Develop Reference

C# RTSP & VLC dotnet

I'm working with C# and VLC library, and I wonder if there is way to get hands to VLC buffer (netwoking-cache or so).
What I could use, is to save that to my own circular buffer and save it IF needed.
Is this possible, or should I just do it with "manualy" on other stream?

There are audio and video callbacks that allow you to access the raw data using libvlc. It does slow down the perf though, understandably.
This sample https://code.videolan.org/mfkl/libvlcsharp-samples/-/blob/master/PreviewThumbnailExtractor/Program.cs shows you how to use the video callbacks to extract frames.
This should be a good starting point for achieving whatever you need to do.

Axis Camera video streaming with C# 64bit

I'm looking for a way to stream video from an AXIS M10 IP camera, and display the feed using windows forms (or better, wpf). However, it need to be running on 64-bit platform.
This means that I can't use the AXIS Media Control ActiveX component.
Also, I found that these methods work but only in 32bit environment:
1.Using MediaElement Class for WPF
2.Using embedded media player
3.VlcLib (for dotnet)
So far it looks like my only option is to directly implement RTSP protocol and decode the given RTP/AVP stream using Media Foundation (for .net) and display it somehow. (I was able to get the camera to stream to a UDP port using RTSP calls).
I'm fairly new to RTSP/streaming, so I'm concerned that I might be missing the big picture - Will I be able to use media foundation to render/display videos on winform/wpf, or do I have to look at that functionality elsewhere?(from my research it looked like it could decode H.264 streams, but I did not see any video-playing capabilities). I also came across DirectShow - should I use DirectShow over Media Foundation?
Or better yet, is there a library that is able to handle RTSP streaming that runs in 64bit?

VisioForge Video Capture SDK .Net for example (but commercial), WPF controls included.
Decoding using FFMPEG, with DirectShow engine. Really, I don't see any Media Foundation advantages here.
Also any other way using FFMPEG.
Or, you can write RTSP source filter (based on DirectShow Push Source sample) with H264 output pin for video and G726/G711/AAC for audio. Also you can made virtual video capture source filter and use it in MF or DirectShow. You can use live555 library for RTSP implementation.
So, no simple ways here, if you are starting from zero.

If you just need the Video, I would prefer to just display the MJPEG stream of the camera. This is really easy done without the complexity of DirectShow or MediaFoundation. I display 12 cameras at the same time in my application with this little library in WPF: MJPEG Decoder. You can also use it in WinForms. It decodes the MJPEG Stream and gives you the images to display.

The 64 bits Axis Media Control SDK is available now, but requires an account on Axis web site to be downloaded.
After Sign in, you need to join Axis Developper program (free) and download the AMC SDK.
You will install a executable file (.exe), this install all the libs and samples in your Drive
C:\Program Files\Axis Communication\SDK

I found a way to use VLC in 64bits without ActiveX DLL :
The VLCSharp Library is composed of multiple NuGets to use VLC Player on severals platforms (WPF, Winforms, Xamarion, TvOS).
It is working fine on Onvif Cameras

Whats the best C# Way to stream a H.264 Video to another computer/device on a network? Is there a library/API For this? File Sharing?

I am experimenting with C#, and I wanted to create a fun/useful network program. I've programmed for most of my years using C++, C# seems a lot cleaner and easier to program in. I mostly programmed data structures and algorithms. I haven't really touched networking much.
I have video files on my computer that I would like to be able to share/stream/send to other computers on my network. I'm going to eventually expand on it and add a lot of features, but I want to conquer the hardest part first.
Is there a library out that helps with the data management for this?
I see accomplishing this three ways, Idk what's easiest and best.
Maybe using Windows File Sharing (Like how other computers on a network can open videos in a shared folder?)
Streaming the video data to the client computer? Then having their native video program open the data stream? (Buffer-like on youtube?)
Silverlight or some other Library. I can use the built in video player, etc to run it
Features:
I want to allow the client to be able to copy the video tutorial file to their own computer eventually if necessary, so idk. Maybe buffering is the best solution.
Want to allow the client to pause/download the video.
Hopefully I can learn a lot in this project.

You can use Microsoft Expression Encoder SDK to push video stream to a local port, or publish it in Windows or IIS Media Services. Windows Media Player, Silverlight or player-based application can be used for playback on another computer. Also, the are some options for playback on Apple devices. For H.264 support, you would need Pro version of the encoder.
For more information see the SDK documentation on MSDN, and articles Getting started with IIS Live Smooth Streaming and Apple HTTP Live Streaming with IIS Media Services.

You should be able to use vlc to transcode the file (or just stream it) then connect to the stream it produces. I know you're experimenting with C#, but it seems odd to re-invent the wheel, especially when it's such a good one!
I'm sure you'd have some fun automating vlc.

How do I encode an image in H.263 and send it in real time using udp

I am building a sip softphone in C#, I am through with the audio aspect, but I want to add video call capability to it, I can successfully get image from the webcamera on the system, but the problem now is I want to compress the image using h.263 codec algorithm before sending it over udp in realtime, all the codes I have been seeing on h.263 is in c++, and I am not a C++ person, please how can I implement this in C#, I mean get the video from the webcamera, encode in h263 and send it over wire in realtime, any suggestion will be highly appreciated

If you want to do real-time streaming over UDP with both audio and video stream you can use the DirectShow API (if you're targeting Windows computers). Official documentation available here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd375454(v=vs.85).aspx
You will find a .NET wrapper for DirectShow here: http://directshownet.sourceforge.net/ and also some samples.
You will also find more samples on codeproject.com, most of them use this wrapper: http://www.codeproject.com/kb/audio-video/#DirectShow
Using DirectShow you will be able to capture both the webcam and the microphone in realtime, encode them using the appropriate encoder filter (for instance, a h263 encoder for the video stream) and then send the encoded frames over the network using a RTSP writer filter.
I'm not an expert on DirectShow, but this could be a good starting point. I know this solution works because I've implemented it few months ago.
You need to know that DirectShow is beeing deprecated since Windows Vista, and is beeing replaced by the new API: Windows Media Foundation. If you're targeting Windows Vista or Windows 7 only, it may be a better choice to use the new API. See the MSDN documentation for more details: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms694197(v=vs.85).aspx
Hope this will help you.

Developing a Video Chat Application with high quality video streaming

I am working for a company where we are developing video chat support on an existing application. I have looked at various solutions for this like
Using Managed Direct show for video capture and streaming in C#
Some code samples in code project where we take an image and pass it over the network (I would call it rather a crude solution as this would eat up lot of bandwidth.
Code a compression algorithm from scratch from scratch and use it to compress-decompress video.
Now the challenge is that we are looking to achieve very high quality video streaming and the container application is coded in C#.NET
This is what I have proposed so far. The network logic to stream data is written in C# , the video compression to be written in VC++ and call this VC++ dll using pinvoke or either CLI which way possible.
I am looking for some one more experienced that me in this field who can suggest me if Iam going correct or can this be still improved.
The ultimate goal is high quality video streaming.
The codec can be any anything like h.2633, h.264 etc.

I've used several ways to get video streaming/conferencing with .net easily, without need to dig into directshow. (ok, dig some, but not deep :)
1) Use of plain Windows Media Encoder components. It is documented with samples in Windows Media Encoder SDK. Good for any high resolution streaming, but delay is too big for realtime chat (0.5-2 seconds at best). Modern Express Encoder SDK another option.
2) Microsoft Research ConferenceXP http://cct.cs.washington.edu/ Full featured conferencing API including application streaming. They too low level Windows Media coded filters and wrapped them into managed code. Works well. Easily customizable. Looks bit abandoned now.
3) Microsoft RTC Client up to version 1.3 - core of windows messenger.
pros: managed samples from Microsoft, good docs, reliable performance, freely redistributable, microsoft compatible (good) SIP stack included. Major conferencing vendors like Emblaze VCON based their solutions on it in some near past, not sure about this days, but I know that Tandberg licensed Microsft's VC-1.
cons: version up to 1.3 support h261-h263 video only. modern version with support of VC-1(h264) codec does not allow direct serverless ip-ip connections. It does at require Microsoft Live Communications server. Newer version SDK does not cover well video conferencing calls.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms775892(VS.85).aspx
Please let us know what platform you have chosen. By the way, I've even used ConferenceXP video rtp part with RTC 1.3 voice/SIP features together to improve video quality, so you have wide choice of managed technologies here. Another thing is Live Meeting at which I had no chance to take good look yet.

Save yourself the trouble and use VLC. There are some decent .NET wrappers for it (http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=52021&start=30)
We are using C# and VLC for an IPTV network. We take input off DISH network satellites via Osprey-450 video capture devices on a Windows XP server. From there, we have a .NET server component that we wrote in C# that uses VLC behind the scenes (starting separate processes in .NET to control the vlc.exe instances). The VLC processes transcode and stream the signals over a network (.h264 or MPEG-4, we've successfully done both).
On the client side we have a C# WinForm application that uses an embedded VLC Viewer to view multicast signals. This application is mainly for command & control. The real use of the multicast signals happens when our set top boxes attached to our TV's decode and display the streams.
We thought we were going to have to write our own DirectX encoders too, but don't go to all the trouble. VLC works really well and has enough C# support to be very useful. Feel free to e-mail me if you have specific questions about implementation.

You should check out the Ucentrik SDK. This SDK will enable you to integrate rich-media functionality such as video, audio, chat, remote-desktop sharing and control and video recording in your applications. The video codecs supported are VP8 (Google), Theora, and x.264. Additionally, the rich media traffic is encapsulated within an HTTP protocol to enable it to traverse firewalls that enable normal web traffic. This technology is completely free and you can download the SDK and request an API key so that you can evaluate without investing any time on setting up the infrastructure. In the next few months, we are releasing a server component so that you can download and host the infrastructure your self or your customer. The technology supports 1-to-many connections which means that you can create video conferences if you like. The features are highly modular so that you can integrate just the video or audio or desktop share or a combination of the technologies using the same SDK... You should request for an SDK available here: www.ucentrik.com. Additionally, there are some video's here: http://www.youtube.com/user/ucentrik
good luck.

Ucentrik has just released an open-source call-center application that integrates the CTX technology. This call-center application implements the video, audio, desktop/application sharing (with control), text chat functionality available from the CTX API. The application also includes some business logic specifically around providing the ability to route the calls to an agent that is available or have specific skill-set. The project is available at http://vcca.codeplex.com - please note that you will require access to the Ucentrik CTX SDK which is available for request on the Ucentrik website (www.ucentrik.com). Good luck.