TCPServer

TCPServer(clip clip [, int port])
TCPSource(string hostname [, int port, string compression])

This filter will enable you to send clips over your network. You can connect several clients to the same machine.

AVS+ not supported; replaced by TCPDeliver

Syntax

Server:

TCPServer(clip clip, int port)

This will spawn a server thread on the current machine running on the specified port. Port default is 22050. You will get output in the application you open your script in, but the server will only be running as long as the application (vdub for instance) is open.

Example:

Colorbars(512, 256)
TCPServer()

will start a server.

Client:

TCPSource(string hostname [, int port, string compression])

This will connect to the machine with the given address (IP-number for instance) to a server running on the given port. Port default is also 22050 here.

Compression enable you to choose the compression used for the video:

Compression Type	Description
None	Uses no compression. Fastest option - video will not be compressed before being sent over the net.
LZO	Uses LZO dictionary compression. Fairly fast, but only compresses well on artificial sources, like cartoons and anime with very uniform surfaces.
Huffman	Uses a fairly slow Huffman routine by Marcus Geelnard. Compresses natural video better than LZO.
GZip	Uses a Gzip Huffman only compression. Works much like Huffman setting, but seems faster.
RLE	RLE (Run Length Encoding) is the simplest possible lossless compression method by Marcus Geelnard. The compression is particularly well suited for palette-based bitmapped images.

If no compression is given, GZip is currently used by default. Interlaced material compresses worse than non-interlaced due to downwards delta-encoding. If network speed is a problem you might want to use SeparateFields.

Example:

TCPSource("127.0.0.1")
Info()

This will connect to the local machine, if a server is running.

Examples

You can use this to run each/some filters on different PC's. For example:

# Clustermember 1:
AVISource()
Deinterlacer()
TCPServer()

# Clustermember 2:
TCPSource()
Sharpener()
TCPServer()

# Clustermember 3:
TCPSource()
# client app -> video codec -> final file

Usability Notes

Once you have added a TCPServer, you cannot add more filters to the chain, or use the output from the filter. The server runs in a separate thread, but since AviSynth isn't completely thread-safe you cannot reliably run multiple servers. This should not be used:

AviSource("avi.avi")
TCPServer(1001)
TCPServer(1002)  # This is NOT a good idea

So the basic rule is Never more than one TCPServer per script.

Using commands after TCPServer is also a bad idea:

AviSource("avi.avi")
TCPServer(1001)
AviSource("avi2.avi") # Do not do this, this will disable the server.

AviSynth detects that the output of TCPServer isn't used, so it kills the Server filter. TCPServer should always be the last filter.

Changelog

v2.60	Added RLE compression.
	Use zlib 1.2.8 and lzo-2.09 build trees.
	Support 2.6 colour spaces.
	Added progress bar.
v2.55	Initial Release.