Linux – Re-stream/Mirror HTTP Live Stream

ffmpeglinuxstreamingvideo streaming

I need to re-stream/mirror some HLS’s (HTTP Live Stream) using a Linux server.

From input

http://anystream.com/channel1.m3u8

To output

http://127.0.0.1/abc.m3u8

I found several media servers but they lack of documentation. (like crtmpserver or next gen media server)
But it doesn’t have to be a server solution, a how-to for ffmpeg or a PHP/Phyton script (if possible) would be great too.

Thank you in advance.

Best Answer

you can try ffmpeg - it does have ffserver which allows to either prepare a local file for on-demand streaming, or you could also set the stream address as a source and re-broadcast it via ffserver - I did a few tests a couple of years ago - including mplayer, which I used to get the stream, re-encode via ffmpeg and push it to ffserver

My idea of "rebroadcast" was to provide a local, stream server on LAN, and have the clients connect locally, instead opening 10-20 connections to the remote and killing the WAN.

Related Solutions

NGINX / RTMP / HLS live stream on Raspberry pi (Debian 8.4)

Setup: raspivid -> ffmpeg -> rtmp -> hls[ts/m3u8] -> VideoJS

The NGINX RTMP HLS setup is very straight-forward, so I will not go through that. I use hls_fragment size of 250ms and hls_playlist of 3s. Feel free to use my NGINX RTMP HLS server. Just copy and pasted exactly what's in the rtmp section, but change 'stream_name' to something unique. Similarly, change that in VideoJS so you can play it on your webpage. I'm not guaranteeing the 2a application will exist forever, but I plan on it being my test application for a while.

Video Only, A raspivid -n -t 0 -h 480 -w 854 -fps 24 -b 1536000 -o - | ffmpeg -i - -c:v copy -f flv 'rtmp://streaming.sensored.solutions/2a/stream_name' Pros: Easiest, solid quality, no buffering. Cons: ~10s latency
Video Only, B raspivid -n -t 0 -h 480 -w 854 -fps 15 -b 1080000 -o - | ffmpeg -i - -c:v copy -f flv 'rtmp://streaming.sensored.solutions/2a/stream_name' Pros: Low latency, under 5s. Cons: Buffering, Quality
Video and Audio [USB via Sabrent and cheap 3.5mm mic] raspivid -n -t 0 -h 480 -w 854 -fps 25 -b 2000000 -o - | ffmpeg -thread_queue_size 512 -i - -itsoffset 00:00:05.22 -f alsa -ac 1 -i hw:0,0 -map 0:0 -map 1:0 -c:a aac -c:v copy -f flv 'rtmp://streaming.sensored.solutions/2a/stream_name' Pros: Quality, No Buffering, Synchronized audio/video. Cons: High Bitrate [not good for multiple devices using same bandwidth], Latency ~12s - 15s

VideoJS:

    <!--Note, you should including the following in the HEAD of your HTML file: 
    <link href="http://videojs.github.io/videojs-contrib-hls/node_modules/bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
    -->
    <div class="container" id="videojs_container">
        <section class="starter-template">
            <video id=video-js-player width=854 height=480 class="video-js vjs-default-skin" controls autoplay="true" data-setup="{}" preload="auto">
                <source src = "http://streaming.sensored.solutions/2a/stream_name/index.m3u8" type = "application/x-mpegURL">
            </video>
        </section>
    </div>
    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <script src="http://videojs.github.io/videojs-contrib-hls/node_modules/bootstrap/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
    <script src="http://videojs.github.io/videojs-contrib-hls/js/ie10-viewport-bug-workaround.js"></script>
    <link href="//vjs.zencdn.net/5.4/video-js.css" rel="stylesheet">
    <script src="//vjs.zencdn.net/5.4/video.js"></script>
    <script src="http://videojs.github.io/videojs-contrib-hls/node_modules/videojs-contrib-hls/dist/videojs.hls.min.js"></script>

Using ffmpeg to (re)stream camera feed to RTMP server

ffmpeg \
    -i "http://admin:@192.168.0.65/media/?action=stream" \
    -re -f lavfi -i anullsrc \
    -c:v libx264 -vf format=yuv420p -b:v 4000k -bufsize 8000k -maxrate 4000k -g 50 \
    -c:a aac \
    -f flv "rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2/[streamkey]"

YouTube requires an audio stream to be present, so add silent audio with the anullsrc filter.
YouTube may not accept yuvj420p pixel format (I did not verify this), so change it to yuv420p.
-f h264 can't be used with audio, so use -f flv.
You probably don't need the -f mjpeg input option.
Declare bitrate and VBV options for streaming, and make -g value to be frame rate x 2.