How to get my webcam's RTSP/RTMP URL for streaming?

[Deepak_Mishra]

Hello all,

I am new to media streaming, starting with Wowza. I want to test live streaming from my webcam (on my Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop, Creative integrated webcam) to other devices. This tutorial (https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-re-stream-video-from-an-ip-camera-rtsp-rtp-re-streaming) tells me :

enter your camera’s RTSP URL and click Play

How/Where to get this URL ? Is it OS specific, or device specific ? Does a webcam by default provide a RTSP/RTMP stream, or I need to put some other code/application on my computer for this ?

Thanks !

[Richard_Lanham]

This is the correct tutorial for you:

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-set-up-live-streaming-using-an-rtmp-based-encoder)

Richard

[Richard_Lanham]

A " webcam (on my Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop, Creative integrated webcam)" is not an IP camera. It does not have a URL. It is just a regular webcam. You need an encoder like FMLE or Wirecast to stream a webcam. Follow this tutorial to configure a live application and publish a stream to Wowza:

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-set-up-live-streaming-using-an-rtmp-based-encoder)

Richard

[Ian_Beyer]

There are a number of encoders out there, some free (ffmpeg, FMLE), some not (Wirecast, Kulabyte, Digital Rapids, etc.) If you have an IP camera, the camera itself does the encoding.

-Ian

[Deepak_Mishra]

Thanks rrlanham. I am a total noob, so my query may seem very basic. I followed the tutorial, but stuck up at this point :

To publish using RTMP based encoder

Enter the Server URL and Stream Name information below and click the Publish or Start button on the encoder:

What encoder ? Why do I need encoder to publish…I guessed this is being done by Wowza itself ?

I also googled for such encoder, and I came across Xuggler : RTMP based encoder

There steps are as follows :

First, connect your current encoding tool to rtmp://localhost/live.

Then, publish a stream named “testStream” with your favorite parameters.

This meant Xuggle is not an encoder…Wowza is not encoding…then where should I get one ?

Thanks a lot !!

[Deepak_Mishra]

There are a number of encoders out there, some free (ffmpeg, FMLE), some not (Wirecast, Kulabyte, Digital Rapids, etc.) If you have an IP camera, the camera itself does the encoding.

-Ian

Thanks Ian, I have two questions :

1. Since Xuggle is built on top of ffmpeg, isnt Xuggle an encoder ?

2. Since I am trying to connect to an IP camera itself, and you say it does the encoding by itself - that’s what my original question is - how to connect to this webcam ? Does it have a URL ?

Thanks !!

[Deepak_Mishra]

Someone please help me on this further…I am still stuck up at the starting point

Really need some concepts I guess…

[Rose_Power-Wowza_Com]

It depends on what the streaming protocol is for this webcam and it’s not very clear in the question, if this is native webcam or an external webcam being attached to the computer.

If it’s native camera you want to capture, then you could use free OBS and send it to Wowza as RTMP. Same goes for an external camera/encoder:

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-set-up-live-streaming-using-an-rtmp-based-encoder

As was mentioned above, IP cameras are a totally different thing and they typically stream using RTSP and for that use that case, here is the video tutorial for that:

[Rose_Power-Wowza_Com]

Stream an IP Camera to Websites and Social Media

If you want to grab the IP camera RTSP url:

IP camera manufacturers use proprietary URL syntax. Consult your camera documentation for the URL syntax of the stream and enter this value in Stream URI .

Here is the doc to configure the url and stream with an IP camera.

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-re-stream-video-from-an-ip-camera-rtsp-rtp-re-streaming#2-connect-to-a-source-stream3