Introduction
VideoLAN made its appearance as an open source project a few months after DeCSS leaked into the scene. At that point it was all about a free solution for video streaming with MPEG-2 quality (DVD quality). It is obvious that streaming video with MPEG-2 quality requires high bandwidth networks while its application requires the installation and setup of VideoLAN on at least two computers. In detail, VideoLAN is comprised of:
VideoLAN Server (VLS), which is capable of streaming MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 files as well as DVD and VCD signal, satellite channels and other video formats, and
VideoLAN Client (VLC), which is used for receiving, decoding and reproducing MPEG streams.
Contradictory to different, more professional solutions in this department, the development team provides a common program for both server and client. Additionally, since the entire project is open source and distributed under the GNU GPL license agreement, the full code is available to anyone interested from the official site www.videolan.org.
The 512KB (in compressed downloadable form) of the VideoLAN client, allow the reproduction of video and DVD locally, as well as its distribution as a unicast and multicast server. What is particularly special for VideoLAN as an MPEG-2 video streaming application is that it can also be used for Video on Demand services. In other words, the client chooses when reproduction commences and finishes and has complete control over the playback procedure. Here is a graph that explains the VideoLAN procedure. |
