature of VLC. If you want to view a particular scene in a movie or listen to certain tune in a song repeatedly, you can create bookmarks. To bookmark a scene in a movie: 1. From the Playback menu select the Bookmarks option, and the Manage Bookmarks. The Edit Bookmarks dialog box will be displayed. 2. Click Create to create a bookmark for the current track. The created bookmark is displayed in the Edit Bookmarks dialog box. 3. To view a scene that is bookmarked, select a bookmark from Bookmarks in the Playback menu. Note: Loading bookmarks is currently broken as of 0.9.9 see http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/2100. However it is confirmed that the current latest versionVLC 1.1.5 is able to load bookmarks.
b) Title
In a DVD format, each movie is referred to by its title or name. A title is displayed whenever a movie is played by any media player. You can view all titles in a folder in a sequential manner. 1. To open a folder, select Open Folder from the Media menu. Locate the folder in which the video files are present and click OK. 2. To select a title, click Title in the Playback menu. The selected title is then played.
c) Chapter
A video is divided into chapters. Different chapters can be accessed at random in a video which is being played. Using this option, you can directly view your favourite chapter without having to see the complete video. To play a chapter: 1. Select Open Folder from the Media menu. 2. Locate the folder in which the video files are present. 3. Select a video file and click OK. The file is played in the VLC media player. 1. Select Chapter in the Playback menu to view the list of chapters. Select a chapter of your choice. Then selected chapter is played.
d) Navigation
In VLC, you can navigate to different titles and their corresponding chapters. You can also customise a DVD by selecting options such as subtitle, angle and so on.
1. To customize a title, select the required option from DVD Menu in the Navigation menu. 2. To view a title, select a Title under Navigation in the Playback menu. The selected title is played. 3. To view a chapter in a title, select Title. When you select a title, the chapters in a title are listed. Select a chapter. Refer to Title and Chapter sections for more details.
e) Program
This option is enabled only if streams of format DVB and TS are played. Choose the program to select by giving its Service ID. Only use this option if you want to read a multiprogram stream (like DVB streams for example). Description needs to be improved
To find out, open the Messages window in the Tools tab and restart your stream. Look for error messages (red messages).
In this example, the file contains a IV41 video stream, a codec that is not supported by VLC. You may of course have other messages. If you post them to a VideoLAN mailing list or in the forum, please include such a log. It is very valuable in troubleshooting. Weird VLC behavior and crashes A very common thing is a corrupted VLC preferences file. Don't hesitate to delete it if problems appear suddenly. You will find in the FAQ details on how to delete your preferences file.
From the Start Menu, select Control Panel. Under Programs click the Uninstall a Program link. Select VLC media player and right click then select Uninstall/Change. Follow the prompts to finish the uninstallation of the software.
b) Windows XP
From the Start Menu, select Control Panel. Click the Add or Remove Programs icon. Select VLC media player and click on the "Remove" or "Change/Remove" button. Follow the prompts to finish the uninstallation of the software.
From the Start Menu, select Settings, and then Control Panel Double-click the "Add/Remove Programs" icon. Select VLC media player and click on the "Remove" or "Change/Remove" button.
d) BeOS
Delete the vlc-version directory. /boot/home/config/settings/vlcrc. You can also remove the configuration file
e) Mac OS X
Drag the VLC application to your trash can.
f) Debian GNU/Linux
Remove the packages that you installed: # apt-get remove --purge vlc-gnome vlc-mad libdvdcss2 libdvbpsi1
Increase or decrease subtitle delay Increase or decrease audio delay Change zoom mode Change zoom mode Show time Goto time
2. Manage VLC, Playlists, and Special Commands Shortcut Ctrl+h Ctrl+p Ctrl+e Ctrl+b Ctrl+m Ctrl+n Ctrl+c Ctrl+l Ctrl+y Ctrl+i or ctrl+j Alt+a Alt+h Alt+m Alt+p Alt+t Alt+v Alt+l d n F1 F11 Alt+f4, alt+q or ctrl+q Description Hide / unhide controls Preferences/ interface settings Adjustments and audio/video effects Edit bookmarks Open messages Open network Open captue device Open playlist Save playlist Media information Open audio menu Open help menu Open media menu Open playlist menu Open tool menu Open video menu Open playback menu Show movie path Play next movie from playlist Show Help Switch window from/to full-screen mode Quit VLC
c) What are the differences between VLC, VLC media player, VideoLAN Client, VideoLAN Server and VideoLAN?
VLC is the official name of VideoLAN's main product, often named VLC. VideoLAN Client is an ancient name of this product. VideoLAN Server is another product of VideoLAN, but is discontinued since a long time.
BeOS: config/settings/vlcrc
f) VLC crashes.
Increase the verbosity level (either in the preferences or with a -vv command line option) and look at the debug messages (in the terminal or in the Messages window). If you are convinced that it is a bug in VLC, have a look at the bug reporting page.
3. CONCLUSION
While completing this project our perception about VLC has completely changed. We are introduced with the new fact about it. It is not only a media player but wisely developed software. We can stream videos and play radio stations. It can play videos of any format. Compatible with every Operating System (windows, iOS, android, etc.). This project was given to the students of of Ecole Central Paris University, as the academic project. It was intended to consist of a client and server to stream videos across a campus network. VLC was the client for the VideoLAN project. VLC is a packet-based media player it plays almost all video content. It can play some, even if they're damaged, incomplete, or unfinished.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html
b) Download link of VLC Source code
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-sources.html
APPENDIX
a) Screen shots for the code of VLC
We can view the whole source code online.. here is the link.. https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/master/bin/vlc.c b) Screenshots of VLC