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-\input texinfo @c -*- texinfo -*-
-
-@settitle ffserver Documentation
-@titlepage
-@center @titlefont{ffserver Documentation}
-@end titlepage
-
-@top
-
-@contents
-
-@chapter Synopsis
-
-ffserver [@var{options}]
-
-@chapter Description
-@c man begin DESCRIPTION
-
-@command{ffserver} is a streaming server for both audio and video. It
-supports several live feeds, streaming from files and time shifting on
-live feeds (you can seek to positions in the past on each live feed,
-provided you specify a big enough feed storage in
-@file{ffserver.conf}).
-
-@command{ffserver} receives prerecorded files or FFM streams from some
-@command{ffmpeg} instance as input, then streams them over
-RTP/RTSP/HTTP.
-
-An @command{ffserver} instance will listen on some port as specified
-in the configuration file. You can launch one or more instances of
-@command{ffmpeg} and send one or more FFM streams to the port where
-ffserver is expecting to receive them. Alternately, you can make
-@command{ffserver} launch such @command{ffmpeg} instances at startup.
-
-Input streams are called feeds, and each one is specified by a
-@code{<Feed>} section in the configuration file.
-
-For each feed you can have different output streams in various
-formats, each one specified by a @code{<Stream>} section in the
-configuration file.
-
-@section Status stream
-
-ffserver supports an HTTP interface which exposes the current status
-of the server.
-
-Simply point your browser to the address of the special status stream
-specified in the configuration file.
-
-For example if you have:
-@example
-<Stream status.html>
-Format status
-
-# Only allow local people to get the status
-ACL allow localhost
-ACL allow 192.168.0.0 192.168.255.255
-</Stream>
-@end example
-
-then the server will post a page with the status information when
-the special stream @file{status.html} is requested.
-
-@section What can this do?
-
-When properly configured and running, you can capture video and audio in real
-time from a suitable capture card, and stream it out over the Internet to
-either Windows Media Player or RealAudio player (with some restrictions).
-
-It can also stream from files, though that is currently broken. Very often, a
-web server can be used to serve up the files just as well.
-
-It can stream prerecorded video from .ffm files, though it is somewhat tricky
-to make it work correctly.
-
-@section How do I make it work?
-
-First, build the kit. It *really* helps to have installed LAME first. Then when
-you run the ffserver ./configure, make sure that you have the
-@code{--enable-libmp3lame} flag turned on.
-
-LAME is important as it allows for streaming audio to Windows Media Player.
-Don't ask why the other audio types do not work.
-
-As a simple test, just run the following two command lines where INPUTFILE
-is some file which you can decode with ffmpeg:
-
-@example
-ffserver -f doc/ffserver.conf &
-ffmpeg -i INPUTFILE http://localhost:8090/feed1.ffm
-@end example
-
-At this point you should be able to go to your Windows machine and fire up
-Windows Media Player (WMP). Go to Open URL and enter
-
-@example
- http://<linuxbox>:8090/test.asf
-@end example
-
-You should (after a short delay) see video and hear audio.
-
-WARNING: trying to stream test1.mpg doesn't work with WMP as it tries to
-transfer the entire file before starting to play.
-The same is true of AVI files.
-
-@section What happens next?
-
-You should edit the ffserver.conf file to suit your needs (in terms of
-frame rates etc). Then install ffserver and ffmpeg, write a script to start
-them up, and off you go.
-
-@section Troubleshooting
-
-@subsection I don't hear any audio, but video is fine.
-
-Maybe you didn't install LAME, or got your ./configure statement wrong. Check
-the ffmpeg output to see if a line referring to MP3 is present. If not, then
-your configuration was incorrect. If it is, then maybe your wiring is not
-set up correctly. Maybe the sound card is not getting data from the right
-input source. Maybe you have a really awful audio interface (like I do)
-that only captures in stereo and also requires that one channel be flipped.
-If you are one of these people, then export 'AUDIO_FLIP_LEFT=1' before
-starting ffmpeg.
-
-@subsection The audio and video lose sync after a while.
-
-Yes, they do.
-
-@subsection After a long while, the video update rate goes way down in WMP.
-
-Yes, it does. Who knows why?
-
-@subsection WMP 6.4 behaves differently to WMP 7.
-
-Yes, it does. Any thoughts on this would be gratefully received. These
-differences extend to embedding WMP into a web page. [There are two
-object IDs that you can use: The old one, which does not play well, and
-the new one, which does (both tested on the same system). However,
-I suspect that the new one is not available unless you have installed WMP 7].
-
-@section What else can it do?
-
-You can replay video from .ffm files that was recorded earlier.
-However, there are a number of caveats, including the fact that the
-ffserver parameters must match the original parameters used to record the
-file. If they do not, then ffserver deletes the file before recording into it.
-(Now that I write this, it seems broken).
-
-You can fiddle with many of the codec choices and encoding parameters, and
-there are a bunch more parameters that you cannot control. Post a message
-to the mailing list if there are some 'must have' parameters. Look in
-ffserver.conf for a list of the currently available controls.
-
-It will automatically generate the ASX or RAM files that are often used
-in browsers. These files are actually redirections to the underlying ASF
-or RM file. The reason for this is that the browser often fetches the
-entire file before starting up the external viewer. The redirection files
-are very small and can be transferred quickly. [The stream itself is
-often 'infinite' and thus the browser tries to download it and never
-finishes.]
-
-@section Tips
-
-* When you connect to a live stream, most players (WMP, RA, etc) want to
-buffer a certain number of seconds of material so that they can display the
-signal continuously. However, ffserver (by default) starts sending data
-in realtime. This means that there is a pause of a few seconds while the
-buffering is being done by the player. The good news is that this can be
-cured by adding a '?buffer=5' to the end of the URL. This means that the
-stream should start 5 seconds in the past -- and so the first 5 seconds
-of the stream are sent as fast as the network will allow. It will then
-slow down to real time. This noticeably improves the startup experience.
-
-You can also add a 'Preroll 15' statement into the ffserver.conf that will
-add the 15 second prebuffering on all requests that do not otherwise
-specify a time. In addition, ffserver will skip frames until a key_frame
-is found. This further reduces the startup delay by not transferring data
-that will be discarded.
-
-* You may want to adjust the MaxBandwidth in the ffserver.conf to limit
-the amount of bandwidth consumed by live streams.
-
-@section Why does the ?buffer / Preroll stop working after a time?
-
-It turns out that (on my machine at least) the number of frames successfully
-grabbed is marginally less than the number that ought to be grabbed. This
-means that the timestamp in the encoded data stream gets behind realtime.
-This means that if you say 'Preroll 10', then when the stream gets 10
-or more seconds behind, there is no Preroll left.
-
-Fixing this requires a change in the internals of how timestamps are
-handled.
-
-@section Does the @code{?date=} stuff work.
-
-Yes (subject to the limitation outlined above). Also note that whenever you
-start ffserver, it deletes the ffm file (if any parameters have changed),
-thus wiping out what you had recorded before.
-
-The format of the @code{?date=xxxxxx} is fairly flexible. You should use one
-of the following formats (the 'T' is literal):
-
-@example
-* YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS (localtime)
-* YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ (UTC)
-@end example
-
-You can omit the YYYY-MM-DD, and then it refers to the current day. However
-note that @samp{?date=16:00:00} refers to 16:00 on the current day -- this
-may be in the future and so is unlikely to be useful.
-
-You use this by adding the ?date= to the end of the URL for the stream.
-For example: @samp{http://localhost:8080/test.asf?date=2002-07-26T23:05:00}.
-@c man end
-
-@section What is FFM, FFM2
-
-FFM and FFM2 are formats used by ffserver. They allow storing a wide variety of
-video and audio streams and encoding options, and can store a moving time segment
-of an infinite movie or a whole movie.
-
-FFM is version specific, and there is limited compatibility of FFM files
-generated by one version of ffmpeg/ffserver and another version of
-ffmpeg/ffserver. It may work but it is not guaranteed to work.
-
-FFM2 is extensible while maintaining compatibility and should work between
-differing versions of tools. FFM2 is the default.
-
-@chapter Options
-@c man begin OPTIONS
-
-@include avtools-common-opts.texi
-
-@section Main options
-
-@table @option
-@item -f @var{configfile}
-Use @file{configfile} instead of @file{/etc/ffserver.conf}.
-@item -n
-Enable no-launch mode. This option disables all the Launch directives
-within the various <Stream> sections. Since ffserver will not launch
-any ffmpeg instances, you will have to launch them manually.
-@item -d
-Enable debug mode. This option increases log verbosity, directs log
-messages to stdout.
-@end table
-@c man end
-
-@chapter See Also
-
-@ifhtml
-The @file{doc/ffserver.conf} example,
-@url{ffmpeg.html,ffmpeg}, @url{ffplay.html,ffplay}, @url{ffprobe.html,ffprobe},
-@url{ffmpeg-utils.html,ffmpeg-utils},
-@url{ffmpeg-scaler.html,ffmpeg-scaler},
-@url{ffmpeg-resampler.html,ffmpeg-resampler},
-@url{ffmpeg-codecs.html,ffmpeg-codecs},
-@url{ffmpeg-bitstream-filters.html,ffmpeg-bitstream-filters},
-@url{ffmpeg-formats.html,ffmpeg-formats},
-@url{ffmpeg-devices.html,ffmpeg-devices},
-@url{ffmpeg-protocols.html,ffmpeg-protocols},
-@url{ffmpeg-filters.html,ffmpeg-filters}
-@end ifhtml
-
-@ifnothtml
-The @file{doc/ffserver.conf} example, ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffprobe(1),
-ffmpeg-utils(1), ffmpeg-scaler(1), ffmpeg-resampler(1),
-ffmpeg-codecs(1), ffmpeg-bitstream-filters(1), ffmpeg-formats(1),
-ffmpeg-devices(1), ffmpeg-protocols(1), ffmpeg-filters(1)
-@end ifnothtml
-
-@include authors.texi
-
-@ignore
-
-@setfilename ffserver
-@settitle ffserver video server
-
-@end ignore
-
-@bye