is there a way to stream avi, mpg files
 

im currently using gnump3d to stream audio files
what it does is simple. it list all audio files and stream them over the
net without downloading first.

im looking for a program that can do the same / similar as above but with movie clips like avi, mpeg files.

ie when someone in china click on my "clip.mpeg" link here in sweden
that he/she can watch all the movie clip without downloading it first.

help me out
thanks

hey, i use VLC media player for streaming video, though it isnt exactly intuitive but does the job well an is cross platform. For audio, I use firefly (an open source itunes compatible media server).

thanks for the reply explodingzebras
i had a look on streaming my vids with vlc
but cannot get my head around it.

if there is a tuts on how to get this done
then let me know untill then ill see if i can
figure it out

thanks again
Tuxulin

Sorry if this is a few days too old, and if you have already figured it out!

There are a few ways I have discovered to stream avi's in Linux, and with VLC.

The most simple is to change the web server's mime type for avi (or other) movies, e.g. for lighttpd, edit the config file to include:
mimetype.assign = (
".html" => "text/html",
".txt" => "text/plain",
".jpg" => "image/jpeg",
".avi" => "application/x-vlc-plugin"
)

This is assuming that you are using Firefox with the VLC plugin installed (not installed by default when installing VLC). This method will stream the avi, but also has the drawback that there are no controls, and the movie just plays in fullscreen when you click on it (no way to pause--all you can do is click 'back' in Firefox).

You can also write html with properly formatted links to the files, using the same mime type "application/x-vlc-plugin" or equivalent IE ActiveX control. This method is illustrated in great detail by a website I am not allowed to post on this forum until I have made one post-- see next post. This site shows how to deal with both IE and Firefox.

The third method (that has nothing to do with Linux) is to just open the URL of the movie in VLC. Goto "File"->"Open Network Stream...", click on "HTTP/HTTPS/FTP/MMS", then enter the URL to the right. Optional caching is available below, before you click on "OK" and open file for streaming.

The fourth method is to install Jinzora on your web server. It requires LAMP, and transcodes your files for streaming if needed. Probably has a lot more overhead than the previous methods. I don't know how easy it is to set up...but probably works with a lot more than just VLC.

Take care,
--Fritz

The site I was not allowed to post in my first post was <http://altair.videolan.org/~dionoea/vlc-plugin-demo/>.
--Fritz

Maybe you'll prove me wrong - but I understood that an AVI file has vital file information at the end of the file. This makes it very difficult to play such a file in a 'streaming manner' because the player does not know enough about the file until it has read it all.

If you can prove me wrong, I don't mind.

Ian