GStreamer-1.8.1 rtsp server and client on ubuntu

GStreamer is a streaming media framework, based on graphs of filters which operate on media data.

Gstreamer is constructed using a pipes and filter architecture.
The basic structure of a stream pipeline is that you start with a stream source (camera, screengrab, file etc) and end with a stream sink (screen window, file, network etc). The ! are called pads and they connect the filters.

Data that flows through pads is described by caps (short for capabilities). Caps can be though of as mime-type (e.g. audio/x-raw, video/x-raw) along with mime-type (e.g. width, height, depth).

Source Code

Download the latest archives from https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/src/

Source code on git : https://github.com/GStreamer

Primarily 3 files are required

1. gstreamer-1.8.1.tar.xz
2. gst-plugins-base-1.8.1.tar.xz
3. gst-rtsp-server-1.8.1.tar.xz

If the destination machine is a ec2 instance one can also scp the tar.xz file there

To extract the tar.xz files use tar -xf <filename> it will create a folder for each package.

Prerequisites

build-essentials

sudo apt-get install build-essentials

bison

flex

GLib >= 2.40.0

GLib package contains low-level libraries useful for providing data structure handling for C, portability wrappers and interfaces for such runtime functionality as an event loop, threads, dynamic loading and an object system.

sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-dev

gstreamer

Installing gstreamer 1.8.1 . Gstreamer create a media stream with elements and properties as will be shown on  later sections of this tutorial .

cd gstreamer-1.8.1
./configure
make
sudo make install

after installation  export the path

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib

then verify the installation of the gstreamer by

gst-inspect-1.0

provides information on installed gstreamer modules ie print out a long list ( about 123 in my case ) plugin that are installed such as coreelements:

capsfilter: CapsFilter ximagesink: ximagesink: Video sink videorate: videorate: Video rate adjuster typefindfunctions: image/x-quicktime: qif, qtif, qti typefindfunctions: video/quicktime: mov, mp4 typefindfunctions: application/x-3gp: 3gp typefindfunctions: audio/x-m4a: m4a typefindfunctions: video/x-nuv: nuv typefindfunctions: video/x-h265: h265, x265, 265 typefindfunctions: video/x-h264: h264, x264, 264 typefindfunctions: video/x-h263: h263, 263 typefindfunctions: video/mpeg4: m4v typefindfunctions: video/mpeg-elementary: mpv, mpeg, mpg typefindfunctions: application/ogg: ogg, oga, ogv, ogm, ogx, spx, anx, axa, axv typefindfunctions: video/mpegts: ts, mts typefindfunctions: video/mpeg-sys: mpe, mpeg, mpg typefindfunctions: audio/x-gsm: gsm

gst plugins

Now build the plugins

cd gst-plugins-base-1.8.1
./configure
make
sudo make install

 

gst plugins good

cd gst-plugins-good-1.8.1.tar
./configure
 make
sudo make install

RTSP Server

Now make and install the rtsp server

cd gst-rtsp-server-1.8.1
./configure

last few lines from console traces

Configuration
Version : 1.8.1
Source code location : .
Prefix : /usr/local
Compiler : gcc -std=gnu99
CGroups example : no

make

It will compile the examples .

sudo make install

 

stream video test src

~/mediaServer/gst-rtsp-server-1.8.1/examples]$./test-launch --gst-debug=0 "( videotestsrc ! video/x-raw,format=(yuv),width=352,height=288,framerate=15/1 ! x264enc ! rtph264pay name=pay0 pt=96 )"
stream ready at rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/test

Ref:

Manual for developers : https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/doc/gstreamer/head/gst-rtsp-server/html/index.html

---

Simplest pipeline

gst-launch-1.0 fakesrc ! fakesink

➜ ~ gst-launch-1.0 fakesrc ! fakesink Setting pipeline to PAUSED ... Pipeline is PREROLLING ... Pipeline is PREROLLED ... Setting pipeline to PLAYING ... New clock: GstSystemClock

To stop press ctrl +c ^

Chandling interrupt. Interrupt: Stopping pipeline ... Execution ended after 0:00:48.004547887 Setting pipeline to PAUSED ... Setting pipeline to READY ... Setting pipeline to NULL ... Freeing pipeline ... [/sourcecode ] or to display to a audiovideosink gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! autovideosink

 To capture webcam

gst-launch v4l2src ! xvimagesink