[Live-devel] Unable to proxy mjpeg with live555ProxyServer

[Ross Finlayson]

> I have an IP camera that gives MJPEG over RTSP, I'm trying to proxy the stream with:
> 
> $ live555ProxyServer rtsp://192.168.0.221/live2.sdp
> 
> When I use the openRTSP client like so:
> 
> $ ./openRTSP rtsp://127.0.0.1:10110/proxyStream
> 
> The output looks like this: http://pastie.org/7167135

What happens when you try running "openRTSP" directly on the IP camera stream (i.e., without using a proxy server in the middle)?

What happens when you try viewing the stream using VLC - both directly from the IP camera, and indirectly, through the proxy?

I suspect that your problem is network packet loss - which is often a problem when streaming a low-efficiency codec such as JPEG.  JPEG frames are usually *huge*, and each JPEG frame gets packed into many (often dozens!) of RTP packets.  If even one of these RTP packets gets lost, the entire JPEG frame will get discarded by the receiver.

This situation is worse if you have a proxy server in the middle, because it means that - for a complete JPEG frame to make it end-to-end from the IP camera to your receiving client - there must be no packet loss either on the camera->proxy link, or in the proxy->client link.

Your best solution (especially as appears to be just a hobby for you) is to use a better IP camera - one that streams using a better codec (such as H.264).  (In 2013, nobody should be streaming MJPEG anymore.)


Ross Finlayson
Live Networks, Inc.
http://www.live555.com/

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