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@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ Modern VLC's GUI has a Network Streaming Wizard which will set up a "Windows Med |
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Luckily, the VLC command line does still offer all of the features we need. The command structure is like this: |
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```sh |
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-vlc input_stream --sout '#transcode{vcodec=WMV1,vb=256,width=320,height=240,acodec=wma,ab=64,channels=2,fps=30}:std{access=mmsh,mux=asfh,dst=:8080} -I dummy' |
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+vlc input_stream --sout '#transcode{vcodec=WMV2,vb=320,width=240,height=180,acodec=wma,ab=24,channels=2,fps=20}:std{access=mmsh,mux=asfh,dst=:8080} -I dummy' |
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``` |
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where input_stream is any valid VLC input stream (a filename, a `v4l://`, `screen://`, `rtsp://` or any other format supported by the [VLC command line](https://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help/)), and vcodec is one of `WMV1`, `WMV2` (WMP7), `DIV3` (WMP9). `-I dummy` is just to hide the GUI window; you can omit that if you want the GUI to open. If you are streaming audio only, you need only include `acodec`, `ab`, and `channels`. |
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@@ -46,10 +46,18 @@ You can add additional `dst={transcode{...}:std{...}` blocks as necessary. |
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VLC technically uses `mmsh://`, an HTTP-wrapped version of MMS which is generally less compatible. It does not appear to be possible to stream to any Windows Media Player client before Version 7 (such as [WMP 5.52b for Windows 3.1](/wiki/mp52beta.exe) or Windows Media Player 6, aka `MPLAYER2.EXE`, which shipped with Windows 9x). This is unfortunate, as WMP7 seems to introduce some overhead. |
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+#### Windows Media Player 7 |
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+ |
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+WMP7 seems to add significant network overhead (or uses a particularly slow HTTP implementation) which means that even on capable hardware, results will be disappointing. |
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+ |
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A Pentium III 1GHz seems to be perfectly capable of smoothly rendering 480p WMV2 video at 2Mbps, but struggled with frequent buffering while streaming. At 1Mbps, things were improved, but still more or less unwatchable. For whatever reason, even though the system was capable of **75Mbps** when transferring files via SMB over LAN, RetroZilla could only transfer **100**_**kbps**_ over HTTP, and WMP7 still has to stop and buffer occasionally while streaming at 300kbps using MMS over HTTP (VLC's MMS implementation) |
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A Pentium II 300MHz struggled with basically all streaming video with Windows Media Player 7. WMV2 ends up giving the best image quality, but anything over 160x120@160kbps was mostly unwatchable, and even that low bitrate required occasional buffering. Display framerate never seems to exceed 15fps, regardless of VLC setting. |
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+#### Windows Media Player 9 |
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+ |
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+While WMP7 is much more "era-approriate" for Windows 98SE, WMP9 offers majorly improved network performance over WMP7. On the PII 300MHz, while a 160x120@160kbps was constantly buffering every 10 seconds, WMP9 has absolutely zero issue playing 320kbps 240x180 WMV2 at 20fps with no buffering or stuttering. |
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+ |
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## Windows Media Encoder |
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_the harder way_ |
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