How to recognize the format of a video stream?

Question

Suppose that a video stream is transmitted over a local network: some VLC clients receive the video stream via RTSP. Could a client identify which format is used to encode the video stream? In other words, how can I recognize the format used to encode the video stream transmitted over the local network? I would be interested to see if the format used to encode the video stream is H.264 or some other format.

Answer 1

Open the stream with VLC and check the Information panel after playback started. It will show the used codecs, bitrate and depending on the codec possibly further information like used profile, etc.

If you require more info than given in that dialog, I'd recommend you dump part of the stream to a file and use mediainfo.