VideoLAN, a project and a non-profit organization.

Streaming features list

VLC Stream output

Windows Mac OS X Linux BeOS FreeBSD OpenBSD Familiar Linux
Inputs See the VLC features page
Output RTP/UDP Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
RTSP Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
RTP/DCCP No No Yes No No Untested
Raw UDP Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
(RTP or raw) Multicast Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
File Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
HTTP Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
MMSH Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Misc Transcoding Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Send DVD subtitles Partial Partial Partial Partial Partial No
Send SAP announces Yes Yes Yes Untested Yes Untested
Interfaces and more See the VLC features page

Output method / muxer matrix

This table describes what type of muxing is allowed when streaming to certain output methods. Example: PS muxing can only be done when you write to HTTP or files, and when you want to use UDP, you can only mux in TS or as RAW.

UDP RTP HTTP MMSH File
PS No Yes Yes No Yes
TS Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Ogg No No Yes No Yes
ASF No No Yes Yes Yes
MP4 No No No No Yes
QuickTime No No No No Yes
Raw Yes Yes Yes No Yes
MPJPEG No No Yes No Yes

Muxer / audio and video formats matrix

This table describes which video and audio formats VLC can output, and how these can be muxed. Example: MPEG4 can be muxed in any way, however if you want to stream Window Media Video, then you cannot use PS, MP4 or RAW muxing.

PS TS Ogg ASF MP4 MOV MPMJPEG RTP Raw
Video formats MPEG-1 video Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Yes
MPEG-2 video Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes
MPEG-4 video Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
DivX 1/2/3 video No Yes1 Yes Yes No No No No No
WMV 1/2 No Yes1 Yes Yes No No No No No
H/I 263 No Yes1 No No No No No Yes No
MJPEG No Yes1 Yes Yes No No SVN only No No
Theora No No Yes No No No No No No
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC No Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes No
Audio formats MPEG Layer 1/2/3 audio Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes
AC3 (i.e. A52) Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes
MPEG-4 audio (i.e. AAC) No Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes No
Vorbis No No Yes No No No No No No
Speex No No Yes No No No No Yes No
FLAC No No Yes No No No No No Yes
PCM (Wave) No No No No No No No Yes No
µ-law/A-law No No No No No No No Yes No
  1. This feature is possible with VideoLAN but not standard (so not interoperable).

Possible output formats for the transcoding module

Video formats MPEG-1 video Yes
MPEG-2 video Yes
MPEG-4 video Yes
DivX 1/2/3 video Yes
WMV 1/2 Yes
H/I 263 Yes
MJPEG Yes
Theora Yes
Audio formats MPEG Layer 2 audio Yes
MPEG Layer 3 audio Yes2
AC3 (i.e. A52) Yes
MPEG-4 audio (i.e. AAC) Yes3
Vorbis/Speex Yes
FLAC Yes
PCM Yes
µ-law/A-law Yes
  1. For this, you have to compile ffmpeg with libmp3lame support.
  2. For this, you have to compile ffmpeg with libfaac support.

VLS

Linux Windows Mac OS X
Inputs File Yes Yes Yes
DVD Yes No No
DVB-S (Hauppauge Nova-S / Nexus) Yes No No
DVB-C (Hauppauge DVB-C) Yes No No
DVB-T (Hauppauge Nova-t) Yes No No
MPEG encoding card [4] Yes No No
ASI card SVN Only No No
V4L device SVN Only No No
Output UDP Unicast / Multicast Yes Yes Yes
File Yes Yes Yes
Input formats TS Yes Yes Yes
PS Yes Yes Yes
Output format TS Yes Yes Yes
Control Command line Yes Yes Yes
Telnet Yes Yes Yes
Misc IPv6 Yes No No
Send DVD subtitles Yes No No
Send SAP announces No No No
Transcoding No No No
  1. VLS supports two kinds of MPEG-2 encoding cards: Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250/350 and Visiontech Kfir.
  • Yes = Yes
  • Partial = Partial
  • Untested = Untested
  • No = No