Audio & video developmentHistorical technical note

A Simple Streaming Wrapper for FFmpeg-iOS

Builds on the preceding FFmpeg articles to set up a local nginx streaming test environment. Server configuration, a client-side streaming wrapper, and playback in VLC connect the process of sending encoded data with checking the resulting stream.

Author:

Originally credited to Bison. Content is retained as published.

English translation of the Chinese original, translated on . The article body uses automated translation; app descriptions, historical reading notes and video subtitles receive separate editorial checks. Original publication dates, attribution, code and version notes are retained.

This historical illustration is currently unavailable. The original image URL is retained for reference. Building FFmpeg-iOS on a Mac H.264 Decoding with FFmpeg The previous two articles introduced some FFmpeg concepts and practical use. Next, let us learn to publish a stream. Before streaming, we need a local nginx streaming server for testing.

The main reference article An iOS Live-Streaming App: Publishing the Stream I will not elaborate here; interested readers can follow along.

Problems I encountered:

Could not symlink share/man/man8/nginx.8
/usr/local/share/man/man8 is not writable.

The main cause is missing filesystem permissions on the folder. Navigate to /usr/local/share/man/man8, open Get Info, and set system permissions to read and write.

The contents of nginx.conf for my configured nginx streaming server are:


#user  nobody;
worker_processes  1;

#error_log  logs/error.log;
#error_log  logs/error.log  notice;
#error_log  logs/error.log  info;

#pid        logs/nginx.pid;


events {
    worker_connections  1024;
}


http {
    include       mime.types;
    default_type  application/octet-stream;

    #log_format  main  '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
    #                  '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
    #                  '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';

    #access_log  logs/access.log  main;

    sendfile        on;
    #tcp_nopush     on;

    #keepalive_timeout  0;
    keepalive_timeout  65;

    #gzip  on;

    server {
        listen       8080;
        server_name  localhost;

        #charset koi8-r;

        #access_log  logs/host.access.log  main;

        location / {
            root   html;
            index  index.html index.htm;
        }

        #error_page  404              /404.html;

        # redirect server error pages to the static page /50x.html
        #
        error_page   500 502 503 504  /50x.html;
        location = /50x.html {
            root   html;
        }

        # proxy the PHP scripts to Apache listening on 127.0.0.1:80
        #
        #location ~ \.php$ {
        #    proxy_pass   http://127.0.0.1;
        #}

        # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000
        #
        #location ~ \.php$ {
        #    root           html;
        #    fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
        #    fastcgi_index  index.php;
        #    fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  /scripts$fastcgi_script_name;
        #    include        fastcgi_params;
        #}

        # deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root
        # concurs with nginx's one
        #
        #location ~ /\.ht {
        #    deny  all;
        #}
    }


    # another virtual host using mix of IP-, name-, and port-based configuration
    #
    #server {
    #    listen       8000;
    #    listen       somename:8080;
    #    server_name  somename  alias  another.alias;

    #    location / {
    #        root   html;
    #        index  index.html index.htm;
    #    }
    #}


    # HTTPS server
    #
    #server {
    #    listen       443 ssl;
    #    server_name  localhost;

    #    ssl_certificate      cert.pem;
    #    ssl_certificate_key  cert.key;

    #    ssl_session_cache    shared:SSL:1m;
    #    ssl_session_timeout  5m;

    #    ssl_ciphers  HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5;
    #    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers  on;

    #    location / {
    #        root   html;
    #        index  index.html index.htm;
    #    }
    #}
    include servers/*;

}

rtmp {
    server {
        listen 1991;
        application liveApp {
            live on;
            record off;
        }
    }
}

You can copy the whole configuration. The resulting streaming-server address is:

rtmp://localhost:1991/liveApp/room

If you already completed Building FFmpeg-iOS on a Mac step, there is no need to download FFmpeg again. Proceed to the code below.

- (void)pushFlow:(NSString *)input_str output_str:(NSString *)output_rtmpStr{
    char input_str_full[500]={0};
    char output_str_full[500]={0};
    
//    NSString *input_str= [NSString stringWithFormat:@"resource.bundle/%@",self.input.text];
    NSString *input_nsstr=[[[NSBundle mainBundle]resourcePath] stringByAppendingPathComponent:input_str];
    
    sprintf(input_str_full,"%s",[input_nsstr UTF8String]);
    sprintf(output_str_full,"%s",[output_rtmpStr UTF8String]);
    
    printf("Input Path:%s\n",input_str_full);
    printf("Output Path:%s\n",output_str_full);
    
    AVOutputFormat *ofmt = NULL;
    //Input AVFormatContext and Output AVFormatContext
    AVFormatContext *ifmt_ctx = NULL, *ofmt_ctx = NULL;
    AVPacket pkt;
    char in_filename[500]={0};
    char out_filename[500]={0};
    int ret, i;
    int videoindex=-1;
    int frame_index=0;
    int64_t start_time=0;
    //in_filename  = "cuc_ieschool.mov";
    //in_filename  = "cuc_ieschool.h264";
    //in_filename  = "cuc_ieschool.flv";//Input file URL
    //out_filename = "rtmp://localhost/publishlive/livestream";//Output URL[RTMP]
    //out_filename = "rtp://233.233.233.233:6666";//Output URL[UDP]
    
    strcpy(in_filename,input_str_full);
    strcpy(out_filename,output_str_full);
    
    av_register_all();
    //Network
    avformat_network_init();
    //Input
    if ((ret = avformat_open_input(&ifmt_ctx, in_filename, 0, 0)) < 0) {
        printf( "Could not open input file.");
        goto end;
    }
    if ((ret = avformat_find_stream_info(ifmt_ctx, 0)) < 0) {
        printf( "Failed to retrieve input stream information");
        goto end;
    }
    
    for(i=0; i<ifmt_ctx->nb_streams; i++)
        if(ifmt_ctx->streams[i]->codec->codec_type==AVMEDIA_TYPE_VIDEO){
            videoindex=i;
            break;
        }
    
    av_dump_format(ifmt_ctx, 0, in_filename, 0);
    
    //Output
    
    avformat_alloc_output_context2(&ofmt_ctx, NULL, "flv", out_filename); //RTMP
    //avformat_alloc_output_context2(&ofmt_ctx, NULL, "mpegts", out_filename);//UDP
    
    if (!ofmt_ctx) {
        printf( "Could not create output context\n");
        ret = AVERROR_UNKNOWN;
        goto end;
    }
    ofmt = ofmt_ctx->oformat;
    for (i = 0; i < ifmt_ctx->nb_streams; i++) {
        
        AVStream *in_stream = ifmt_ctx->streams[i];
        AVStream *out_stream = avformat_new_stream(ofmt_ctx, in_stream->codec->codec);
        if (!out_stream) {
            printf( "Failed allocating output stream\n");
            ret = AVERROR_UNKNOWN;
            goto end;
        }
        
        ret = avcodec_copy_context(out_stream->codec, in_stream->codec);
        if (ret < 0) {
            printf( "Failed to copy context from input to output stream codec context\n");
            goto end;
        }
        out_stream->codec->codec_tag = 0;
        if (ofmt_ctx->oformat->flags & AVFMT_GLOBALHEADER)
            out_stream->codec->flags |= CODEC_FLAG_GLOBAL_HEADER;
    }
    //Dump Format------------------
    av_dump_format(ofmt_ctx, 0, out_filename, 1);
    //Open output URL
    if (!(ofmt->flags & AVFMT_NOFILE)) {
        ret = avio_open(&ofmt_ctx->pb, out_filename, AVIO_FLAG_WRITE);
        if (ret < 0) {
            printf( "Could not open output URL '%s'", out_filename);
            goto end;
        }
    }
    
    ret = avformat_write_header(ofmt_ctx, NULL);
    if (ret < 0) {
        printf( "Error occurred when opening output URL\n");
        goto end;
    }
    
    start_time=av_gettime();
    while (1) {
        AVStream *in_stream, *out_stream;
        //Get an AVPacket
        ret = av_read_frame(ifmt_ctx, &pkt);
        if (ret < 0)
            break;
        //FIX:No PTS (Example: Raw H.264)
        //Simple Write PTS
        if(pkt.pts==AV_NOPTS_VALUE){
            //Write PTS
            AVRational time_base1=ifmt_ctx->streams[videoindex]->time_base;
            //Duration between 2 frames (us)
            int64_t calc_duration=(double)AV_TIME_BASE/av_q2d(ifmt_ctx->streams[videoindex]->r_frame_rate);
            //Parameters
            pkt.pts=(double)(frame_index*calc_duration)/(double)(av_q2d(time_base1)*AV_TIME_BASE);
            pkt.dts=pkt.pts;
            pkt.duration=(double)calc_duration/(double)(av_q2d(time_base1)*AV_TIME_BASE);
        }
        //Important:Delay
        if(pkt.stream_index==videoindex){
            AVRational time_base=ifmt_ctx->streams[videoindex]->time_base;
            AVRational time_base_q={1,AV_TIME_BASE};
            int64_t pts_time = av_rescale_q(pkt.dts, time_base, time_base_q);
            int64_t now_time = av_gettime() - start_time;
            if (pts_time > now_time)
                av_usleep(pts_time - now_time);
            
        }
        
        in_stream  = ifmt_ctx->streams[pkt.stream_index];
        out_stream = ofmt_ctx->streams[pkt.stream_index];
        /* copy packet */
        //Convert PTS/DTS
        pkt.pts = av_rescale_q_rnd(pkt.pts, in_stream->time_base, out_stream->time_base, (AV_ROUND_NEAR_INF|AV_ROUND_PASS_MINMAX));
        pkt.dts = av_rescale_q_rnd(pkt.dts, in_stream->time_base, out_stream->time_base, (AV_ROUND_NEAR_INF|AV_ROUND_PASS_MINMAX));
        pkt.duration = av_rescale_q(pkt.duration, in_stream->time_base, out_stream->time_base);
        pkt.pos = -1;
        //Print to Screen
        if(pkt.stream_index==videoindex){
            printf("Send %8d video frames to output URL\n",frame_index);
            frame_index++;
        }
        //ret = av_write_frame(ofmt_ctx, &pkt);
        ret = av_interleaved_write_frame(ofmt_ctx, &pkt);
        
        if (ret < 0) {
            printf( "Error muxing packet\n");
            break;
        }
        
        av_packet_unref(&pkt);
        
    }
    //写文件尾(Write file trailer)
    av_write_trailer(ofmt_ctx);
end:
    avformat_close_input(&ifmt_ctx);
    /* close output */
    if (ofmt_ctx && !(ofmt->flags & AVFMT_NOFILE))
        avio_close(ofmt_ctx->pb);
    avformat_free_context(ofmt_ctx);
    if (ret < 0 && ret != AVERROR_EOF) {
        printf( "Error occurred.\n");
        return;
    }
    return;
}

While the app runs, open the streaming address in VLC to view the stream.

This historical illustration is currently unavailable. The original image URL is retained for reference. Download LBffmpegDemo


Recommended reading: A beginner developer's review of 2015