Troubleshooting (Common Problems solved)

2013-02-09T14:18:00.000-08:00

VLC Direct Pro Free can be awesome, as it allows remote control of VLC and streaming content on both directions. But even while millions of users have not problems at all using the app on a daily basis, there's a small percentage of users that experience connection and streaming problems.

In this section you will find the most common problems experienced by users with the corresponding explanation and solution.

Common Connection Problems:

I see a message saying: "VLC not found in your network. Check that you have VLC Media Player running in your PC/Mac, and its web interface is enabled. Then try again. (See help for more info about this)." What should I do? -

I see a message saying "VLC Connection missing. Go to menu->settings->Connection to VLC Media Player". What should I do?

I followed the guide for connecting VLC Direct with VLC Player and still can't connect. What can I do?

Common Streaming problems using Android as Target:

Streaming from PC/Mac to Android not working - usually you see a black screen and green buttons i.e play/pause, the time of the video advances, but the image never shows up -

Every 60 seconds playback stops and buffering starts again - if you experience buffering exactly every minute, here's the solution -

When Streaming from PC/Mac to android, there's only image, but no sound or you get a "Codec Error in VLC" when trying to stream. - Really common problem, easy to solve, just take a look -

Every time I start a streaming from PC/Mac to android, VLC Player in PC/Mac crashes - usually happens with old VLCs, this link tells you what to do -

Streaming works, but the image/sound quality is very poor or freezes frequently - The etternal streaming problem, some tips and solutions here -

I can't make VLC Direct recognize my subtitles file - Useful guide to make VLC Direct Pro Free find subtitle files -

If you don't find a solution to your problem here, please contact us: qdevplus@gmail.com or post your question in this blog. You will be answered by the official VLC Direct Pro Free development team.

What to do when VLC Direct can't find VLC Player?

Here you have a 3-step test that will help you diagnose where's the problem

First of all start your VLC and enable its web interface. If you have windows, we recommend you to use the VLCDIRECT.BAT script to start VLC ready receive connections. If not, you can check out this LINK to know how to start VLC with the proper parameters.

TEST 1: In your pc or mac web browser go to: http://127.0.0.1:8080/requests/status.xml

Note: if asked for user and password, leave the user blank and use "vlcdirect" as password

If this test doesn't return a XML response it means one or more of this problems is happening:

VLC hasn't its web interface properly enabled. You can check what happens when you enable the web interface this way: Restart VLC manually (don't use VLCDIRECT.BAT script), then in VLC, go to tools->messages, set verbosity level at 2, and with the messages window open, enable the web interface. If web interface is properly enabled you must see something like "listening to port xxxx"
You have port 8080 used by another application. In that case, VLC used to listen to port 8081; if 8081 is used, it tries with 8082, and so on. You can check which port is VLC using in the messages window: in VLC, go to tools->messages, set verbosity level at 2, and with the messages window open, enable the web interface. You must see something like "listening to port xxxx" where xxxx is the port to used by VLC. Then try tests 2 and 3 using xxxx instead of 8080. If tests 2 and 3 work with xxxx port, then in VLC Direct go to menu->settings->manual configuration and set the VLC Web Interface Port to xxxx. Then do an Automatic Connection Wizard and it should detect VLC.
Your firewall is blocking connections to the localhost:8080 (which is quite unlikely)

TEST 2: In your pc web browser go to: http://your.pc.ip.address:8080/requests/status.xml (to find "your.pc.ip.address": windows start->run->cmd, then ipconfig; there find the IPv4 Address value; it should be something like "192.168.0.7")

Note: if asked for user and password, leave the user blank and use "vlcdirect" as password

If this test doesn't return a XML response it could be one or more of this problems:

Your PC firewall is blocking remote connections. Disable your firewall or add a rule to allow your phone/tablet to access the port 8080.
Your VLC is configured to listen only on 127.0.0.1 . You can change this behavior editing with wordpad the following file and uncommenting the last 2 lines:

c:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLan\VLC\http\.hosts (if you are using VLC 1.1.13 or prior)
c:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLan\VLC\lua\http\.hosts (if you are using VLC 2.0.0 or higher)

TEST 3: In your device web browser go to: http://your.pc.ip.address:8080/requests/status.xml

Note: if asked for user and password, leave the user blank and use "vlcdirect" as password

If this test doesn't return a XML response it can mean two things: first, your PC firewall might be blocking the connection, try disabling it. Second, your phone can't access the PC/Mac; are both the device and the PC connected to the same router? are both in the same LAN?

If these 3 tests return a XML response, then VLC Direct will be able to find and connect to VLC Player.

Streaming from PC/Mac to Android not working

After selecting "Android" as target and tapping on a video in the third tab, you see a "buffering" message, but after a while there's only a black screen; no image or sound.

You might be in one the following four situations:

VLC Direct internal player might be unable to stream the video. Try enabling external player (VLC Direct->menu->settings->player->external player). Then VLC Direct will use any video player you have installed in your device to stream the video (recommended free video players: MX Player, vPlayer, Mobo Player, VLC Beta). The inconvinience with this solution is that you won't be able to control the video from the device (i.e. pause, position, volume, etc.)
VLC Player can't transcode the video "on the fly" fast enough. This mainly happens with slow and old PC's. In this case decreasing video size (i.e to 320x240), video bitrate (i.e. to 256) and frames per second (i.e to 15) might solve the problem. All these settings can be found in: VLC Direct->Menu->Settings->Streaming Settings.
The Video you are trying to stream can't be transcoded into mp4 (the format supported by android). Even while VLC can transcode almost any video into mp4, there are some exceptions. This mainly happens with corrupted videos or strange formats. To check if this is your problem, download the test files from <HERE> files and try them.
Your device or your firmware device can not stream from VLC. As everybody knows, android ecosystem is huge. Even while VLC Direct works on almost any android powered phone or tablet, there are some exceptions. Some specific devices, which also have installed specific firmware versions can present problems while streaming content from VLC Player. These problems are related to the android streaming engine and are not caused by VLC Direct. If you suspect your device might be one of them, please try streaming the test files. Download the test files from HERE

Every 60 seconds playback stops and buffering starts again

Most of android devices have a very annoying bug. Their internal streaming engine doesn't implement correctly the "KEEP ALIVE" packet of the RTSP procotol. That means VLC server doesn't know that there is an android device receiving the RTSP packets on the otherside and after a defined timeout, the server closes the connection.
VLC usually comes with this timeout set at 60 seconds. If your videos stop every 60 seconds, chances are that your device is one of those with the buggy streaming engine.

But don't worry; the solution is quite simple!

To avoid android re-buffer every 60 seconds, you must configure VLC this way:

IMPORTANT: This is only needed with VLC 2.0.0 or higher. VLC 1.1.13 and prior don't have this problem.

So, if you have VLC 2.0.0 or higher do this:

in VLC go to tools->preferences

then: switch to "show all settings", then expand stream output->sout stream->RTP

and set "RTSP session timeout (s)" to -1

You can also start VLC with the following parameter to avoid this problem:

vlc.exe --rtsp-timeout=9999

If you are using windows it is highly recommended to use VLCDIRECT.BAT script to start VLC. The script starts VLC with the proper parameters and also enables the web interface automaticaly.
You can find the script <HERE>

When Streaming from PC/Mac to android, there's only image, but no sound or you get a "Codec Error in VLC" when trying to stream

If you get the following error in VLC

don't worry, here you will find the solution for your problem.

Unfortunately, VLC 2.0 and newer (including al VLC 2.1.x series) has a bug in its audio transcoding codecs. This means you will get sound when playing a video in VLC, but when VLC needs transcode a video to another format and stream it, the audio codec fails.
This is the case when streaming to android; VLC needs to transcode the videos into a format supported by android (i.e. 3gp or mp4)

To solve this problem VLC needs to be started with a specific parameter

If you have VLC 2.0.x use the following parameter:

vlc.exe --sout-ffmpeg-strict=-2
If you have VLC 2.1.0 or newer, use the following parameter:

vlc.exe --sout-avcodec-strict=-2

If you are using windows it is highly recommended to use VLCDIRECT.BAT script to start VLC. The script starts VLC with the proper parameters and also enables the web interface automaticaly.
You can find the script <HERE>

If you want to start VLC manually we recommend using a set of parameters. Please take a look at this guide for a detailed list of those params: <GUIDE>

Every time I start a streaming from PC/Mac to android, VLC Player in PC/Mac crashes

Even while VLC Player in PC/Mac does a terrific job transcoding and streaming videos on the fly, it is not free of bugs.

If you have installed VLC 2.0.1 or VLC 2.0.4, that's the problem. Those versions used to crash because of broken audio codecs. Just uninstall your VLC and install VLC 2.1.2 from <HERE>

A very ugly bug in VLC 1.x (this doesn't happen with VLC 2.x) makes it crash when you try to stream certain videos. One of the most popular video formats that produce this effect is MKV. Not all MKV produce this effect; only some of them.

VLC Direct has an option to avoid this bug:

you just have to go to VLC Direct->menu->settings->streaming settings, and check "Avoid Audio Transcoding"

Anyway, if you want to be free of this kind of problem we recommend you updating your VLC to 2.1.x series. Those versions don't present this MKV transcoding problem at all.

Streaming works, but the image/sound quality is very poor or freezes frequently

VLC Direct comes preconfigured to achieve good video quality and good performance in most of the situations, but in many cases this configuration is not the right one for your specific environment (device speed, network bandwith, etc.)

Because of this, VLC Direct allows users to adjust every streaming parameter to fit any specific need.

To adjust Streaming/quality/performance settings go to:

VLC Direct->menu->Settings->Streaming Settings

There you will find two important sections: Video Settings and Audio Settings.

Please keep in mind this: Every improvement in video and/or audio quality will require more network bandwidth, and every decrease in bandwidth requirement will affect the video and/or audio quality.
So the idea here is to find a balance between quality and network bandwidth requirement to fit your needs.

Video Settings:

Video Width and Height: The bigger the size, the better the video quality. Decrease it if you have a slow pc, slow device or low network bandwidth or video freezes frequently

Video Bitrate: Increase it to improve the video quality / Decrease it if you have a slow pc, slow device or low network bandwidth or video freezes frequently

Frames per Second: Increase it to improve the video quality / Decrease it if you have a slow pc, slow device or low network bandwidth or video freezes frequently

Audio Settings:

Audio Bitrate: Increase it to improve the video quality / Decrease it if you have a slow pc, slow device or low network bandwidth or video freezes frequently

I can't make VLC Direct recognize my subtitles file

VLC Direct Pro Free has, within its features, support for SRT and SUB subtitle formats. You can even have more than one subtitle file for each video file and the app will ask you which subtitle should be used.

In order to make VLC Direct Pro recognize a subtitles file there are some simple rules you must follow:

1. The video file and the subtitles file must be in the same folder in the PC.

2. The subtitles file must have one of this naming conventions (i.e for a video named wedding.avi):

wedding.avi.srt
wedding.srt

wedding.avi.esp.srt
wedding.avi.ita.srt

3. The "hide non-media files" option must be disabled (find this checkbox in the third tab of vlc direct)

Importante notes: The subtitles feature is available when streaming from pc to android, but not when streaming from android to PC.

V-Direct (VLC Streaming & Remote)