Arch Linux

RobF

Member

Registered: 2006-10-10

Posts: 157

VLC doesn't play rtsp audio stream

How do I get VLC to play rtsp audio streams?  I get the error: "no suitable access module for rtsp://........rm"

All packages are current, i.e.

vlc 0.8.6c-1
ffmpeg 20070505-3
codecs 20061022-2
live-media 2007.04.24a-1

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: VLC doesn't play rtsp audio stream

I've been able to open rtsp streams with VLC lately that other Arch users couldn't (like Keynote). If you would post an example link, I'll test it. If I can play that, then maybe we can look at what's different about my machine.

Last edited by skottish (2007-07-04 05:03:09)

RobF

Member

Registered: 2006-10-10

Posts: 157

Re: VLC doesn't play rtsp audio stream

Thanks, skottish, for your offer.

Here's a test link that the standalone RealPlayer, the standalone Mplayer (see below), the MPlayer plugin for Firefox, etc., play without a problem but VLC doesn't:

rtsp://128.197.27.80:554/w/b/wbur/onpoint/2007/05/op_0502b.rm

xine also cannot handle this link; I get the error: "A problem occurred with loading a library or a decoder: cook.so" and, more specifically, "audio_decoder: no plugin available to handle 'RealAudio COOK."  However, I have cook.so in /usr/lib/codecs/.

I'm also interested in using VLC's capability of recording audio streams, i.e. in Open Network Stream>Advanced Options>Stream Save etc.  This works fine with http audio stream links, and I'm pretty sure it also worked with rtsp streams with VLC 0.8.5-9 and ffmpeg-20060920-1 but didn't work anymore with VLC 0.8.6a-4 and ffmpeg-20070131-1 (see http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=30664 ).

Robert

============

Here's the output from MPlayer playing this stream:

$ mplayer rtsp://128.197.27.80:554/w/b/wbur/onpoint/2007/05/op_0502b.rm
MPlayer 1.0rc1-4.2.0 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
CPU: Genuine Intel(R) CPU           T2300  @ 1.66GHz (Family: 6, Model: 14, Stepping: 8)
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
98 audio & 216 video codecs

Playing rtsp://128.197.27.80:554/w/b/wbur/onpoint/2007/05/op_0502b.rm.
Resolving 128.197.27.80 for AF_INET6...
Couldn't resolve name for AF_INET6: 128.197.27.80
Connecting to server 128.197.27.80[128.197.27.80]: 554...
Cache size set to 640 KBytes
Cache fill: 18.75% (122880 bytes)
REAL file format detected.
Stream description: Audio Stream
Stream mimetype: audio/x-pn-realaudio
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg/libavcodec audio decoders
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 1 ch, s16le, 20.7 kbit/2.93% (ratio: 2583->88200)
Selected audio codec: [ffcook] afm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg COOK audio decoder)
==========================================================================
AO: [oss] 44100Hz 1ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Video: no video
Starting playback..

Last edited by RobF (2007-07-04 16:04:56)

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: VLC doesn't play rtsp audio stream

I'm not having any luck with VLC on that stream, but the fact that it plays in MPlayer lends a solution to your second part.

mplayer <rtsp_stream> -dumpstream -dumpfile <output_file>

I did this with the link you posted above and captured the stream. FFMPEG recognized the audio stream and was able to work with it from there.

Last edited by skottish (2007-07-04 16:57:41)

RobF

Member

Registered: 2006-10-10

Posts: 157

Re: VLC doesn't play rtsp audio stream

Thanks, skottish, for providing a solution to this via MPlayer.  I tried it, and it works on my system.

I forgot to mention though that I'd wanted to capture rtsp streams in mp3 format and also listen to them while they are being recorded.  VLC is able to do that, converting the stream to mp3 on the fly, certainly with http-linked audio streams (see http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=30664 ), and I'll be damned if I hadn't been able to do that with rtsp streams too, with earlier versions of VLC and ffmpeg, although these may have been different rtsp streams from the one I posted above as a test.  But I'm convinced that this can be done in VLC for rtsp streams in general.  There's just something not quite right with the current versions of VLC and ffmpeg.

Here's how this can be done with VLC.

Using VLC from the GUI:

Main menu: File>Open Network Stream>Open...Network>tick HTTP/HTTPS/FTP/MMS or RTSP, whichever applies, and enter the URL (http://streamURL or rtsp://streamurl.rm)>under Advanced Options tick Stream/Save and click on Settings (opens Stream Output window)>Outputs, tick Play locally, tick File, click on Browse and enter filename and location for the stream saving file, e.g. vlcout.mp3>Encapsulation method, tick on Raw>Transcoding options, tick on Audio codec and select mp3>Bitrate 128, Channels 2>OK, OK, to start recording. Stop or Quit VLC, to stop recording.

Using VLC from the CLI (with http://vruk.sc.llnwd.net:12265 as an example stream), all in one long line:

$ vlc http://vruk.sc.llnwd.net:12265 --sout '#transcode{acodec=mp3,ab=128,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=display,dst=standard{access=file,mux=raw,dst="/home/robert/vlcout.mp3"}}'

Can you give me an rtsp link that other Arch users had trouble with but that you managed to play in VLC, after some fiddling around?

If I wanted to use Mplayer for this sort of thing, can MPlayer also convert to mp3 on the fly and at the same time play the stream?  The default <output_file> from MPlayer is in RealAudio format, i.e. .rm, not in mp3 format. RealPlayer and MPlayer can play this file but VLC stumbles over it, breaking it up.

BTW, this sort of thing (rtsp stream -> mp3, running in the background), can also be done easily with the "realcap" script ( http://homepage.eircom.net/~wastedyouth/realcap/ ).  Realcap uses RealPlayer, vsound, lame, and vorbis-tools, but it captures/converts via a big intermediary .wav file.

Robert

skottish

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From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: VLC doesn't play rtsp audio stream

On the VLC website, it mentions explicitly that it will not handle the RDP protocol that RealMedia uses. So while RTSP is handled through Live-Media, there is no handler for Real's type. MPlayer can play them because they wrote in a separate handler to catch when Live-Media won't work.

You mentioned that you thought something is weird between VLC and FFMPEG now. I'm currently not able to get FFMPEG to open any RTSP stream. I'm not sure what the hang up is.

By the way, I'm learning a lot of strange stuff pondering this thread...

The stream the I referred to earlier is from Keynote. See: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=34099

RobF

Member

Registered: 2006-10-10

Posts: 157

Re: VLC doesn't play rtsp audio stream

Re VLC not being able to handle RealMedia rtsp streams, I'm almost certain I'd been able to do that with the earlier versions of VLC and ffmpeg that I mentioned in my posts from March 2007.  But I could be mistaken.  I'll have to go back to my notes on that and refresh my memory.

On my Arch install (which just went through a massive -Syu three days ago) the rtsp stream that you provided a link to ( rtsp://a2047.v1412b.c1412.g.vq.akamaistream.net/5/2047/1412/2_h264_....... ) plays in VLC without a problem, I get both audio and video.  This is Steve Jobs selling his iPhone, correct?

Robert

EDIT: On the VLC website I found this on VLC audio support in Linux:
"Real Audio playback is provided through the FFmpeg-library which does only support the Cook (RealAudio G2 / RealAudio 8) decoder at the moment."

So, perhaps the problem is simply how to set VLC to open ffmpeg and have it pick the codec: [ffcook] afm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg COOK audio decoder).

Last edited by RobF (2007-07-05 00:13:24)

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: VLC doesn't play rtsp audio stream

Add --enable-realrtsp to the configure line in the VLC PKGBUILD and recompile.