Input from an RTP/RTSP stream

[Rob_Cameron]

Can someone please point me to the docs that show where the configuration settings are for setting the RTP/RTSP stream for Wowza to use as input? These doc pages sound like they’re going to include these instructions, but they only show you how to configure the output streams, not the input!

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

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-re-stream-video-from-an-ip-camera-rtsp-rtp-re-streaming)

What am I missing?

Thanks,

Rob

[Richard_Lanham]

Rob,

That 2nd link is an example of RTSP stream in to Wowza, i.e., re-streaming RTSP, which requires Stream Manager to start the stream, or pull the stream.

There are encoders that will push an RTP stream to Wowza. Wirecast can be configured to do this, for example.

Related links:

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-set-up-live-streaming-using-a-native-rtp-encoder-with-sdp-file)

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-use-apple-quicktime-broadcaster-with-wowza-media-server-rtsp-rtp)

http://www.wowza.com/downloads/forums/qtss/www/README.html

Richard

[Richard_Lanham]

Rob,

You re-stream from an IP camera. IP The encoder is built-in. IP cameras with buillt-in h.264 support is what you want. I recommend one of the h.264 Axis cameras, which are easy to get working with Wowza.

See this guide

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-re-stream-video-from-an-ip-camera-rtsp-rtp-re-streaming)

Richard

[Richard_Lanham]

There is an example in this Wowza article of rtsp input to ffmpeg command:

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-use-ffmpeg-with-wowza-media-server-mpeg-ts)

Richard

[Ian_Beyer]

Yes, in that case you’d need to transcode it.

Might want to take a look at ffmpeg, it can pull from one stream and push to another. I don’t know if it will work in your specific setup, but it’s probably worth a shot.

-Ian

[Ian_Beyer]

The documentation on ffmpeg would seem to indicate that it can handle RTSP, but I’ve not actually tried it myself.

Ian

[Rob_Cameron]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the links!

It looks like Quicktime Broadcaster can only use a video source physically connected to the computer…I don’t see any options for an RTSP stream input. Same with Wirecast…I only see options for connecting to USB/Firewire cameras. Is there some configuration I’m missing somewhere?

The first link you included says “Consult your encoder’s documentation and configure an outgoing stream…” but that’s the one thing I’m trying to find docs for!

The camera I’m looking at already encodes in H.264 and provides RTP/RTSP. Do I even need an encoder in this case, or just some kind of proxy to push that stream over to Wowza?

Rob

[Rob_Cameron]

Hi Richard,

So let’s say I have a camera in my house. With my internet connection I have about 1Mbps upstream bandwidth. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that the camera’s h.264 output stream is 2Mbps. I’m running Wowza on EC2.

In this case, I would need an encoder to shrink that stream down to something more manageable for sending out of my house, right?

In this scenario, do I now have Wowza pull from the encoder’s output? I assume there are encoders out there that will bind to the computer’s IP and provide the output stream on a given port which Wowza will then pull from? Or can I point the encoder’s output stream to Wowza and “push” the stream?

Thanks again for the help!

Rob

[Rob_Cameron]

Thanks for the reply Ian. After a little bit of Googling I found a post from a couple years ago saying that ffmpeg can’t natively connect to a socket to open a RTSP stream: http://ffmpeg-users.933282.n4.nabble.com/ffmpeg-with-live-rtsp-input-stream-td941542.html

Granted, that post is from almost two years ago…any idea if that functionality exists now?

Of course I could just test this myself, but I don’t have an RTSP camera yet…I should be getting one in a couple of weeks.