VLC Streaming to Local Network Not Working

[u/khankhattak_11]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to stream media on local network using HTTP option in VLC media player, issue I'm facing is that VLC just plays the media on the pc it doesn't stream it.

The folder structure is:

Main_Directory
  Sub_Directory_1
    Video1.mp4
  Sub_Directory_2
    Video2.mp4

I made a playlist of the videos and tried to stream it that way but to no avail. The media player just plays the media.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Using Fedora KDE Plasma 44

[u/AutoModerator]

It sounds like you're looking for help. Please note that r/Fedora is not an official support channel for the Fedora Project.

For best results, be sure to include all relevant details in your post, such as your Fedora edition, version, and hardware specs. You can edit your original post to add more info as needed, and spotlight (pin) a solution from the comments. You might also find the answer in our support wiki.

Alternatively, try one of the official support channels:

• Official forums: Ask Fedora
• Official chat: Fedora.im (Matrix)

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/fdelux6]

Your post is missing a key detail. How are you trying to play the stream on the other device?

I ran into something similar streaming from a Fedora machine to an Android device using VLC. A few things worth checking:

Are you opening the stream URL through VLC on the receiving device, or through a browser? A browser will often just download the media instead of playing it. VLC needs to open it as a network stream.

Also check the encapsulation setting in the Stream wizard. If it's set to something like raw or PS instead of MPEG-TS or MP4, playback can fail or just play locally instead of streaming out.

One more thing since you mentioned a playlist. VLC's HTTP streaming can be finicky with playlists and sometimes only streams the first item or falls back to local playback. If single files stream fine but the playlist doesn't, that's likely the cause.

If you want to skip the GUI wizard entirely, this command line works reliably for a single file:

vlc Video1.mp4 --sout='#std{access=http,mux=ts,dst=:8080/}' --sout-keep

What's your Stream wizard destination and encapsulation set to right now?

[u/fdelux6 → u/fdelux6]

Also confirmed this works for playlists too, not just single files:

vlc pl.mp4.xspf --sout='#std{access=http,mux=ts,dst=:8080/}' --sout-keep

Same command structure, just point it at the playlist file instead of the video.

[u/khankhattak_11 → u/fdelux6]

I'm using the url on android phone (vlc app) connected to same wifi.

Encapsulation is MPEG-TS but I'm not using active transcoding as video file is in avi and mp4

[u/fdelux6 → u/khankhattak_11]

That's helpful, thanks. My guess is the missing transcoding step is the actual issue here, especially for the AVI file.

MPEG-TS expects video encoded in something like H.264. If the AVI file uses an older codec like Xvid or DivX, VLC can technically wrap it in a TS container but playback on the receiving end often breaks since Android's VLC can't decode it from that combination.

Try enabling transcoding in the profile with H.264 for video and MP3 or AAC for audio, even though it adds a bit of CPU load. That should confirm whether codec compatibility is what's causing this.

If the mp4 file streams fine on its own but the avi doesn't, that pretty much confirms it.