4 Protocols are configured elements in FFmpeg which allow to access
5 resources which require the use of a particular protocol.
7 When you configure your FFmpeg build, all the supported protocols are
8 enabled by default. You can list all available ones using the
9 configure option "--list-protocols".
11 You can disable all the protocols using the configure option
12 "--disable-protocols", and selectively enable a protocol using the
13 option "--enable-protocol=@var{PROTOCOL}", or you can disable a
14 particular protocol using the option
15 "--disable-protocol=@var{PROTOCOL}".
17 The option "-protocols" of the ff* tools will display the list of
20 A description of the currently available protocols follows.
26 The accepted options are:
36 Playlist to read (BDMV/PLAYLIST/?????.mpls)
42 Read longest playlist from BluRay mounted to /mnt/bluray:
47 Read angle 2 of playlist 4 from BluRay mounted to /mnt/bluray, start from chapter 2:
49 -playlist 4 -angle 2 -chapter 2 bluray:/mnt/bluray
54 Physical concatenation protocol.
56 Allow to read and seek from many resource in sequence as if they were
59 A URL accepted by this protocol has the syntax:
61 concat:@var{URL1}|@var{URL2}|...|@var{URLN}
64 where @var{URL1}, @var{URL2}, ..., @var{URLN} are the urls of the
65 resource to be concatenated, each one possibly specifying a distinct
68 For example to read a sequence of files @file{split1.mpeg},
69 @file{split2.mpeg}, @file{split3.mpeg} with @command{ffplay} use the
72 ffplay concat:split1.mpeg\|split2.mpeg\|split3.mpeg
75 Note that you may need to escape the character "|" which is special for
82 Allow to read from or read to a file.
84 For example to read from a file @file{input.mpeg} with @command{ffmpeg}
87 ffmpeg -i file:input.mpeg output.mpeg
90 The ff* tools default to the file protocol, that is a resource
91 specified with the name "FILE.mpeg" is interpreted as the URL
100 Read Apple HTTP Live Streaming compliant segmented stream as
101 a uniform one. The M3U8 playlists describing the segments can be
102 remote HTTP resources or local files, accessed using the standard
104 The nested protocol is declared by specifying
105 "+@var{proto}" after the hls URI scheme name, where @var{proto}
106 is either "file" or "http".
109 hls+http://host/path/to/remote/resource.m3u8
110 hls+file://path/to/local/resource.m3u8
113 Using this protocol is discouraged - the hls demuxer should work
114 just as well (if not, please report the issues) and is more complete.
115 To use the hls demuxer instead, simply use the direct URLs to the
120 HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol).
124 MMS (Microsoft Media Server) protocol over TCP.
128 MMS (Microsoft Media Server) protocol over HTTP.
130 The required syntax is:
132 mmsh://@var{server}[:@var{port}][/@var{app}][/@var{playpath}]
139 Computes the MD5 hash of the data to be written, and on close writes
140 this to the designated output or stdout if none is specified. It can
141 be used to test muxers without writing an actual file.
143 Some examples follow.
145 # Write the MD5 hash of the encoded AVI file to the file output.avi.md5.
146 ffmpeg -i input.flv -f avi -y md5:output.avi.md5
148 # Write the MD5 hash of the encoded AVI file to stdout.
149 ffmpeg -i input.flv -f avi -y md5:
152 Note that some formats (typically MOV) require the output protocol to
153 be seekable, so they will fail with the MD5 output protocol.
157 UNIX pipe access protocol.
159 Allow to read and write from UNIX pipes.
161 The accepted syntax is:
166 @var{number} is the number corresponding to the file descriptor of the
167 pipe (e.g. 0 for stdin, 1 for stdout, 2 for stderr). If @var{number}
168 is not specified, by default the stdout file descriptor will be used
169 for writing, stdin for reading.
171 For example to read from stdin with @command{ffmpeg}:
173 cat test.wav | ffmpeg -i pipe:0
174 # ...this is the same as...
175 cat test.wav | ffmpeg -i pipe:
178 For writing to stdout with @command{ffmpeg}:
180 ffmpeg -i test.wav -f avi pipe:1 | cat > test.avi
181 # ...this is the same as...
182 ffmpeg -i test.wav -f avi pipe: | cat > test.avi
185 Note that some formats (typically MOV), require the output protocol to
186 be seekable, so they will fail with the pipe output protocol.
190 Real-Time Messaging Protocol.
192 The Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) is used for streaming multimedia
193 content across a TCP/IP network.
195 The required syntax is:
197 rtmp://@var{server}[:@var{port}][/@var{app}][/@var{playpath}]
200 The accepted parameters are:
204 The address of the RTMP server.
207 The number of the TCP port to use (by default is 1935).
210 It is the name of the application to access. It usually corresponds to
211 the path where the application is installed on the RTMP server
212 (e.g. @file{/ondemand/}, @file{/flash/live/}, etc.).
215 It is the path or name of the resource to play with reference to the
216 application specified in @var{app}, may be prefixed by "mp4:".
220 For example to read with @command{ffplay} a multimedia resource named
221 "sample" from the application "vod" from an RTMP server "myserver":
223 ffplay rtmp://myserver/vod/sample
226 @section rtmp, rtmpe, rtmps, rtmpt, rtmpte
228 Real-Time Messaging Protocol and its variants supported through
231 Requires the presence of the librtmp headers and library during
232 configuration. You need to explicitly configure the build with
233 "--enable-librtmp". If enabled this will replace the native RTMP
236 This protocol provides most client functions and a few server
237 functions needed to support RTMP, RTMP tunneled in HTTP (RTMPT),
238 encrypted RTMP (RTMPE), RTMP over SSL/TLS (RTMPS) and tunneled
239 variants of these encrypted types (RTMPTE, RTMPTS).
241 The required syntax is:
243 @var{rtmp_proto}://@var{server}[:@var{port}][/@var{app}][/@var{playpath}] @var{options}
246 where @var{rtmp_proto} is one of the strings "rtmp", "rtmpt", "rtmpe",
247 "rtmps", "rtmpte", "rtmpts" corresponding to each RTMP variant, and
248 @var{server}, @var{port}, @var{app} and @var{playpath} have the same
249 meaning as specified for the RTMP native protocol.
250 @var{options} contains a list of space-separated options of the form
253 See the librtmp manual page (man 3 librtmp) for more information.
255 For example, to stream a file in real-time to an RTMP server using
258 ffmpeg -re -i myfile -f flv rtmp://myserver/live/mystream
261 To play the same stream using @command{ffplay}:
263 ffplay "rtmp://myserver/live/mystream live=1"
272 RTSP is not technically a protocol handler in libavformat, it is a demuxer
273 and muxer. The demuxer supports both normal RTSP (with data transferred
274 over RTP; this is used by e.g. Apple and Microsoft) and Real-RTSP (with
275 data transferred over RDT).
277 The muxer can be used to send a stream using RTSP ANNOUNCE to a server
278 supporting it (currently Darwin Streaming Server and Mischa Spiegelmock's
279 @uref{http://github.com/revmischa/rtsp-server, RTSP server}).
281 The required syntax for a RTSP url is:
283 rtsp://@var{hostname}[:@var{port}]/@var{path}
286 The following options (set on the @command{ffmpeg}/@command{ffplay} command
287 line, or set in code via @code{AVOption}s or in @code{avformat_open_input}),
290 Flags for @code{rtsp_transport}:
295 Use UDP as lower transport protocol.
298 Use TCP (interleaving within the RTSP control channel) as lower
302 Use UDP multicast as lower transport protocol.
305 Use HTTP tunneling as lower transport protocol, which is useful for
309 Multiple lower transport protocols may be specified, in that case they are
310 tried one at a time (if the setup of one fails, the next one is tried).
311 For the muxer, only the @code{tcp} and @code{udp} options are supported.
313 Flags for @code{rtsp_flags}:
317 Accept packets only from negotiated peer address and port.
320 When receiving data over UDP, the demuxer tries to reorder received packets
321 (since they may arrive out of order, or packets may get lost totally). This
322 can be disabled by setting the maximum demuxing delay to zero (via
323 the @code{max_delay} field of AVFormatContext).
325 When watching multi-bitrate Real-RTSP streams with @command{ffplay}, the
326 streams to display can be chosen with @code{-vst} @var{n} and
327 @code{-ast} @var{n} for video and audio respectively, and can be switched
328 on the fly by pressing @code{v} and @code{a}.
330 Example command lines:
332 To watch a stream over UDP, with a max reordering delay of 0.5 seconds:
335 ffplay -max_delay 500000 -rtsp_transport udp rtsp://server/video.mp4
338 To watch a stream tunneled over HTTP:
341 ffplay -rtsp_transport http rtsp://server/video.mp4
344 To send a stream in realtime to a RTSP server, for others to watch:
347 ffmpeg -re -i @var{input} -f rtsp -muxdelay 0.1 rtsp://server/live.sdp
352 Session Announcement Protocol (RFC 2974). This is not technically a
353 protocol handler in libavformat, it is a muxer and demuxer.
354 It is used for signalling of RTP streams, by announcing the SDP for the
355 streams regularly on a separate port.
359 The syntax for a SAP url given to the muxer is:
361 sap://@var{destination}[:@var{port}][?@var{options}]
364 The RTP packets are sent to @var{destination} on port @var{port},
365 or to port 5004 if no port is specified.
366 @var{options} is a @code{&}-separated list. The following options
371 @item announce_addr=@var{address}
372 Specify the destination IP address for sending the announcements to.
373 If omitted, the announcements are sent to the commonly used SAP
374 announcement multicast address 224.2.127.254 (sap.mcast.net), or
375 ff0e::2:7ffe if @var{destination} is an IPv6 address.
377 @item announce_port=@var{port}
378 Specify the port to send the announcements on, defaults to
379 9875 if not specified.
382 Specify the time to live value for the announcements and RTP packets,
385 @item same_port=@var{0|1}
386 If set to 1, send all RTP streams on the same port pair. If zero (the
387 default), all streams are sent on unique ports, with each stream on a
388 port 2 numbers higher than the previous.
389 VLC/Live555 requires this to be set to 1, to be able to receive the stream.
390 The RTP stack in libavformat for receiving requires all streams to be sent
394 Example command lines follow.
396 To broadcast a stream on the local subnet, for watching in VLC:
399 ffmpeg -re -i @var{input} -f sap sap://224.0.0.255?same_port=1
402 Similarly, for watching in @command{ffplay}:
405 ffmpeg -re -i @var{input} -f sap sap://224.0.0.255
408 And for watching in @command{ffplay}, over IPv6:
411 ffmpeg -re -i @var{input} -f sap sap://[ff0e::1:2:3:4]
416 The syntax for a SAP url given to the demuxer is:
418 sap://[@var{address}][:@var{port}]
421 @var{address} is the multicast address to listen for announcements on,
422 if omitted, the default 224.2.127.254 (sap.mcast.net) is used. @var{port}
423 is the port that is listened on, 9875 if omitted.
425 The demuxers listens for announcements on the given address and port.
426 Once an announcement is received, it tries to receive that particular stream.
428 Example command lines follow.
430 To play back the first stream announced on the normal SAP multicast address:
436 To play back the first stream announced on one the default IPv6 SAP multicast address:
439 ffplay sap://[ff0e::2:7ffe]
444 Trasmission Control Protocol.
446 The required syntax for a TCP url is:
448 tcp://@var{hostname}:@var{port}[?@var{options}]
454 Listen for an incoming connection
457 ffmpeg -i @var{input} -f @var{format} tcp://@var{hostname}:@var{port}?listen
458 ffplay tcp://@var{hostname}:@var{port}
465 User Datagram Protocol.
467 The required syntax for a UDP url is:
469 udp://@var{hostname}:@var{port}[?@var{options}]
472 @var{options} contains a list of &-seperated options of the form @var{key}=@var{val}.
473 Follow the list of supported options.
477 @item buffer_size=@var{size}
478 set the UDP buffer size in bytes
480 @item localport=@var{port}
481 override the local UDP port to bind with
483 @item localaddr=@var{addr}
484 Choose the local IP address. This is useful e.g. if sending multicast
485 and the host has multiple interfaces, where the user can choose
486 which interface to send on by specifying the IP address of that interface.
488 @item pkt_size=@var{size}
489 set the size in bytes of UDP packets
491 @item reuse=@var{1|0}
492 explicitly allow or disallow reusing UDP sockets
495 set the time to live value (for multicast only)
497 @item connect=@var{1|0}
498 Initialize the UDP socket with @code{connect()}. In this case, the
499 destination address can't be changed with ff_udp_set_remote_url later.
500 If the destination address isn't known at the start, this option can
501 be specified in ff_udp_set_remote_url, too.
502 This allows finding out the source address for the packets with getsockname,
503 and makes writes return with AVERROR(ECONNREFUSED) if "destination
504 unreachable" is received.
505 For receiving, this gives the benefit of only receiving packets from
506 the specified peer address/port.
509 Some usage examples of the udp protocol with @command{ffmpeg} follow.
511 To stream over UDP to a remote endpoint:
513 ffmpeg -i @var{input} -f @var{format} udp://@var{hostname}:@var{port}
516 To stream in mpegts format over UDP using 188 sized UDP packets, using a large input buffer:
518 ffmpeg -i @var{input} -f mpegts udp://@var{hostname}:@var{port}?pkt_size=188&buffer_size=65535
521 To receive over UDP from a remote endpoint:
523 ffmpeg -i udp://[@var{multicast-address}]:@var{port}