FAQ

##How do I play the stream using VLC?

First, the computer that is supposed to catch the stream and your smartphone must obvioulsy be connected to the same network. If no wireless network are available, you can still turn on the wireless hotspot feature of your phone. In three steps here is what you have to do:

1. Start spydroid 2.Open VLC on your pc and press Ctrl+N, in the dialog box copy out what is written in Spydroid at the bottom of the screen, it should look like this: "rtsp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8086/"
2. Wait a little & have fun...

##How do I rotate the video in VLC ?

You need to pass the following options to VLC, replace 90 by whatever angle you want :p You can also do this through the interface: Tools>Effects and Filters>Video Effects>Geometry

vlc "rtsp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8086/" --video-filter=rotate --rotation-angle=90

Note that you should really use the latest version of VLC ! VLC v2 is required here

##How do I reduce the latency in VLC ?

Using the command line you can pass the following argument to VLC, it's also certainly feasable from the interface.

vlc "rtsp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8086/" --network-caching=500

However, the more you reduce the cache size, the more the video is likely to be choppy :/ According to my personnal experience, 400 msec is the minimum for video streaming.

Note that you should really use the latest version of VLC ! VLC v2 is required here

##The video stream is too choppy, what should I do ?

• Streaming video can be quiet bandwidth-greedy so make sure you are close enough to you wifi router. If you're not try to reduce the quality of the stream. Unfortunately some phones don't support setting a low framerate or a low bitrate and will simply silently ignore your configuration.

• Make sure to try h263 and h264, one may work better than the other.

• Surprisingly, MPlayer (another open source player) gives more satisfying results with video streaming, h263 & h264 streams both seem smoother...

##How can I record the stream

Open VLC, click on "View" and then on "Advanced Controls". You can now see a red record button. Open the stream indicated by Spydroid, (or a [AdvancedUse customized stream]) and press that red button ! The recorded video is in MPEG format. On Windows they are stored in the Documents folder labeled as VLC Record with the date and time. On linux I imagine the location may vary, on Ubuntu they are recorded in /home/you/Videos

You can modify the record directory with this option:

vlc --input-record-path=/home/you/something

##Can I stream HD video ?

Depends on you phone ! My Galaxy SII can stream HD video quite smoothly but only with H.264 and the back facing camera. (Edit: on some version of cyanogen/android it's actually not possible, the stock rom from Samsung gives better results) Just try to find out, it's easy:

For FULL HD

vlc "rtsp://yourphoneip:8086?h264=5000-20-1920-1080"

For 720p

vlc "rtsp://yourphoneip:8086?h264=5000-20-1280-720"

Or if you're afraid of the command line: start VLC press Ctrl+N, type: "rtsp://yourphoneip:8086?h264=2000-20-1920-1080" and press "Play" !

##Can I receive the stream on more than one computer simultaneously ?

Yes, since v6.5.1 Spydroid supports multicast which is a way to deliver data to multiple peers simultaneously. All you have to do is to open the following URL on every computers: "http://yourphoneip:8080/spydroid.sdp?multicast".

1. Open VLC
2. Press Ctrl+N (Equivalent to Media->Open Network Stream)
3. Open this stream: "http://yourphoneip:8080/spydroid.sdp?multicast"
4. To stop the stream browse this page: "http://yourphoneip:8080/spydroid.sdp?stop"

All the other parameters supported by Spydroid can be combined with this option. For example, you can start a multicasted AAC stream of your phone microphone:

vlc "http://phoneip:8080/spydroid.sdp?aac&multicast"

The default multicast address used by Spydroid is 228.5.6.7 but you can change it if you want:

vlc "http://phoneip:8080/spydroid.sdp?multicast=228.5.5.5"