[Live-devel] what is the rtsp-over-http url for the proxy server?

[Ross Finlayson]

> When I start up live555ProxyServer, it kindly informs me what URL to use to access the proxy:
> 
> RTSP stream, proxying the stream "rtsp://10.30.0.10:26001/proxyStream"
>        Play this stream using the URL: rtsp://10.20.9.143:8554/proxyStream                    
> 
> It also tells me that I can use HTTP-over-RTSP:

You mean RTSP(and RTP/RTCP)-over-HTTP.


> 
> (We use port 8000 for optional RTSP-over-HTTP tunneling.)
> 
> Sure enough, port 8000 is open, but what URL do I use to connect to it?

You use the regular “rtsp://“ URL:
	rtsp://10.20.9.143:8554/proxyStream
(However, if you’re tunneling RTSP-over-HTTP, the port number in the “rtsp://“ URL is actually ignored, and so could be anything.)

However, you will need to tell your RTSP client:
	1/ That you want to tunnel RTSP-over-HTTP, and
	2/ That you want to do so using port 8000

As far as I know, the Chrome browser doesn’t support RTSP at all, so certainly won’t support RTSP-over-HTTP.  VLC, however, does - but you have to explicitly tell it to use RTSP-over-HTTP, using port 8000.  To do this, open VLC’s ‘Preferences’ panel, and go to:
	- Input/Codecs -> Show All
	- Demuxers -> RTP/RTSP
	- Check the box “Tunnel RTSP and RTP over HTTP”, and make sure that the port number is 8000.
Then, if you use VLC to open the URL
	rtsp://10.20.9.143:8554/proxyStream
(or, actually, rtsp://10.20.9.143:<any-port-number>/proxyStream)
then it should work, using RTSP-over-HTTP to communicate with the proxy server.


> Using rtsp://localhost:8000/proxyStream works with VLC, so what's the difference between that an the port 8554 URL?

In this case, nothing, because the (proxy) server happens to be listening on both port numbers (8554 and 8000).  However, if you don’t explicitly tell VLC to "Tunnel RTSP and RTP over HTTP”, then you won’t actually be tunneling RTSP/RTP-over-HTTP; instead, you’ll just be doing regular RTSP.

Note that the purpose of doing RTSP-over-HTTP is for traversing firewalls that block everything except HTTP.  So there’s no point in using it if your (front-end) RTSP client can access the (proxy) server using the regular RTSP port number (8554 in this case).


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