What steps are needed to stream RTSP from FFmpeg?

Question

Streaming UDP is not a problem, but as I want to stream to mobile devices which can natively read RTSP streams, I couldn't find any setup which tells what exactly is needed. Do I need an RTSP streaming server like LIVE555 or can I use FFmpeg only?

My Command:

ffmpeg -i space.mp4 -vcodec libx264 -tune zerolatency -crf 18 -f rtsp -muxdelay 0.1 rtsp://192.168.1.200:1234

I get an Input/Output error.

Do I need a SDP description to use RTSP? And if yes where do I have to put it?

ffmpeg itself can stream over RTP. Better than UDP, but you need to agree on the format, which is why RTP is usually managed via RTSP. But `ffmpeg ... -f rtp rtp://destination/streamID:54321` will send a continuous RTP stream to port 54321 on 'destination'. — MSalters, Feb 27 '17 at 14:11

score 29 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 22 '20 at 10:11

FWIW, I was able to setup a local RTSP server for testing purposes using simple-rtsp-server and ffmpeg following these steps:

Create a configuration file for the RTSP server called rtsp-simple-server.yml with this single line:
```
protocols: [tcp]
```

Start the RTSP server as a Docker container:

$ docker run --rm -it -v $PWD/rtsp-simple-server.yml:/rtsp-simple-server.yml -p 8554:8554 aler9/rtsp-simple-server

Use ffmpeg to stream a video file (looping forever) to the server:

$ ffmpeg -re -stream_loop -1 -i test.mp4 -f rtsp -rtsp_transport tcp rtsp://localhost:8554/live.stream

Once you have that running you can use ffplay to view the stream:

$ ffplay -rtsp_transport tcp rtsp://localhost:8554/live.stream

Note that simple-rtsp-server can also handle UDP streams (i.s.o. TCP) but that's tricky running the server as a Docker container.

I’m completely blown away with how easy `simple-rtsp-server` is to configure, yet how powerful it is. Even includes a HLS server at no additional cost. This thing is awesome, thanks for suggesting it! — scy, Aug 16 '21 at 19:29

score 28 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 13 '18 at 16:06

28

You can use FFserver to stream a video using RTSP.

Just change console syntax to something like this:

ffmpeg -i space.mp4 -vcodec libx264 -tune zerolatency -crf 18 http://localhost:1234/feed1.ffm

Create a ffserver.config file (sample) where you declare HTTPPort, RTSPPort and SDP stream. Your config file could look like this (some important stuff might be missing):

HTTPPort 1234
RTSPPort 1235

<Feed feed1.ffm>
        File /tmp/feed1.ffm
        FileMaxSize 2M
        ACL allow 127.0.0.1
</Feed>

<Stream test1.sdp>
    Feed feed1.ffm
    Format rtp
    Noaudio
    VideoCodec libx264
    AVOptionVideo flags +global_header
    AVOptionVideo me_range 16
    AVOptionVideo qdiff 4
    AVOptionVideo qmin 10
    AVOptionVideo qmax 51
    ACL allow 192.168.0.0 192.168.255.255
</Stream>

With such setup you can watch the stream with i.e. VLC by typing:

rtsp://192.168.0.xxx:1235/test1.sdp

Here is the FFserver documentation.

edited Mar 13 '18 at 16:06

Jeankowkow

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answered Nov 19 '14 at 01:37

grzebyk

1,024
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that worked, but is ffserver to be favor over live555? – user1767754 Dec 28 '14 at 14:40
21

July 10th, 2016, ffserver program being dropped - http://ffmpeg.org/index.html#ffserv – Altanai Aug 10 '16 at 07:36
4

@user1767754 Are there any alternatives to ffserver due to it's deprecation? Would you suggeset live555? – SaundersB Dec 23 '16 at 15:34
hello i want to stream from mobile, how can i do that. i have created ffserver and i have installed Larix broadcaster mobile app to my mobile. in which i have added url like this rtsp://:/fedd1.ffm but its not connecting – Vinay Pandya Jan 05 '17 at 09:36
Which ffmpeg version have you used, @grzebyk? – Alejandro Galera Jun 07 '18 at 13:37
I used versions from 2.2 to 2.4, @mulg0r – grzebyk Jun 13 '18 at 18:18
1

When I try the ffmpeg it just says "Connection to tcp://localhost:1234 failed: Connection refused" - any ideas? - it works with udp:// but when I do http://localhost:1234/feed1.ffm I see the connection refused message. – Hackeron Nov 12 '20 at 10:50
Same issue here. – user1315621 Mar 09 '22 at 19:33

Ken H · Answer 3 · 2022-01-09T15:01:47.967

Another streaming command I've had good results with is piping the ffmpeg output to vlc to create a stream. If you don't have these installed, you can add them:

sudo apt install vlc ffmpeg

In the example I use an mpeg transport stream (ts) over http, instead of rtsp. I've tried both, but the http ts stream seems to work glitch-free on my playback devices.

I'm using a video capture HDMI>USB device that sets itself up on the video4linux2 driver as input. Piping through vlc must be CPU-friendly, because my old dual-core Pentium CPU is able to do the real-time encoding with no dropped frames. I've also had audio-sync issues with some of the other methods, where this method always has perfect audio-sync.

You will have to adjust the command for your device or file. If you're using a file as input, you won't need all that v4l2 and alsa stuff. Here's the ffmpeg|vlc command:

ffmpeg -thread_queue_size 1024 -f video4linux2 -input_format mjpeg -i /dev/video0 -r 30 -f alsa -ac 1 -thread_queue_size 1024 -i hw:1,0 -acodec aac -vcodec libx264 -preset ultrafast -crf 18 -s hd720 -vf format=yuv420p -profile:v main -threads 0 -f mpegts -|vlc -I dummy - --sout='#std{access=http,mux=ts,dst=:8554}'

For example, lets say your server PC IP is 192.168.0.10, then the stream can be played by this command:

ffplay http://192.168.0.10:8554
#or
vlc http://192.168.0.10:8554

UPDATE: Here is a command to use VLC for rtsp, instead of using the rtsp-simple-server:

ffmpeg -thread_queue_size 1024 -f video4linux2 -input_format mjpeg -video_size 1280x720 -r 30 -i /dev/video0 -f alsa -thread_queue_size 1024 -i plughw:CARD=MS2109,DEV=0 -acodec mp2 -vcodec libx264 -preset ultrafast -crf 20 -s hd720 -vf format=yuv420p -profile:v main -f mpegts -|vlc -I dummy - --sout='#rtp{sdp=rtsp://:8554/} --sout-all --sout-keep'

If your PC ip is 192.168.0.10, then the rtsp stream is played by this command:

vlc rtsp://192.168.0.10:8554/

That was helpful, however with your commands you're not using RTSP, you're just using HTTP! By using `--sout='#rtp{dst=YOURIP,port=1234,sdp=rtsp://YOURIP:8080/test.sdp}'` instead you can stream with RTSP, however in my tests this worked for VLC clients, but I have not found a way that works for all kinds of RTSP clients. Particularly on some clients I get an error `Response failed: RTSP/1.0 461 Unsupported transport`. Maybe VLC RTSP server does not support RTSP with TCP transport? — user643011, Oct 12 '21 at 08:03
I haven't been able to make VLC work with RTSP. If I want RTSP, I use the rtsp-simple-server that is discussed in another answer. — Ken H, Oct 14 '21 at 14:17
Thanks! Yes, I also tried `rtsp-simple-server` in the mean time and it works great! — user643011, Oct 16 '21 at 08:57

score 4 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 07 '21 at 15:16

An alternative that I used instead of FFServer was Red5 Pro. On Ubuntu, I used this line:

ffmpeg -f pulse -i default -f video4linux2 -thread_queue_size 64 -framerate 25 -video_size 640x480 -i /dev/video0 -pix_fmt yuv420p -bsf:v h264_mp4toannexb -profile:v baseline -level:v 3.2 -c:v libx264 -x264-params keyint=120:scenecut=0 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -ar 44100 -f rtsp -muxdelay 0.1 rtsp://localhost:8554/live/paul

What steps are needed to stream RTSP from FFmpeg?

4 Answers4

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