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.
24 Read Apple HTTP Live Streaming compliant segmented stream as
25 a uniform one. The M3U8 playlists describing the segments can be
26 remote HTTP resources or local files, accessed using the standard
28 HTTP is default, specific protocol can be declared by specifying
29 "+@var{proto}" after the applehttp URI scheme name, where @var{proto}
30 is either "file" or "http".
33 applehttp://host/path/to/remote/resource.m3u8
34 applehttp+http://host/path/to/remote/resource.m3u8
35 applehttp+file://path/to/local/resource.m3u8
40 Physical concatenation protocol.
42 Allow to read and seek from many resource in sequence as if they were
45 A URL accepted by this protocol has the syntax:
47 concat:@var{URL1}|@var{URL2}|...|@var{URLN}
50 where @var{URL1}, @var{URL2}, ..., @var{URLN} are the urls of the
51 resource to be concatenated, each one possibly specifying a distinct
54 For example to read a sequence of files @file{split1.mpeg},
55 @file{split2.mpeg}, @file{split3.mpeg} with @file{ffplay} use the
58 ffplay concat:split1.mpeg\|split2.mpeg\|split3.mpeg
61 Note that you may need to escape the character "|" which is special for
68 Allow to read from or read to a file.
70 For example to read from a file @file{input.mpeg} with @file{ffmpeg}
73 ffmpeg -i file:input.mpeg output.mpeg
76 The ff* tools default to the file protocol, that is a resource
77 specified with the name "FILE.mpeg" is interpreted as the URL
86 HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol).
90 MMS (Microsoft Media Server) protocol over TCP.
94 MMS (Microsoft Media Server) protocol over HTTP.
96 The required syntax is:
98 mmsh://@var{server}[:@var{port}][/@var{app}][/@var{playpath}]
105 Computes the MD5 hash of the data to be written, and on close writes
106 this to the designated output or stdout if none is specified. It can
107 be used to test muxers without writing an actual file.
109 Some examples follow.
111 # Write the MD5 hash of the encoded AVI file to the file output.avi.md5.
112 ffmpeg -i input.flv -f avi -y md5:output.avi.md5
114 # Write the MD5 hash of the encoded AVI file to stdout.
115 ffmpeg -i input.flv -f avi -y md5:
118 Note that some formats (typically MOV) require the output protocol to
119 be seekable, so they will fail with the MD5 output protocol.
123 UNIX pipe access protocol.
125 Allow to read and write from UNIX pipes.
127 The accepted syntax is:
132 @var{number} is the number corresponding to the file descriptor of the
133 pipe (e.g. 0 for stdin, 1 for stdout, 2 for stderr). If @var{number}
134 is not specified, by default the stdout file descriptor will be used
135 for writing, stdin for reading.
137 For example to read from stdin with @file{ffmpeg}:
139 cat test.wav | ffmpeg -i pipe:0
140 # ...this is the same as...
141 cat test.wav | ffmpeg -i pipe:
144 For writing to stdout with @file{ffmpeg}:
146 ffmpeg -i test.wav -f avi pipe:1 | cat > test.avi
147 # ...this is the same as...
148 ffmpeg -i test.wav -f avi pipe: | cat > test.avi
151 Note that some formats (typically MOV), require the output protocol to
152 be seekable, so they will fail with the pipe output protocol.
156 Real-Time Messaging Protocol.
158 The Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) is used for streaming multimeā
159 dia content across a TCP/IP network.
161 The required syntax is:
163 rtmp://@var{server}[:@var{port}][/@var{app}][/@var{playpath}]
166 The accepted parameters are:
170 The address of the RTMP server.
173 The number of the TCP port to use (by default is 1935).
176 It is the name of the application to access. It usually corresponds to
177 the path where the application is installed on the RTMP server
178 (e.g. @file{/ondemand/}, @file{/flash/live/}, etc.).
181 It is the path or name of the resource to play with reference to the
182 application specified in @var{app}, may be prefixed by "mp4:".
186 For example to read with @file{ffplay} a multimedia resource named
187 "sample" from the application "vod" from an RTMP server "myserver":
189 ffplay rtmp://myserver/vod/sample
192 @section rtmp, rtmpe, rtmps, rtmpt, rtmpte
194 Real-Time Messaging Protocol and its variants supported through
197 Requires the presence of the librtmp headers and library during
198 configuration. You need to explicitely configure the build with
199 "--enable-librtmp". If enabled this will replace the native RTMP
202 This protocol provides most client functions and a few server
203 functions needed to support RTMP, RTMP tunneled in HTTP (RTMPT),
204 encrypted RTMP (RTMPE), RTMP over SSL/TLS (RTMPS) and tunneled
205 variants of these encrypted types (RTMPTE, RTMPTS).
207 The required syntax is:
209 @var{rtmp_proto}://@var{server}[:@var{port}][/@var{app}][/@var{playpath}] @var{options}
212 where @var{rtmp_proto} is one of the strings "rtmp", "rtmpt", "rtmpe",
213 "rtmps", "rtmpte", "rtmpts" corresponding to each RTMP variant, and
214 @var{server}, @var{port}, @var{app} and @var{playpath} have the same
215 meaning as specified for the RTMP native protocol.
216 @var{options} contains a list of space-separated options of the form
219 See the librtmp manual page (man 3 librtmp) for more information.
221 For example, to stream a file in real-time to an RTMP server using
224 ffmpeg -re -i myfile -f flv rtmp://myserver/live/mystream
227 To play the same stream using @file{ffplay}:
229 ffplay "rtmp://myserver/live/mystream live=1"
238 RTSP is not technically a protocol handler in libavformat, it is a demuxer
239 and muxer. The demuxer supports both normal RTSP (with data transferred
240 over RTP; this is used by e.g. Apple and Microsoft) and Real-RTSP (with
241 data transferred over RDT).
243 The muxer can be used to send a stream using RTSP ANNOUNCE to a server
244 supporting it (currently Darwin Streaming Server and Mischa Spiegelmock's
245 RTSP server, @url{http://github.com/revmischa/rtsp-server}).
247 The required syntax for a RTSP url is:
249 rtsp://@var{hostname}[:@var{port}]/@var{path}[?@var{options}]
252 @var{options} is a @code{&}-separated list. The following options
258 Use UDP as lower transport protocol.
261 Use TCP (interleaving within the RTSP control channel) as lower
265 Use UDP multicast as lower transport protocol.
268 Use HTTP tunneling as lower transport protocol, which is useful for
272 Accept packets only from negotiated peer address and port.
275 Multiple lower transport protocols may be specified, in that case they are
276 tried one at a time (if the setup of one fails, the next one is tried).
277 For the muxer, only the @code{tcp} and @code{udp} options are supported.
279 When receiving data over UDP, the demuxer tries to reorder received packets
280 (since they may arrive out of order, or packets may get lost totally). In
281 order for this to be enabled, a maximum delay must be specified in the
282 @code{max_delay} field of AVFormatContext.
284 When watching multi-bitrate Real-RTSP streams with @file{ffplay}, the
285 streams to display can be chosen with @code{-vst} @var{n} and
286 @code{-ast} @var{n} for video and audio respectively, and can be switched
287 on the fly by pressing @code{v} and @code{a}.
289 Example command lines:
291 To watch a stream over UDP, with a max reordering delay of 0.5 seconds:
294 ffplay -max_delay 500000 rtsp://server/video.mp4?udp
297 To watch a stream tunneled over HTTP:
300 ffplay rtsp://server/video.mp4?http
303 To send a stream in realtime to a RTSP server, for others to watch:
306 ffmpeg -re -i @var{input} -f rtsp -muxdelay 0.1 rtsp://server/live.sdp
311 Session Announcement Protocol (RFC 2974). This is not technically a
312 protocol handler in libavformat, it is a muxer and demuxer.
313 It is used for signalling of RTP streams, by announcing the SDP for the
314 streams regularly on a separate port.
318 The syntax for a SAP url given to the muxer is:
320 sap://@var{destination}[:@var{port}][?@var{options}]
323 The RTP packets are sent to @var{destination} on port @var{port},
324 or to port 5004 if no port is specified.
325 @var{options} is a @code{&}-separated list. The following options
330 @item announce_addr=@var{address}
331 Specify the destination IP address for sending the announcements to.
332 If omitted, the announcements are sent to the commonly used SAP
333 announcement multicast address 224.2.127.254 (sap.mcast.net), or
334 ff0e::2:7ffe if @var{destination} is an IPv6 address.
336 @item announce_port=@var{port}
337 Specify the port to send the announcements on, defaults to
338 9875 if not specified.
341 Specify the time to live value for the announcements and RTP packets,
344 @item same_port=@var{0|1}
345 If set to 1, send all RTP streams on the same port pair. If zero (the
346 default), all streams are sent on unique ports, with each stream on a
347 port 2 numbers higher than the previous.
348 VLC/Live555 requires this to be set to 1, to be able to receive the stream.
349 The RTP stack in libavformat for receiving requires all streams to be sent
353 Example command lines follow.
355 To broadcast a stream on the local subnet, for watching in VLC:
358 ffmpeg -re -i @var{input} -f sap sap://224.0.0.255?same_port=1
361 Similarly, for watching in ffplay:
364 ffmpeg -re -i @var{input} -f sap sap://224.0.0.255
367 And for watching in ffplay, over IPv6:
370 ffmpeg -re -i @var{input} -f sap sap://[ff0e::1:2:3:4]
375 The syntax for a SAP url given to the demuxer is:
377 sap://[@var{address}][:@var{port}]
380 @var{address} is the multicast address to listen for announcements on,
381 if omitted, the default 224.2.127.254 (sap.mcast.net) is used. @var{port}
382 is the port that is listened on, 9875 if omitted.
384 The demuxers listens for announcements on the given address and port.
385 Once an announcement is received, it tries to receive that particular stream.
387 Example command lines follow.
389 To play back the first stream announced on the normal SAP multicast address:
395 To play back the first stream announced on one the default IPv6 SAP multicast address:
398 ffplay sap://[ff0e::2:7ffe]
403 Trasmission Control Protocol.
405 The required syntax for a TCP url is:
407 tcp://@var{hostname}:@var{port}[?@var{options}]
413 Listen for an incoming connection
416 ffmpeg -i @var{input} -f @var{format} tcp://@var{hostname}:@var{port}?listen
417 ffplay tcp://@var{hostname}:@var{port}
424 User Datagram Protocol.
426 The required syntax for a UDP url is:
428 udp://@var{hostname}:@var{port}[?@var{options}]
431 @var{options} contains a list of &-seperated options of the form @var{key}=@var{val}.
432 Follow the list of supported options.
436 @item buffer_size=@var{size}
437 set the UDP buffer size in bytes
439 @item localport=@var{port}
440 override the local UDP port to bind with
442 @item pkt_size=@var{size}
443 set the size in bytes of UDP packets
445 @item reuse=@var{1|0}
446 explicitly allow or disallow reusing UDP sockets
449 set the time to live value (for multicast only)
451 @item connect=@var{1|0}
452 Initialize the UDP socket with @code{connect()}. In this case, the
453 destination address can't be changed with ff_udp_set_remote_url later.
454 If the destination address isn't known at the start, this option can
455 be specified in ff_udp_set_remote_url, too.
456 This allows finding out the source address for the packets with getsockname,
457 and makes writes return with AVERROR(ECONNREFUSED) if "destination
458 unreachable" is received.
459 For receiving, this gives the benefit of only receiving packets from
460 the specified peer address/port.
463 Some usage examples of the udp protocol with @file{ffmpeg} follow.
465 To stream over UDP to a remote endpoint:
467 ffmpeg -i @var{input} -f @var{format} udp://@var{hostname}:@var{port}
470 To stream in mpegts format over UDP using 188 sized UDP packets, using a large input buffer:
472 ffmpeg -i @var{input} -f mpegts udp://@var{hostname}:@var{port}?pkt_size=188&buffer_size=65535
475 To receive over UDP from a remote endpoint:
477 ffmpeg -i udp://[@var{multicast-address}]:@var{port}