5 replies to this topic

[sam_pune]

Hello all,
I want to do streaming of video file in VB.NET. (I am developing "Video On Demand" for LAN).

All video files are on Server & when client ask for any video, that video get played on client side.

How I do this.

Thanks in advance.

[dega512]

I don't know if this will work but here it goes:

You could have two threads. One for playing the video (which would read and play the data from some sort of in-memory buffer) and another for downloading the data from the server and putting into that buffer. As a safe guard against video artifacts/exceptions you could also trigger some sort of event if there is not enough data in the buffer that would cause the video thread to pause for x number of seconds and let the download thread catch up.

As for actually playing the video, I think some API in DirectX will allow you to.

- dega

[tomsmaily2006]

can u poine me some active links doing the same?.I too am doing the same thing in vb.net.Thnx in advance.
Tom

[asha]

Sir,
I have to do a project based on video streaming.I have no idea about
video streaming.How can I implement this idea (specifically between 2 computer systems)on my project. If you explain it ,it would be a great help for me.



Yours faithfully,
A student.

[ray648]

dega512 said:

I think some API in DirectX will allow you to.

DirectShow is the bit that allows the playing of video files. This used to be part of DirectX but has since been moved into the windows SDK.

[dega512]

I am going to assume that you are using VB.NET (although if not, the concept is still the same).

Before you get going with this, you should have background knowledge with:

• Using Windows Forms
  
• GDI+ / DirectDraw (or any other API you use for drawing)
  
• Networking (TCP/IP, UDP)
  
• Binary File IO

Anyways, the concept behind the streaming would consist of:

• The client making a connection to the server
  
• The server opening the video file to be streamed
  
• (If needed) The server converts the video from it's original format to one that the client can use
  
• The server transmits video data, such as per frame or a certain time period of video (the client would probably have to have a buffer for each incoming frame or each block of audio information, once the buffer for the incoming information was filled, it could be added to the client's buffer for the entire video)
  
• The client reads from it's content buffer that has been filled in by data sent by the server, and either decodes and draws/plays it itself or asks some other API (such as DirectShow) to decode and play the data in the content buffer.

Here are some links that I have gathered for you to help you begin your research (unfortunately, some of this uses C# for it's examples, but with a little googling it should be simple enough to find out what is going on in the code):

• http://www.codeproject.com/vb/net/ (lots of VB.NET stuff, using Forms, GDI+, sound, networking, etc...)
  
• http://www.eggheadca...es/20020323.asp (VB.NET networking with TCP/IP)
  
• http://kristoffer.vi...ged-directshow/ (managed DirectShow, claims to help you develop multimedia client/server software using .NET)
  
• http://msdn.microsof...deoplayback.asp (managed DirectX AudioVideoPlayback, which for .NET applications is encouraged over DirectShow)
  
• http://www.codeproje...ems/AudioDX.asp (AudioVideoPlayback wrapper)
  
• http://www.multimedia.cx/formats.html (links to descriptions of a variety of multimedia file formats)

I hope this helps,
- dega