Windows 10 network stack breaks multicast in VLC

I have noticed that VLC versions 2.2.6 and 3.0.1 of VLC do not input or output multicast streams on Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016, but the exact same software and configurations work on Windows 2012 R2. I have attached a screenshot showing multicast streams working across a VLAN segment in Windows 2012 R2 on multiple hypervisors but not on Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016.

windows 10 and windows server 2016 do not input or output multicast

Added attachment:

• windows10or2016multicastbug.jpg

TYPOS CORRECTED

I have noticed that VLC versions 2.2.6 and 3.0.1 of VLC do not input or output multicast streams on Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016, but the exact same software and configurations work on Windows 2012 R2. I have attached a screenshot showing multicast streams working across a VLAN segment in Windows 2012 R2 on multiple hypervisors but not on Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016.

Does it work on Win8? Win 7?

I can spin up a virtual machine later this weekend to test. I think it has something to do with IGMPv2 join requests because when sending or recieving the RTP traffic to an IP direct broadcast such as rtp://192.168.1.255 or rtp://255.255.255.255 it works on Windows 10 and Server 2016. However that floods all switch ports with traffic so while it works on the local network segments it does not pass over a GRE VPN between different networks.

IGMP is not necessary to output multicast. This sounds more like a firewall problem.

changed the description

firewall is off on windows server 2016

Added attachment:

• firewall off.png

Replying to [comment:4 Rémi Denis-Courmont]:

IGMP is not necessary to output multicast. This sounds more like a firewall problem.

I made sure the firewall was off on both the Windows 10 and Server 2016 virtual machines and still VLC wouldn't send or receive multicast. I wish I knew of other tools to test multicast so that maybe we could take Microsoft to task with this issue.

This solution worked for me:

Create a windows batch file, e.g., vlc_multicast_recv.bat, containing: "C:\Program Files\VideoLan\vlc\vlc.exe" udp://@235.7.1.1:4320 --miface-addr 10.210.250.43

Where the multicast stream to receive is: 235.7.1.1:4320 and the NIC to receive the stream is: 10.210.250.43

Credits to: https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=131266

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added Status::fixed label

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