---
tags: notes, rtmp, video streaming, nginx, ffmpeg
---
# Video Streaming Server (nginx, rtmp)
With this note, you will have an nginx service as rtmp server. You can push/pull video streaming to/from the server. In addition, you can also push your camera or video with `ffmpeg` to the rtmp server.

Distro tested: ubuntu 18.04, ubuntu-mate 18.04, raspberry-os

## Build envrioment

# first thing first
sudo apt-get update

# install building tools
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential libpcre3 libpcre3-dev libssl-dev zlib1g-dev git

cd /usr/local/src
git clone https://github.com/arut/nginx-rtmp-module
wget http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.17.2.tar.gz
tar zxvf nginx-1.17.2.tar.gz
mv nginx-1.17.2 nginx
rm -f nginx-1.17.2.tar.gz

cd nginx
./configure --with-http_ssl_module --add-module=/usr/local/src/nginx-rtmp-module
# if make goes wrong, try: make CFLAGS='-Wno-implicit-fallthrough'
make
make install

Verify if nginx setup properly:

# you should nginx echo its version in th console
/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx -v

## Control `nginx` via `systemctl`
Create service config file:

vim /etc/systemd/system/nginx.service

And then type:

[Unit]
Description=The nginx server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
PIDFile=/usr/local/nginx/logs/nginx.pid
ExecStartPre=/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx -t -q -g 'daemon on; master_process on;'
ExecStart=/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx -g 'daemon on; master_process on;'
ExecReload=/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx -g 'daemon on; master_process on;' -s reload
ExecStop=-/sbin/start-stop-daemon --quiet --stop --retry QUIT/5 --pidfile /usr/local/nginx/logs/nginx.pid
TimeoutStopSec=5
KillMode=mixed

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Apply the config file:

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start nginx.service
systemctl enable nginx.service  # auto execution on boot
systemctl status nginx.service

Type `localhost` or corresponding ip in the broswer, you should see this:

## Config nginx as RTMP

Modify the existing configuration file:

vim /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf

insert the following settings:

rtmp {
    server {
        listen 1935; # port rtmp used
        chunk_size 4096; # block size each pack

        application vod {
                play /opt/video; # stream local video file from the path
        }
        application live {
                live on;  # allow streaming push
                allow publish all; # control access privilege
                allow play all; # control access privilege
        }
    }
}

Check for config file syntax:

/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx -tc /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf

Check if anything using the port 1935:

netstat -nalp | grep 1935

You can access the `application` above (live and vod) with url like `rtmp://localhost/live` or `rtmp://localhost/vod`. You can also use any other word for an application.

You can play video file under the path `/opt/video/`. For example, for the video file `/opt/videdo/the_video.mp4`, you can play it with the url: `rtmp://localhost/vod/the_video.mp4`. ( just copy and paste in the VLC player and it plays the video if nothing goes wrong.)

## Statistics page
`nginx-rtmp-module` has default status page, showing basic statistics counts.
Edit the config file:

vim /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf

And insert the block with comment in the specific section:

http {
    include       mime.types;
    default_type  application/octet-stream;
    sendfile        on;
    keepalive_timeout  65;

    server {
        listen       80;
        server_name  localhost;

        location / {
            root   html;
            index  index.html index.htm;
        }
        location /stat {     ### RTMP statistic page
            rtmp_stat all;
            rtmp_stat_stylesheet stat.xsl;
        }
        location /stat.xsl { ### RTMP statistic table
                root /usr/local/src/nginx-rtmp-module/;
        }
        error_page   500 502 503 504  /50x.html;
        location = /50x.html {
            root   html;
        }
    }
}

Reload nginx service to update changes

systemctl reload nginx

Go to the web page `http://localhost/stat`, and you should see:

## Push something to the RTMP server
`ffmpeg` is a powerful tool for converting video between different format and pushing video streams.

apt-get install ffmpeg

You can pick one of the following to push to the RTMP server:
- Webcam (video0)

  # software decoding
  ffmpeg -f video4linux2 -r 24 -i /dev/video0 -f flv  rtmp://localhost:1935/live
  
  # hardware decoding
  apt-get install gstreamer1.0-tools
  gst-launch-1.0 -v v4l2src ! 'video/x-raw, width=640, height=480, framerate=30/1' ! queue ! videoconvert ! omxh264enc !  h264parse ! flvmux ! rtmpsink location='rtmp://localhost:1935/live live=1'
  
  # if above fails:
  apt-get install libomxil-bellagio0 libomxil-bellagio-bin
  gst-launch-1.0 -v v4l2src ! 'video/x-raw, width=640, height=480, framerate=30/1' ! queue ! videoconvert ! avenc_h264_omx !  h264parse ! flvmux ! rtmpsink location='rtmp://localhost:1935/live live=1'
  
  

- Video file
`
ffmpeg -re -i ./the_video.mp4 -c copy -f flv rtmp://localhost:1935/live
`
- OBS

Again, you can pull(aka play) the video stream with the url `rtmp://localhost:1935/live`. (copy and paste in the VLC player should do the trick.)

## Reference

- [樹梅派架設RTMP串流伺服器](https://blog.gtwang.org/iot/raspberry-pi-nginx-rtmp-server-live-streaming/)
- [RTMP/HLS Webcam Live Streaming](https://kaanlabs.com/rtmp-hls-webcam-live-streaming-with-hardware-accelerated-h264-on-a-raspberry-pi/)