VideoLAN Quickstart

Alexis de Lattre

Bill Eldridge

Anil Daoud

Mathieu Gautier

Clément Stenac
Copyright © 2002, 2003 the VideoLAN project

This document describes how to start using VideoLAN quickly.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free
Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation ; with no
Invariant Sections, with no Front−Cover Texts, and with no Back−Cover Texts. The text of the license can be
found in the appendix GNU Free Documentation License.
 VideoLAN Quickstart

Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
1.1. What is the VideoLAN project ?......................................................................................................1
1.1.1. Overview.................................................................................................................................1
1.1.2. VideoLAN software................................................................................................................2
1.2. What is a codec ?..............................................................................................................................3
1.3. How can I use VideoLAN ?..............................................................................................................3
1.3.1. Documentation........................................................................................................................3
1.3.2. User support............................................................................................................................4
1.4. Command line usage.........................................................................................................................4
1.4.1. Open a terminal.......................................................................................................................4

Chapter 2. VLC, the universal media player...................................................................................................8

2.1. Installing VLC..................................................................................................................................8
2.1.1. Windows..................................................................................................................................8
2.1.2. BeOS.......................................................................................................................................8
2.1.3. Mac OS X................................................................................................................................8
2.1.4. Debian GNU/Linux.................................................................................................................8
2.1.5. Linux Mandrake......................................................................................................................9
2.1.6. Linux Redhat...........................................................................................................................9
2.1.7. Compile the sources by yourself (for every other OS)............................................................9
2.2. Running VLC..................................................................................................................................11
2.2.1. Read a file..............................................................................................................................11
2.2.2. Read a DVD or a VCD..........................................................................................................11
2.2.3. Troubleshooting.....................................................................................................................11

Chapter 3. Stream and receive with VLC......................................................................................................12

3.1. Unicast an MPEG−1, MPEG−2, or MPEG−4 / DivX file..............................................................12
3.1.1. Start VLC on the server.........................................................................................................12
3.1.2. Start VLC on the client..........................................................................................................12
3.2. Unicast a DVD................................................................................................................................12
3.2.1. Start VLC on the server.........................................................................................................12
3.2.2. Start VLC on the server.........................................................................................................12
3.3. Multicast to several VLC's..............................................................................................................12
3.3.1. What is multicast ?................................................................................................................12
3.3.2. Start VLC on the server.........................................................................................................13
3.3.3. Start VLC on the client(s).....................................................................................................13

Chapter 4. Video On Demand..........................................................................................................................14

4.1. Overview.........................................................................................................................................14
4.2. On the server side............................................................................................................................14
4.3. On the client side............................................................................................................................14

Chapter 5. Add a channel information service..............................................................................................15

5.1. Send announces when streaming with VLC...................................................................................15
5.2. Start VLC(s) on the client(s)...........................................................................................................15

i
 VideoLAN Quickstart

Table of Contents
Chapter 6. Conclusion......................................................................................................................................16

Appendix A. GNU Free Documentation License...........................................................................................17

A.1. PREAMBLE..................................................................................................................................17
A.2. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS......................................................................................17
A.3. VERBATIM COPYING................................................................................................................18
A.4. COPYING IN QUANTITY...........................................................................................................19
A.5. MODIFICATIONS........................................................................................................................19
A.6. COMBINING DOCUMENTS.......................................................................................................20
A.7. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS............................................................................................21
A.8. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS...................................................................21
A.9. TRANSLATION............................................................................................................................21
A.10. TERMINATION..........................................................................................................................22
A.11. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE...............................................................................22
A.12. ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents.....................................................22

ii
Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1. What is the VideoLAN project ?
1.1.1. Overview
VideoLAN is a complete software solution for video streaming, developed by students of the Ecole Centrale
Paris and developers from all over the world, under the GNU General Public License (GPL). VideoLAN is
designed to stream MPEG videos on high bandwidth networks.

The VideoLAN solution includes :

• VLS (VideoLAN Server), which can stream MPEG−1, MPEG−2 and MPEG−4 files, DVDs, digital
satellite channels, digital terrestial television channels and live videos on the network in unicast or
multicast,
• VLC (initially VideoLAN Client), which can be used as a server to stream MPEG−1, MPEG−2 and
MPEG−4 files, DVDs and live videos on the network in unicast or multicast ; or used as a client to
receive, decode and display MPEG streams under multiple operating systems.

Here is an illustration of the complete VideoLAN solution :

Figure 1−1. Global VideoLAN solution

More details about the project can be found on the VideoLAN Web site.

Chapter 1. Introduction 1
 VideoLAN Quickstart

1.1.2. VideoLAN software

1.1.2.1. VLC

VLC works on many platforms : Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, *BSD, Solaris, Familiar Linux,
Yopy/Linupy and QNX. It can read :

• MPEG−1, MPEG−2 and MPEG−4 / DivX files from a hard disk, a CD−ROM drive, ...
• DVDs and VCDs,
• from a satellite card (DVB−S),
• MPEG−1, MPEG−2 and MPEG−4 streams from the network sent by VLS or VLC's stream output.

VLC can also be used as a server to stream :

• MPEG−1, MPEG−2 and MPEG−4 / DivX files,

• DVDs,
• from an MPEG encoding card,

to :

• one machine (i.e. to one IP address) : this is called unicast,

• a dynamic group of machines that the clients can join or leave (i.e. to a multicast IP address) : this is
called multicast,

in IPv4 or IPv6 .

To get the complete list of VLC's possibilities on each plateform supported, see the VLC features page.

VLC doesn't work on Mac OS 9, and will probably never do.

1.1.2.2. VLS

VLS can stream :

• an MPEG−1, MPEG−2 or MPEG−4 files stored on a hard drive or on a CD,

• a DVD located in a local DVD drive or copied on a hard disk,
• a satellite card (DVB−S) or a digital terrestial television card (DVB−T) ,
• an MPEG encoding card ;

to:

• one machine (i.e. to one IP address) : this is called unicast,

• a dynamic group of machines that the clients can join or leave (i.e. to a multicast IP address) : this is
called multicast,

in IPv4 or IPv6 .

A Pentium 100 MHz with 32 MB of memory should be enough to send one stream on the network. When
streaming a lot of videos stored on a hard drive, the actual limitation is not the processor but the hard drive
and the network connection.

Chapter 1. Introduction 2
 VideoLAN Quickstart

VLS works under Linux and Windows. To get the complete list of VLS's possibilities on each plateform
supported, see the streaming features page.

1.1.2.3. Mini−SAP−server

You can add a channel information service based on the SAP/SDP standard to the VideoLAN solution. The
mini−SAP−server sends announces about the multicast programs on the network in IPv4 or IPv6, and VLCs
receive these annouces and automatically add the programs announced to their playlist.

The mini−SAP−server works under Linux and Mac OS X.

1.2. What is a codec ?

To fully understand the VideoLAN solution, you must understand the difference between a codec and a
container format

• A codec is a compression algorithm, used to reduce the size of a stream. There are audio codecs and
video codecs. MPEG−1, MPEG−2, MPEG−4, Vorbis, DivX, ... are codecs
• A container format contains one or several streams already encoded by codecs. Very often, there is an
audio stream and a video one. AVI, Ogg, MOV, ASF, ... are container formats. The streams contained
can be encoded using different codecs. In a perfect world, you could put any codec in any container
format. Unfortunately, there are some incompatibilities. You can find a matrix of possible codecs and
container formats on the features page

To decode a stream, VLC first demuxes it. This means that it reads the container format and separates audio,
video, and subtitles, if any. Then, each of these are passed decoders that do the mathematical processing to
decompress the streams .

There is a particular thing about MPEG:

• MPEG is a codec. There are several versions of it, called MPEG−1, MPEG−2, MPEG−4, ...
• MPEG is also a container format, sometimes refered to as MPEG System. There are several types of
MPEG: ES, PS, and TS

When you play an MPEG video from a DVD, for instance, the MPEG stream is actually composed of
several streams (called Elementary Streams, ES): there is one stream for video, one for audio, another
for subtitles, and so on. These different streams are mixed together into a single Program Stream (PS).
So, the .VOB files you can find in a DVD are actually MPEG−PS files. But this PS format is not
adapted for streaming video through a network or by satellite, for instance. So, another format called
Transport Stream (TS) was designed for streaming MPEG videos through such channels.

1.3. How can I use VideoLAN ?

1.3.1. Documentation
The user documentation of VideoLAN is made up of 4 documents :

• the VideoLAN Quickstart. This document will give you a quick overview of of VLC, VLC's stream
output, the Video On Demand solution and the channel information service system.

Chapter 1. Introduction 3
 VideoLAN Quickstart

• the VideoLAN HOWTO. This document is the complete guide of the VideoLAN streaming solution.
• the VLC user guide. This document is the complete guide for VLC.
• the VLS user guide. This document is the complete guide for VLS.
• the VideoLAN FAQ. This document contains Frequently Asked Questions about VideoLAN.

The latest version of these documents can be found on the documentation page .

You can also have a look at the VideoLAN Wiki. This is a website that everyone can change. We use it to
document everything that is not in the "official" documentation: the tips and tricks for each O.S., the graphical
interfaces, etc...

1.3.2. User support

If you have problems using VideoLAN, and if you don't find the answer to your problems in the
documentation, please look at the online archive of the mailing−lists. There are two English−speaking
mailing−lists for the users :

• [email protected] for the questions on VLC ,

• [email protected] for the questions on VLS, mini−SAP−server and the network .

If you want to subscribe or unsubscribe to the mailing−lists, please go to the mailing−list page.

You can also talk with VideoLAN users and developers on IRC : server irc.freenode.net, channel #videolan .

If you find a bug, please follow the instructions on the bug reporting page .

1.4. Command line usage

• VLC has many different graphical interfaces, that are organized quite differently in order to be in
harmony with the guidelines of each operating system supported. Documenting the use of each
graphical interface is too long, and some features are only available via the command line interface.
Therefore we decided to document only the command line interface, but in many cases it shoud be
easy to guess how to use the graphical interface for the same use !
• VLS has a command line and a telnet interface, but no graphical interface !

All the commands that show up in this document should be typed inside a terminal. .

1.4.1. Open a terminal

1.4.1.1. Windows

Click on Start, Run and type :

• cmd Enter (Windows 2000 / XP),

• command Enter (Windows 95 / 98 / ME).

The terminal appears Le terminal apparait

Chapter 1. Introduction 4
 VideoLAN Quickstart
Figure 1−2. Windows terminal

Under Windows, you need to be in the directory where the program is installed to run it.

1.4.1.2. Linux / Unix

Open a terminal :

Figure 1−3. Linux X terminal

In the documentation, we adopt the following conventions for the Unix commands :

• commands that should be typed as root have a # prompt :

Chapter 1. Introduction 5
 VideoLAN Quickstart
# command_to_be_typed_as_root
• commands that should be typed as a regular user have a % prompt :
% command_to_be_typed_as_regular_user

1.4.1.3. Mac OS X

Go to Applications, open the folder Utilities and double−click on Terminal :

Figure 1−4. Mac OS X terminal

Under Mac OS X, you need to be in the directory where the program is installed to run it, and start the
command with ./ .

1.4.1.4. BeOS

In the deskbar, go to Application and then Terminal :

Figure 1−5. BeOS terminal

Chapter 1. Introduction 6
 VideoLAN Quickstart

Under BeOS, you need to be in the directory where the program is installed to run it, and start the
command with ./ .

Chapter 1. Introduction 7
Chapter 2. VLC, the universal media player
2.1. Installing VLC
There are VLC binaries available for the many OSes, but not for all supported OSes. If there are no binaries
for your OS or if you want to change the default settings, you can compile VLC from sources.

2.1.1. Windows
VLC works under Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP. Download the self−extracting file from the VLC Windows
download page. Launch the .exe to install VLC.

2.1.2. BeOS
Download the Zip file from the VLC BeOS download page. Unzip the file in a directory to install VLC.

2.1.3. Mac OS X
Download the Mac OS X package from the VLC MacOS X download page . Double−click on the icon of the
package : an icon will appear on your Desktop, right beside your drive(s). Open it and drag the VLC
application from the resulting window to the place where you want to install it (it should be
/Applications).

2.1.4. Debian GNU/Linux

2.1.4.1. Debian stable (woody)

Add the following lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://www.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian $(ARCH)/

deb−src http://www.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian sources/

Then, for a normal install, do:

# apt−get update
# apt−get install gnome−vlc libdvdcss2

2.1.4.2. Debian unstable (sid)

Add the following lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://www.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian $(ARCH)/

deb−src http://www.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian sources/

Then, for a normal install, do:

# apt−get update
# apt−get install wxvlc libdvdcss2

Chapter 2. VLC, the universal media player 8

 VideoLAN Quickstart

2.1.4.3. Debian testing (sarge)

You should not be using Debian testing unless you perfectly know what you are doing. It is almost impossible
to support Debian testing and there are no plans to do it. For more informations on Debian testing, please
look: testing page

2.1.5. Linux Mandrake

There are VLC packages for Mandrake 9.1 and cooker.

To install them, add the following sources for either Mandrake 9.1 or Cooker (you can use Easy urpmi for
that): contrib from the core distribution and plf (Penguin Liberation Front) from the external add−ons.

Then install the required packages with urpmi:

# urpmi libdvdcss2 libdvdplay0 wxvlc vlc−plugin−a52 vlc−plugin−ogg vlc−plugin−mad

2.1.6. Linux Redhat

Download the RPM package vlc and the packages listed in the required libraries and codecs section (the other
packages are just optional) from the VLC Red Hat download page and put them all into the same directory.

Then install the RPM packages you have downloaded:

# rpm −U *.rpm

If you have not installed all the RPM packages included with your distribution, you may be asked to install a
few of them first.

2.1.7. Compile the sources by yourself (for every other OS)

The method below is for any Unix system supported by VLC, for which there is no packages available. It
explains how to compile and install VLC and the needed libraries from their source code.

You can also compile VLC under Linux this way if you want to modify the default supported modules.

2.1.7.1. Install the libraries

Many libraries are needed :

• libdvbpsi (compulsory) ,
• mpeg2dec (compulsory) ,
• libdvdcss if you want to be able to read encrypted DVDs ,
• libdvdplay if you want to have DVD menu navigation ,
• a52dec if you want to be able to decode the AC3 (i.e. A52) sound format often used in DVDs ,
• ffmpeg, libmad, faad2 if you want to read MPEG 4 / DivX files ,
• libogg & libvorbis if you want to read Ogg Vorbis files .

Chapter 2. VLC, the universal media player 9

 VideoLAN Quickstart

Download the libraries from the VLC sources download page.

For each library :

• uncompress :
% tar xvzf library.tar.gz
or

% tar xvjf library.tar.bz2

• configure :
% cd library
% ./configure
• compile and install :
% make
# make install

Check that the configuration file /etc/ld.so.conf contains the following line :

/usr/local/lib

If the line is not present, add−it and then run (as root):

# ldconfig

2.1.7.2. Install VLC

Download the sources of the lastest release : get the file vlc−version.tar.gz from the VLC sources
download page. Uncompress−it :

% tar xvzf vlc−version.tar.gz

% cd vlc−version

To get the list of configuration options, do :

% ./configure −−help

Please note that all the modules are described in the Modules section of the VLC User Guide .

Examples of very simple configurations:

• if you want a basic VLC, do :

% ./configure
• if you want the Gnome interface instead of the GTK interface (you will need the developement
packages of Gnome) :
% ./configure −−enable−gnome

Then, compile and install :

% make
% su
Password: [Root Password]

Chapter 2. VLC, the universal media player 10

 VideoLAN Quickstart
# make install

Please note that the installation (make install command) is not mandatory. You can execute VLC from where
you compiled it.

2.2. Running VLC

2.2.1. Read a file
% vlc −vvv video1.xyz
where video1.xyz is the name of the file you want to play.

2.2.2. Read a DVD or a VCD

% vlc −vvv dvd:/dev/dvd
where /dev/dvd is the name of your drive (put D: under Windows if D is the letter of your DVD drive).

If you are running Linux, you must have write access to the device
corresponding to your DVD drive. For that, you should be in the disk or
cdrom group (look at the permissions in /dev). If you're not, add
yourself to the group :

# adduser your_login disk_or_cdrom

and then restart your session.

2.2.3. Troubleshooting
If VLC doesn't work for you, try to spot an error message in the logs that are printed in the terminal.

Then, read the vlc FAQ and have a look at the Bugzilla to see if it is a known issue.

If you can't find out the problem, explain it in English in the mailing−list [email protected] and copy−paste in
your mail the messages of the message window.

Chapter 2. VLC, the universal media player 11

Chapter 3. Stream and receive with VLC
3.1. Unicast an MPEG−1, MPEG−2, or MPEG−4 / DivX file
3.1.1. Start VLC on the server
% vlc −vvv video1.xyz −−sout udp:client.example.org
where video1.xyz is the file you want to stream and client.example.org is the DNS name of the client you
want to stream to (you can put an IP address instead).

3.1.2. Start VLC on the client

% vlc −vvv udp:

3.2. Unicast a DVD

3.2.1. Start VLC on the server
% vlc −vvv dvdold:/dev/dvd −−sout udp:client.example.org
where /dev/dvd is the name of your DVD drive (put D: under Windows if D is the letter of your DVD
drive) or the directory where you copied your DVD, and client.example.org is the DNS name of the client you
want to stream to (you can put an IP address instead).

Under Unix/Linux, you must have write access to the device

corresponding to your DVD drive. For that, you should be in the disk or
cdrom group (look at the permissions in /dev). If you're not, add
yourself to the group :

# adduser your_login disk_or_cdrom

and then restart your session.

3.2.2. Start VLC on the server

% vlc −vvv udp:

3.3. Multicast to several VLC's

3.3.1. What is multicast ?
Multicast is a norm implemented in all modern network hardware (switches, routers, ...). It provides an
intelligent manner to send a stream to a dynamic group of machines. If you want to use multicast, make sure
that all your network hardware support it.

In multicast streaming, the stream is sent to a multicast IP address (the IP addresses reserved for this purpose
are from 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255). Then, any machine on the network can join the multicast group by

Chapter 3. Stream and receive with VLC 12

 VideoLAN Quickstart

sending a request on the network, and it will automatically receive the stream. When it sends a request to
leave the group, it will automatically stop receiving the stream. The advantage of multicast streaming is that
only the machines that want to receive the stream actually receive it, and the streaming server only sends one
stream even if there are multiple clients receiving it.

3.3.2. Start VLC on the server

% vlc −vvv video1.xyz −−sout udp:239.255.12.42 −−ttl 12
where video1.xyz is the file you want to stream (remplace it with dvdold:/dev/dvd under Unix or
dvdold:D: under Windows if you want to multicast a DVD), 239.255.12.42 is the multicast IP address you
want to stream on and 12 is the value of the TTL (Time To Live) of your IP packets (which means that the
multicast stream will be able to cross 12 routers).

3.3.3. Start VLC on the client(s)

% vlc −vvv udp:@239.255.12.42

Chapter 3. Stream and receive with VLC 13

Chapter 4. Video On Demand
4.1. Overview
With Video On Demand (VOD), the user can start the video when he wants, make pauses, go forward and
back in the video. It is of course the best in video streaming and the dream for every user.

VOD is a very big consumer of resources for the server and the network. VOD is unicast, not multicast : this
means that the network and server resources needed are directly proportional to the number of clients.

The design of VideoLAN's VOD solution is very simple. The idea is to do HTTP streaming, i.e. stream an
MPEG video encapsulated in HTTP. The regulation of the bitrate between the client and the server is done
automatically by TCP. With HTTP version 1.1, there is the possibility to seek in a file downloaded, that's
what we use to seek in the video.

4.2. On the server side

On the VOD server, you need a running Web server. For example, you can use a Linux server running
Apache. Other operating systems and other Web servers should work too, but we have never tested.

Make your MPEG−1, MPEG−2 or MPEG−4 / DivX files available to the clients on the Web server.

For example, we have a Web server whose DNS name is localserver. On this server, we put an MPEG file
video1.mpg which will be available to the clients at the URL http://localserver/video1.mpg.

4.3. On the client side

% vlc −vvv http://localserver/video1.mpg
VLC starts to read the stream nearly immediately and you can seek in the stream, make pauses, etc... as if the
stream was a local file.

Chapter 4. Video On Demand 14

Chapter 5. Add a channel information service
Typing multicast addresses is not very fun... that's why you need a channel information service ! VideoLAN
has implemented a channel information service based on the SAP/SDP standard. VLC's stream output can
send SAP announces when streaming (on the multicast address 224.2.127.254 reserved for this purpose). On
the client side, VLCs receive these annouces and automatically add the programs announced to their playlist.

5.1. Send announces when streaming with VLC

To send announces with VLC, you need to use the complex syntax of VLC's stream output, like this:

% vlc −vvv video1.xyz −−sout '#standard{access=udp,url=239.255.12.42,sap="Test Stream"}' −−ttl 12

where video1.xyz is the file you want to stream, 239.255.12.42 is the multicast IP address you want to
stream on, Test Stream is the name that will be used for this program in the SAP announces and 12 is the
value of the TTL (Time To Live) of the stream and of the SAP announces.

5.2. Start VLC(s) on the client(s)

Start VLC with the sap interface:

% vlc −vvv −−extraintf sap

Then open the playlist: you should see the names of the programs announced in SAP. When you double−click
on the name of a program, VLC will subscribe to the multicast address and start to play the stream !

Chapter 5. Add a channel information service 15

Chapter 6. Conclusion
VideoLAN can do much more than what is explained in this Quickstart. For example, you can use VLC to
display image walls or to transcode a stream on−the−fly. You can also use VLS to stream digital satellite
channels and digital terrestial TV channels. To know about the full possibilities of VideoLAN, please read the
rest of the official documentation, that you can find on the documentation page.

Chapter 6. Conclusion 16
Appendix A. GNU Free Documentation License
Version 1.2, November 2002

Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place, Suite 330,
Boston, MA 02111−1307 USA Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

A.1. PREAMBLE
The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document "free" in
the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without
modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and
publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by
others.

This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be
free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed
for free software.

We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free software needs
free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software
does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless of
subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License principally for works
whose purpose is instruction or reference.

A.2. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS

This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a notice placed by the
copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License. Such a notice grants a
world−wide, royalty−free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein.
The "Document", below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is
addressed as "you". You accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a way requiring
permission under copyright law.

A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the Document or a portion of it, either
copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into another language.

A "Secondary Section" is a named appendix or a front−matter section of the Document that deals exclusively
with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document to the Document's overall subject (or to
related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly within that overall subject. (Thus, if the
Document is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics.) The
relationship could be a matter of historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or of legal,
commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding them.

The "Invariant Sections" are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as being those of
Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. If a section does
not fit the above definition of Secondary then it is not allowed to be designated as Invariant. The Document

Appendix A. GNU Free Documentation License 17

 VideoLAN Quickstart
may contain zero Invariant Sections. If the Document does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are
none.

The "Cover Texts" are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front−Cover Texts or Back−Cover
Texts, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. A Front−Cover Text may be at
most 5 words, and a Back−Cover Text may be at most 25 words.

A "Transparent" copy of the Document means a machine−readable copy, represented in a format whose
specification is available to the general public, that is suitable for revising the document straightforwardly
with generic text editors or (for images composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some
widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or for automatic translation to
a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file format
whose markup, or absence of markup, has been arranged to thwart or discourage subsequent modification by
readers is not Transparent. An image format is not Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text. A
copy that is not "Transparent" is called "Opaque".

Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ASCII without markup, Texinfo input
format, LaTeX input format, SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard−conforming
simple HTML, PostScript or PDF designed for human modification. Examples of transparent image formats
include PNG, XCF and JPG. Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by
proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally
available, and the machine−generated HTML, PostScript or PDF produced by some word processors for
output purposes only.

The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following pages as are needed to
hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the title page. For works in formats which do not
have any title page as such, "Title Page" means the text near the most prominent appearance of the work's
title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.

A section "Entitled XYZ" means a named subunit of the Document whose title either is precisely XYZ or
contains XYZ in parentheses following text that translates XYZ in another language. (Here XYZ stands for a
specific section name mentioned below, such as "Acknowledgements", "Dedications", "Endorsements", or
"History".) To "Preserve the Title" of such a section when you modify the Document means that it remains a
section "Entitled XYZ" according to this definition.

The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that this License applies to
the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in this License, but
only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is
void and has no effect on the meaning of this License.

A.3. VERBATIM COPYING

You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially,
provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the
Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this
License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the
copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you
distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.

You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly display copies.

Appendix A. GNU Free Documentation License 18

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A.4. COPYING IN QUANTITY

If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have printed covers) of the Document,
numbering more than 100, and the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the
copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front−Cover Texts on the front cover,
and Back−Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the
publisher of these copies. The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title equally
prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition. Copying with changes limited to
the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as
verbatim copying in other respects.

If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as
many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent pages.

If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100, you must either
include a machine−readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque
copy a computer−network location from which the general network−using public has access to download
using public−standard network protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added
material. If you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of
Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated
location until at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your
agents or retailers) of that edition to the public.

It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well before redistributing any
large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.

A.5. MODIFICATIONS
You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3
above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified
Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version
to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:

A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document, and from
those of previous versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section of the
Document). You may use the same title as a previous version if the original publisher of that version
gives permission.
B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for authorship of the
modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least five of the principal authors of the
Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer than five), unless they release you from this
requirement.
C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the publisher.
D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other copyright notices.
F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public permission to use
the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.
G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover Texts given in the
Document's license notice.

Appendix A. GNU Free Documentation License 19

 VideoLAN Quickstart
H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
I. Preserve the section Entitled "History", Preserve its Title, and add to it an item stating at least the title,
year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If there is no
section Entitled "History" in the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of
the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated
in the previous sentence.
J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to a Transparent copy
of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in the Document for previous versions it
was based on. These may be placed in the "History" section. You may omit a network location for a
work that was published at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of
the version it refers to gives permission.
K. For any section Entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications", Preserve the Title of the section, and
preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements and/or
dedications given therein.
L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section
numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.
M. Delete any section Entitled "Endorsements". Such a section may not be included in the Modified
Version.
N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled "Endorsements" or to conflict in title with any
Invariant Section.
O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.

If the Modified Version includes new front−matter sections or appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections
and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all of these
sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's
license notice. These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.

You may add a section Entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains nothing but endorsements of your
Modified Version by various parties−−for example, statements of peer review or that the text has been
approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard.

You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front−Cover Text, and a passage of up to 25 words as a
Back−Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of
Front−Cover Text and one of Back−Cover Text may be added by (or through arrangements made by) any one
entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or by
arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may
replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.

The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for
publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.

A.6. COMBINING DOCUMENTS

You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License, under the terms defined
in section 4 above for modified versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the Invariant
Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined
work in its license notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers.

The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical Invariant Sections may
be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but different

Appendix A. GNU Free Documentation License 20

 VideoLAN Quickstart

contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the
original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment to
the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.

In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled "History" in the various original documents,
forming one section Entitled "History"; likewise combine any sections Entitled "Acknowledgements", and any
sections Entitled "Dedications". You must delete all sections Entitled "Endorsements".

A.7. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under this License, and
replace the individual copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in
the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the
documents in all other respects.

You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under this License,
provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this License in all other
respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.

A.8. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent documents or works, in
or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an "aggregate" if the copyright resulting from the
compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilation's users beyond what the individual works
permit. When the Document is included an aggregate, this License does not apply to the other works in the
aggregate which are not themselves derivative works of the Document.

If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document, then if the Document
is less than one half of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on covers that bracket
the Document within the aggregate, or the electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic
form. Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole aggregate.

A.9. TRANSLATION
Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations of the Document under the
terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special permission from their
copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the
original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a translation of this License, and all the license
notices in the Document, and any Warrany Disclaimers, provided that you also include the original English
version of this License and the original versions of those notices and disclaimers. In case of a disagreement
between the translation and the original version of this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original version
will prevail.

If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements", "Dedications", or "History", the requirement

(section 4) to Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the actual title.

Appendix A. GNU Free Documentation License 21

 VideoLAN Quickstart

A.10. TERMINATION
You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided for under this
License. Any other attempt to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will
automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights,
from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full
compliance.

A.11. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation License
from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
address new problems or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.

Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document specifies that a
particular numbered version of this License "or any later version" applies to it, you have the option of
following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has been
published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version
number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free Software
Foundation.

A.12. ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your

documents
To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the License in the document and put the
following copyright and license notices just after the title page:

Copyright (c) YEAR YOUR NAME. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify
this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any
later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no
Front−Cover Texts, and no Back−Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the
section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

If you have Invariant Sections, Front−Cover Texts and Back−Cover Texts, replace the "with...Texts." line
with this:

with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with the Front−Cover Texts being
LIST, and with the Back−Cover Texts being LIST.

If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination of the three, merge those two
alternatives to suit the situation.

If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing these examples in
parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit their
use in free software.

Appendix A. GNU Free Documentation License 22