Joe's Guide to Running MBone (nv/vat) Tools With CU-SeeMe.

What you need to run nv/vat.

For nv (video) you need access to a grey-scale or color X-terminal and the nv built on a UNIX system. nv does not run on my black and white NCD xterminal.

For vat, you should be in close proximity to the UNIX box itself (usually the console is near the box), but you can run vat from any type of xterminal.

You can download vat and nv if they aren't already present on your system. Make vat and nv. They do not need to be installed, and you shouldn't need root privileges to run them.

If you happen to be on an HP and have an account on the UTDallas High Energy Physics farm, you can find an mbone/cu-seeme archive prebuilt for you on fester:

/home/grave1/joe/mbone.tar.gz

On fester, the nv and vat executables are in /home/grave1/joe/mbone/sd

Instructions for connecting to an
MBone-enabled CU-SeeMe reflector

A terser description is also available elsewhere.

Video:

• To launch type:
  

  nv -encoding cuseeme -recvGrey -xmitGrey IP_address port conf_ID
  e.g. nv -encoding cuseeme -recvGrey -xmitGrey flora.utdallas.edu 4444 10
       (there is not really a reflector on this machine)
  

  Note that nv only understands conference id's 0 through 63.

• Here's the full command line syntax:

  nv [ options ] addr [ port [ chanid ] ] 
  
  Option               X Resource              Default
  -brightness          Nv.brightness:          60
  -contrast            Nv.contrast:            50
  -encoding            Nv.encoding:            nv
  -interface           Nv.interface:           (machine-specific value)
  -maxBandwidth        Nv.maxBandwidth:        128
  -maxBandwidthLimit   Nv.maxBandwidthLimit:   1024
  -maxFrameRate        Nv.maxFrameRate:        (machine-specific value)
  -name                Nv.name:                (username@localhostname)
  -recvColor \         Nv.recvColor:           color
  -recvGrey  /
  -recvSize            Nv.recvSize:            normal
  -title               Nv.title:               nv (version)
  -ttl                 Nv.ttl:                 16
  -xmitColor \         Nv.xmitColor:           color
  -xmitGrey  /
  -xmitSize            Nv.xmitSize:            medium

• Enable all the control panels in the nv window.

• Set encoding to cuseeme.

• Set transmit and receive to greyscale.

• Set the transmitted window size to small, which gives the standard CU-SeeMe resolution. Medium sends a high resolution CU-SeeMe window.

• Pull the bandwidth slider down from 128K to something reasonable under 80K. Most CU-SeeMe reflectors generally restrict you to 80K max. If you set your rate too low, your windows might freeze.

• Push the transmit or send button. You can select whether to transmit an area around the pointer or a real window. If your window freezes, try cranking up the bandwidth, disconnecting, and reconnecting.

• You will get a thumbnail appearing at the top of the nv window. Clicking on the thumbnail will pop off a proper window with the image in it.

Sound:

• To launch type:
  

  vat  -f audio_fmt reflector-name/port-number/conf_id
  e.g.vat -f dvi4 flora.utdallas.edu/3456/20
       (there is nor really a reflector on this machine)

• The full syntax for vat is:

  vat [ -aAcdEjJklLMnnsSv ] [ -F device ] [ -f audiofmt ]
  [ -g geometry ] [ [ -m host/port[/fmt] ] [ -N sessionname ]
  [ -C conferencename ] [ -K key ] [ -P priority ] [ -t ttl ] 
  [ -U socket] [ -u script ] [ dest ]  
  

• Set Spkr, Jack, Line to full duplex.

• The mute button will be on. This is push (the right button) to talk mode. I suggest you toggle the mute button to off.

• You can toggle between headphones and internal speaker output.

• There is a help button to explore.

• Note that you can choose a loopback test if you want to test your mike and speaker.

• The following audio packet formats interoperate with CU-SeeMe (Mac version 0.80b2):

  pcm 78Kb/s 8-bit mu-law encoded 8KHz PCM (20ms frames)
  pcm2 71Kb/s 8-bit mu-law encoded 8KHz PCM (40ms frames)
  pcm4 68Kb/s 8-bit mu-law encoded 8KHz PCM (80ms frames)
  dvi 46Kb/s Intel DVI ADPCM (20ms frames)
  dvi2 39Kb/s Intel DVI ADPCM (40ms frames)
  dvi4 36Kb/s Intel DVI ADPCM (80ms frames)

  There are two other formats which do not interoperate at present, although gsm has been encoded into the new alpha release of Maven, so it is probably a matter of time before it gets incorporated into CU-SeeMe.

  gsm 17Kb/s GSM (80ms frames)
  lpc4 9Kb/s Linear Predictive Coder (80ms frames)
  

Of course, you can't talk if your machine doesn't have a mike jack, and you can't listen if your machine doesn't have the hardware to play sound. On HP 735's, there is a mike jack (standard earphone jack) and a lousy internal speaker -- headphones are recommended. Don't forget that headphones can double as a poor man's microphone!

Note that nv/vat ports used in the example aren't written in stone. They just happen to be the ports that the UTD and CSU reflectors are configured to use.

Please email any corrections or clarifications you think are needed for these instructions. Happy video conferencing!

Comments to joe@utdallas.edu

Joseph M. Izen
University of Texas at Dallas
Mail Stop BE22
P.O. Box 830688
Richardson, TX 75083-0688

For Fedex, UPS, and other services that require a street address, use:

Joseph M. Izen
University of Texas at Dallas
2601 N. Floyd
Richardson, TX 75083

Phone: (214) 883-2598, Fax (214) 883-2848

This page has been accessed times this month.