Saturday, February 9, 2013

Troubleshooting (Common Problems solved)

VLC Direct Pro Free can be awesome, as it allows remote control of VLC and streaming content on both directions. But even while millions of users have not problems at all using the app on a daily basis, there's a small percentage of users that experience connection and streaming problems.

In this section you will find the most common problems experienced by users with the corresponding explanation and solution.

  • Common Connection Problems:
    • I see a message saying: "VLC not found in your network. Check that you have VLC Media Player running in your PC/Mac, and its web interface is enabled. Then try again. (See help for more info about this)." What should I do?  - 
    • I see a message saying "VLC Connection missing. Go to menu->settings->Connection to VLC Media Player". What should I do?
    • I followed the guide for connecting VLC Direct with VLC Player and still can't connect. What can I do?

  • Common Streaming problems using Android as Target:


If you don't find a solution to your problem here, please contact us: qdevplus@gmail.com or post your question in this blog. You will be answered by the official VLC Direct Pro Free development team.




Here you have a 3-step test that will help you diagnose where's the problem

First of all start your VLC and enable its web interface. If you have windows, we recommend you to use the VLCDIRECT.BAT script to start VLC ready receive connections. If not, you can check out this LINK to know how to start VLC with the proper parameters.

TEST 1: In your pc or mac web browser go to: http://127.0.0.1:8080/requests/status.xml

Note: if asked for user and password, leave the user blank and use "vlcdirect" as password

If this test doesn't return a XML response it means one or more of this problems is happening:
  • VLC hasn't its web interface properly enabled. You can check what happens when you enable the web interface this way: Restart VLC manually (don't use VLCDIRECT.BAT script), then in VLC, go to tools->messages, set verbosity level at 2, and with the messages window open, enable the web interface. If web interface is properly enabled you must see something like "listening to port xxxx"
  • You have port 8080 used by another application. In that case, VLC used to listen to port 8081; if 8081 is used, it tries with 8082, and so on. You can check which port is VLC using in the messages window: in VLC, go to tools->messages, set verbosity level at 2, and with the messages window open, enable the web interface. You must see something like "listening to port xxxx" where xxxx is the port to used by VLC. Then try tests 2 and 3 using xxxx instead of 8080. If tests 2 and 3 work with xxxx port, then in VLC Direct go to menu->settings->manual configuration and set the VLC Web Interface Port to xxxx. Then do an Automatic Connection Wizard and it should detect VLC.
  • Your firewall is blocking connections to the localhost:8080 (which is quite unlikely)
TEST 2: In your pc web browser go to: http://your.pc.ip.address:8080/requests/status.xml (to find "your.pc.ip.address": windows start->run->cmd, then ipconfig; there find the IPv4 Address value; it should be something like "192.168.0.7")

Note: if asked for user and password, leave the user blank and use "vlcdirect" as password

If this test doesn't return a XML response it could be one or more of this problems:
  • Your PC firewall is blocking remote connections. Disable your firewall or add a rule to allow your phone/tablet to access the port 8080.
  • Your VLC is configured to listen only on 127.0.0.1 . You can change this behavior editing with wordpad the following file and uncommenting the last 2 lines:
    • c:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLan\VLC\http\.hosts   (if you are using VLC 1.1.13 or prior)
    • c:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLan\VLC\lua\http\.hosts   (if you are using VLC 2.0.0 or higher)

TEST 3: In your device web browser go to: http://your.pc.ip.address:8080/requests/status.xml

Note: if asked for user and password, leave the user blank and use "vlcdirect" as password


If this test doesn't return a XML response it can mean two things: first, your PC firewall might be blocking the connection, try disabling it. Second, your phone can't access the PC/Mac; are both the device and the PC connected to the same router? are both in the same LAN?

If these 3 tests return a XML response, then VLC Direct will be able to find and connect to VLC Player.



After selecting "Android" as target and tapping on a video in the third tab, you see a "buffering" message, but after a while there's only a black screen; no image or sound.



You might be in one the following four situations:
  1. VLC Direct internal player might be unable to stream the video. Try enabling external player (VLC Direct->menu->settings->player->external player). Then VLC Direct will use any video player you have installed in your device to stream the video (recommended free video players: MX Player, vPlayer, Mobo Player, VLC Beta). The inconvinience with this solution is that you won't be able to control the video from the device (i.e. pause, position, volume, etc.)
  2. VLC Player can't transcode the video "on the fly" fast enough. This mainly happens with slow and old PC's. In this case decreasing video size (i.e to 320x240), video bitrate (i.e. to 256) and frames per second (i.e to 15) might solve the problem. All these settings can be found in: VLC Direct->Menu->Settings->Streaming Settings.
  3. The Video you are trying to stream can't be transcoded into mp4 (the format supported by android). Even while VLC can transcode almost any video into mp4, there are some exceptions. This mainly happens with corrupted videos or strange formats. To check if this is your problem, download the test files from <HERE> files and try them.
  4. Your device or your firmware device can not stream from VLC. As everybody knows, android ecosystem is huge. Even while VLC Direct works on almost any android powered phone or tablet, there are some exceptions. Some specific devices, which also have installed specific firmware versions can present problems while streaming content from VLC Player. These problems are related to the android streaming engine and are not caused by VLC Direct. If you suspect your device might be one of them, please try streaming the test files. Download the test files from HERE



Most of android devices have a very annoying bug. Their internal streaming engine doesn't implement correctly the "KEEP ALIVE" packet of the RTSP procotol. That means VLC server doesn't know that there is an android device receiving the RTSP packets on the otherside and after a defined timeout, the server closes the connection.
VLC usually comes with this timeout set at 60 seconds. If your videos stop every 60 seconds, chances are that your device is one of those with the buggy streaming engine.

But don't worry; the solution is quite simple!

To avoid android re-buffer every 60 seconds, you must configure VLC this way:

IMPORTANT: This is only needed with VLC 2.0.0 or higher. VLC 1.1.13 and prior don't have this problem.

So, if you have VLC 2.0.0 or higher do this:

in VLC go to tools->preferences

then: switch to "show all settings", then expand stream output->sout stream->RTP

and set "RTSP session timeout (s)" to -1



You can also start VLC with the following parameter to avoid this problem:

vlc.exe --rtsp-timeout=9999

If you are using windows it is highly recommended to use VLCDIRECT.BAT script to start VLC. The script starts VLC with the proper parameters and also enables the web interface automaticaly.
You can find the script <HERE>




If you get the following error in VLC


don't worry, here you will find the solution for your problem.

Unfortunately, VLC 2.0 and newer (including al VLC 2.1.x  series) has a bug in its audio transcoding codecs. This means you will get sound when playing a video in VLC, but when VLC needs transcode a video to another format and stream it, the audio codec fails.
This is the case when streaming to android; VLC needs to transcode the videos into a format supported by android (i.e. 3gp or mp4)


To solve this problem VLC needs to be started with a specific parameter





If you have VLC 2.0.x use the following parameter:

vlc.exe --sout-ffmpeg-strict=-2
If you have VLC 2.1.0 or newer, use the following parameter:

vlc.exe --sout-avcodec-strict=-2

If you are using windows it is highly recommended to use VLCDIRECT.BAT script to start VLC. The script starts VLC with the proper parameters and also enables the web interface automaticaly.
You can find the script <HERE>


If you want to start VLC manually we recommend using a set of parameters. Please take a look at this guide for a detailed list of those params: <GUIDE>



Even while VLC Player in PC/Mac does a terrific job transcoding and streaming videos on the fly, it is not free of bugs.

If you have installed VLC 2.0.1 or VLC 2.0.4, that's the problem. Those versions used to crash because of broken audio codecs. Just uninstall your VLC and install VLC 2.1.2 from <HERE>

A very ugly bug in VLC 1.x (this doesn't happen with VLC 2.x) makes it crash when you try to stream certain videos. One of the most popular video formats that produce this effect is MKV. Not all MKV produce this effect; only some of them.

VLC Direct has an option to avoid this bug:

you just have to go to VLC Direct->menu->settings->streaming settings, and check "Avoid Audio Transcoding"




Anyway, if you want to be free of this kind of problem we recommend you updating your VLC to 2.1.x series. Those versions don't present this MKV transcoding problem at all.



VLC Direct comes preconfigured to achieve good video quality and good performance in most of the situations, but in many cases this configuration is not the right one for your specific environment (device speed, network bandwith, etc.)

Because of this, VLC Direct allows users to adjust every streaming parameter to fit any specific need.

To adjust Streaming/quality/performance settings go to:

VLC Direct->menu->Settings->Streaming Settings


There you will find two important sections: Video Settings and Audio Settings.

Please keep in mind this: Every improvement in video and/or audio quality will require more network bandwidth, and every decrease in bandwidth requirement will affect the video and/or audio quality. 
So the idea here is to find a balance between quality and network bandwidth requirement to fit your needs.


Video Settings:


Video Width and Height: The bigger the size, the better the video quality. Decrease it if you have a slow pc, slow device or low network bandwidth or video freezes frequently

Video Bitrate: Increase it to improve the video quality  / Decrease it if you have a slow pc, slow device or low network bandwidth or video freezes frequently

Frames per Second: Increase it to improve the video quality / Decrease it if you have a slow pc, slow device or low network bandwidth or video freezes frequently

Audio Settings:



Audio Bitrate: Increase it to improve the video quality  /  Decrease it if you have a slow pc, slow device or low network bandwidth or video freezes frequently




VLC Direct Pro Free has, within its features, support for SRT and SUB subtitle formats. You can even have more than one subtitle file for each video file and the app will ask you which subtitle should be used.

In order to make VLC Direct Pro recognize a subtitles file there are some simple rules you must follow:

1. The video file and the subtitles file must be in the same folder in the PC.

2. The subtitles file must have one of this naming conventions (i.e for a video named wedding.avi):

     wedding.avi.srt
     wedding.srt
     wedding.avi.esp.srt
     wedding.avi.ita.srt

3. The "hide non-media files" option must be disabled (find this checkbox in the third tab of vlc direct)




Importante notes: The subtitles feature is available when streaming from pc to android, but not when streaming from android to PC.

65 comments:

Samuel Oil and Gas Chemical Engineer said...

hi, when i install vlc player all other programs open in vlc.

John Stepp said...

Hi, please check out this link:
http://vlcdirect.blogspot.com/2012/01/videos-play-always-in-pcmac-and-never.html

Mohammad Shadab said...

Hi,
When using target as android and streaming videos from pc to android, we are getting mono sound not stereo. Is there any way to getting stereo sound in my android when streaming pc video to android.

Thank you!
Best Regards!

John Stepp said...

Hi,

currently VLC Direct Pro Free uses 2 channels for audio files (mp3) and 1 channel for most of the video files. In the future VLC Direct Pro Free will allow you to select the number of channels for video streaming.

huma said...

features like "effects and filters" and "track synchronization" aren't working on my vlc.. i had vlc 2.0.3 ..i recently had it uninstalled and installed the fresher edition 2.0.6..but the problem remains there..please somebody help!

John Stepp said...

Hi, that seems to be a VLC Player problem (not related to VLC Direct Pro Free). I Recommend you refering to videolan forums (http://www.videolan.org) . They should be able to help you with this problem.

momkoto said...

Hi,
streaming works for me both from my Galaxy s4 to PC/windows vista, vlc 2.0.6/ and from PC to Android, but I have found 2 problems:
1. When streaming from my Galaxy s4/Android/ to PC no subtitles are shown on VLC/PC/, although subtitles are named properly on the phone.
2. When streaming music from PC to Android sound quality is terrible. It is not a net issue, as I’m streaming movies in the same direction without any problems in the sound or in the picture, although a have to use an external player/in my case i.e. a AMP player/
Please give some advice how to solve these problems.

John Stepp said...

Hi,

1. That feature is not supported yet. Subtitles are supportedwhile streaming pc->android or pc->pc, not android->pc
2. VLC Direct streams audio using a close-to-cd quality. You can improve audio bitrate in vlc direct pro free->menu->settings->streaming settings. Hope it helps...

momkoto said...

Hi,
thank you for your answer.
1. Very sorry for the subtitles.
2. The problem with the sound can`t be solved by changing the bitrate.

dax said...

DLNA protocol allows diret file transfer. S4 should be DLNA, VLC i don't know, media player i think. The router the same it must be.

John Stepp said...

Hi,
that's strange... anyway, I don't think the problem is VLC Direct Pro Free itself, but I am not sure... please send an email to vlcforandroid@gmail.com; they might be able to help you.

cj said...

mine is working fine on my S3 but my only issue is that when streaming from pc to device i cant pause rewind fast forward etc..... please help!! fixing this issue would make this app perfect

Unknown said...

I would to know how to watch a dvd from Android without opening the individual vob files and how to choose an external file for the subtitle. Thanks

John Stepp said...

Currenly the DVD support quite limited. unfortunately, you have to select individual VOB files. In future this feature will be improved.

jeni said...

How can I find remote connection

John Stepp said...

Hi Jeni, to connect VLC Direct Pro Free with VLC, you can follow this guide: LINK

Anonymous said...

Hi. I followed directions and used the batch file provided, but audio is still absent when playing w android as the target. Any ideas? Running win 8 and a rooted android 4.1.2 (stock rom w a custom kernel) on an sgs3. Thanks.

John Stepp said...

please check out this link:
http://vlcdirect.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/when-streaming-from-pcmac-to-android.html

Jeff said...

I am unable to connect to the vlc 2.1 rc2 server with the vlc direct pro free for android client.

I keep getting password does not match. the password in vlc direct is "vlcdirect" and the password in the windows32 startup param is also "vlcdirect" I have uninstalled both and re installed as well as changing the password but I always get the same error

John Stepp said...

That's strange... it should work. Can you access the web interface through the web browser from the pc and from the android device?

Unknown said...

So ive got some noob questions, like;
1 do i need internet on my laptop For this To work? &
2 is streaming a video from my mobile browser to the laptop possible

John Stepp said...

1. not internet, but at least you need to have both the pc and the android device connected to the same wifi router.
2. you can stream from vlc direct pro free to the laptop, but not from the mobile browser.

Wikko said...

Hi there,
When I browse my laptops file system through the android app, I am only able of open a few folders - one of the folders I can't open is My Videos... Are there some permissions that need changing? If so, where and how?

John Stepp said...

in VLC direct pro free->menu->settings->initial computer folder
insert the full path for "my videos". You should be able to see it. then you can bookmark it to access it faster

quynh said...

After I connected my phone vlc to the pc vlc, it says "i can not connect to VLC (my ip address:8080).

on the app "information" it says
connection status: NOT CONNECTED

I've scanned alot already.
I've put the password "vlcdirect" into the "lua" on my pc.

John Stepp said...

Hi,
please do the 3-step diagnose:
http://vlcdirect.blogspot.com.ar/2012/01/troubleshooting.html#3step

Unknown said...

Hello,
While streaming pc(Samsung laptop) to Android Galaxy Tab 7.0 no subtitles show, even tho I disabled th "hide non-media files" tab and all files are .srt and named just like movie file on the same folder. Help? Thanks in advance.

John Stepp said...

Hi Luis,

what is the name of the video file and what is the name of subtitles file?

Unknown said...

Hello,

The Disable subtitles option is unchecked.

Just tried Sex and the City 1 2008.mp4 and the subtitles file is Sex and the City 1 2008.srt

Unknown said...

Hi,

When streaming from a pc (VLC 2.1.2) the video (and subtitles) play on my PC and not on my android device.. Maybe it's a noob question, but what am I doing wrong??

Thanks in advance!
Jasper

John Stepp said...

Hi Jasper, you have to toggle the target to "Android". The target is the icon in the upper left corner of the screen.

Unknown said...

yep, noob question ;-) problem solved, thanks!

Anonymous said...

I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 with Android 4.1.2. It shows a black screen with the internal player but plays fine with an external player. Is this "one of those devices in the ecosystem"?

Milen_D said...

Could you please help me with the issue below? Thanks.
main debug: looking for interface module matching "http,none": 15 candidates
lua debug: Found lua interface script: C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\intf\http.luac
lua debug: Setting config variable: config={http={no_index=false}}
main debug: using interface module "lua"
lua info: Lua HTTP interface
lua debug: Loaded C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\http/custom.lua
main warning: cannot add '/css/main.css' (url already defined)
lua error: Error loading script C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\intf\http.luac: ...xtras/package/win32/../../../share/lua/intf/http.lua:211: Failed to create HTTPd file.

John Stepp said...

Hi, what do you get in:

http://127.0.0.1:8080
?

Unknown said...

Greetings!

I got the app and program working just fine but when I try to stream an mkv file, VLC just crashes on my PC.

I've tried adding your recommended parameters, the VLCDIRECCT.BAT file and the "avoid audio transcoding" option but still VLC crashes when I try to steam mkv files from my PC to android.

If it helps, here is the crash report from VLC:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: vlc.exe
Application Version: 2.1.2.0
Application Timestamp: 52a50c49
Fault Module Name: vlc.exe
Fault Module Version: 2.1.2.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 52a50c49
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 000018ad
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Locale ID: 13321
Additional Information 1: 0dd2
Additional Information 2: 0dd2962f28d1cd168a693a49c7d643c2
Additional Information 3: 1659
Additional Information 4: 1659e10703259826817dc0b3ea98bf97

John Stepp said...

Hi,
"avoid audio transcoding" is only necessary for VLC 1.1.x; VLC 2.x shouldn't crash with mkv files.
Does it happen with every mkv file? Is there a way you can send us one of your problematic mkv files? qdevplus@gmail.com

Riddoct said...

What about showing subtitles embedded in the mkv?

VLCFORANDROID said...

Hi, subtitles for mkv files are supported. If you have any problem send us an email: qdevplus@gmail.com

Unknown said...

Please assist... I attempt to play the mp3 files through direct and it tries to run them as video files. I double click the same file on the pc and the vlc runs out flawlessly. Any clues?

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
zchen27 said...

I am using VLC 2.1.2, with the --sout-avcodec-strict=-2 parameter. Every time I try to stream a MKV VLC will crash on my PC. I have tried this on 2.1.3 and 2.1.4 as well.

John Stepp said...

Does this happen with any mkv video or just with a few ones? maybe the mkv movie your are using is corrupted and vlc can't handle it properly for transcoding

zchen27 said...

@John Stepp.

It happens to every one that I have tried, and the files are perfectly playable without streaming.

It also causes a "VLC has crashed" dialogue box to open whenever I start it.

zchen27 said...

Forgot to mention, but VLC will always start with a command prompt after the dialogue is closed.

Unknown said...

Running VLC 2.1.4

Getting "VLC Found, but the HTTP password is wrong"

however I can log in and get the XML feed from my PC with the password I put. Changing the password makes me re-log, and it is correctly updating.
Obviously the phone is finding VLC and connecting to determine the PW is wrong. I get a "failed to find" if I don't have the VLC server running.

I've tried 3 different passwords. I can always get in from the web, but never from direct. Always a pw mismatch. Betting the script is inserting a character or changing a case?

Unknown said...

...hello? =(

Francisco Gutiérrez said...

VLCDIRECT.BAT link broken. Fix it please.

John Stepp said...

Links fixed

Unknown said...

Hi John Stepp, Somebody named Jeff asked this before but he didnt come back. I have the same problem: VLC Direct Pro keeps saying the http-passwords dont match, even though they do match.
You asked him if he could reach the web-interface with a browser on PC and Android. Jeff didn't answer anymore, but I did try this, and I can reach the webinterface both locally on my Pc and with my Android in the wifi network. I used the links you provided (http://127.... local and http//192... on my android.

Both asked for the password, which returned an XML file, so it is working. The password is also the same as in my VLC direct.

Any solutions?

Unknown said...

Sorry, never mind... I changed the password and then changed it again. Seems I have to really make sure VLC Direct is closed properly and then re-open it to make it pick up the new password.

Unknown said...

Thank you so much if you want to download the New version Here

stoobz said...

hey guys, I have the exact problem as described above, but streaming from my mac to android.

and I can´t get the --sout-avcodec-strict=-2 parameters to run when I start the vlc.app

how do I do it on the mac? I already tried with automator, but since Im a total noob regarding that, I didn´t have any success.

many thanx for any help!
cheers,
steffen.

Solgun said...

Hello!

I just recently got the app to stream .mkv files from my PC to my android. I noticed every single one has crashed on startup. I'm currently running version 2.1.5. All mkv files work perfectly on PC and from android to PC, but not the other way around! I have also tried using the "avoid audio transcoding" option as well.

I would be much obliged if you have any solutions for this.

Unknown said...

Hi,
After installing your VCLDIRECT.BAT on my windows 8 PC and the VLC Direct app on my Samsung tablet, I run both programs and be able to see films from my PC to my tablet. It works fine. Great job.
I stil have a problem with .wpl files. When I select "Target: Android" on my tablet and select a .mp3 located on my PC, I can hear the music on my tablet. But if I select a .wpl file, it plays the music on my PC and not on my tablet. On my tablet, I can only see the black page with big green point to pause/start the music.
Can you tell me what I need to do to listen the music of my playlist on my tablet?
Thanks.

Unknown said...

I have to keep uninstalling then reinstalling vlc direct free it is version 13.4..... It will stop working every time I try to use it again...Like it forgets my criteria....Causing me to uninstallit/reinstall it, then it works again until the next time I wanna use it...

Unknown said...

Hi I downloaded music to my nexus 7 from. My laptop now I seem to lost some. They are still there but will not play just keep running through names of songs on the album


Unknown said...

Hi,
Any way possible that I can stream live content, NOT recorded, from 'Droid to PC? Am using an app from Google Play but a larger screen would do me fine.
Thanks

Aaron said...

Is there a way to use this VLC streaming method to streak to a Roku device?

Unknown said...

This is a nice post. Thanks for sharing with us.

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Unknown said...

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Unknown said...

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Unknown said...

I've installed windows 7 on my laptop after buying license from ODosta Store, I want to activate it to get free upgrade from windows 7 professional to windows 10 home. I'm now confused, How to activate and upgrade to windows 10. Please mention within details.
Windows Tips

Unknown said...

I have vlc for win 10. version 3.0 none of these are working for me.... do I need to downgrade my vlc ?

Unknown said...

Sh