Update: The NetSync module seems not to be included in VLC 0.9.x!

VLC the VideoLan Media Player has the ability to play sound synchronously on different machines. This module is called NetSync Unfortunately the documentation about this functionality is not very useful. I had to search several sources until I finally managed to get it working.

I will provide a short tutorial here:

The Server (Streaming Server)

  • OS: Ubuntu
  • IP: 192.168.2.9

The server is the computer which the file is stored and where I want to stream from. I started vlc here with the following command.

vlc mysong.mp3  --sout "#duplicate{dst=std{access=udp,mux=ts,dst=192.168.1.255:1234}}"

Some notes here:

  1. You can not use the same vlc instance to stream and to play sound, because the server will not be synchronous. But you can run a second vlc instance on the server which acts as client and plays the music.

  2. I use the breadcast address (192.168.1.255) because I couldn’t get multicast working.

Client n° 1 (NetSync Master)

  • OS: Ubuntu
  • IP: 192.168.2.9

This is the same machine as the Server as I want to play music on the servers speakers to. To launch vlc here run:

vlc udp://@ --control netsync --netsync-master

Some notes here:

  1. I used the same machine as the streaming server but you can choose any other machine as netsync server the only thing you need to remember is the IP of your NetSync Master.

Client n° 2 (NetSync Slave)

  • OS: Windows XP
  • Ip: 192.168.2.8

This is my Windows XP workstation in my home office where I want to have the same sound as in the rest of the house: So I have to launch vlc from «Run Program» like this:

"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" udp://@ --control netsync --netsync-master-ip 192.168.1.8

Some notes here:

  1. I assume here you have installed VideoLan to the default location

Client n° 3 (NetSync Slave)

  • OS: Mac OS X
  • Ip: 192.168.2.6

On my Macbook Pro I want to here sound to so I launched vlc like this:

/Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC udp://@ --control netsync --netsync-master-ip 192.168.2.9

Now you should hear the same sound synchronously on all machines.