VLC is free to use and open-source media player, best known for opening almost all of the media format files. It has many features for different functions rather than playing audio and video formats. Most of the users know that through VLC you can record webcam, desktop, or any stream. However, there is also a feature available for streaming music and video with VLC. In this article, you will learn the method for streaming any movie or music on the VLC media player.
Streaming Music and Videos on VLC
Users can simply open the streaming by the button available on the media menu. There are different destination options available that users can select, such as; File, HTTP, UDP, and so on. Depending on what kind of format you are streaming, you can select that method for streaming output. For some of the settings, you can leave as it is and some you can modify however you like it. Follow the below steps to start streaming with VLC:
- Open VLC media player by double-clicking the shortcut or searching VLC through the Windows search feature.
- Click on the Media menu and choose the Stream option.
- Click on the Add button in the File tab and choose the file that you want to stream in VLC.
Note: You can also choose multiple files at a time. - After adding the file, click on the Stream button.
- A new window will open for Stream Output. Click on the Next button, then change the destination to HTTP and click on the Add button.
- Here you can change the port to your own port if you want or keep it the same, the same goes for the path. Click on the Next button again.
- For the Profile in the transcoding options, we will choose Video – MPEG-2 + MPGA (TS) option. Then click the Next button to move forward.
Note: You can choose the different settings depending on what kind of output you want.
- You will find the stream output string generated, so click the Stream button to begin streaming.
- Now on the device where you want to view this stream, open VLC media player.
- Click on the Media menu and choose Open Network Stream option.
- You need to provide the network URL of your stream device. If you don’t know the IP, you can find it on the stream system by opening the elevated command prompt and typing ‘ipconfig‘ command.
- You can type the IP and port in the box as shown below and click on the Play button to start watching the stream:
Sometimes you will get the error such as ‘VLC is unable to open the MRL file‘. That probably means that one of the settings for stream output or the network URL for the open network stream is wrong.