How does it work?

avserver receives prerecorded files or FFM streams from some avconv instance as input, then streams them over RTP/RTSP/HTTP. An avserver instance will listen on some port as specified in the configuration file. You can launch one or more instances of avconv and send one or more FFM streams to the port where avserver is expecting to receive them. Alternately, you can make avserver launch such avconv instances at startup. Input streams are called feeds, and each one is specified by a <Feed> section in the configuration file. For each feed you can have different output streams in various formats, each one specified by a <Stream> section in the configuration file.

Status stream

avserver 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:
<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>
then the server will post a page with the status information when the special stream status.html is requested.

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.

What do I need?

I use Linux on a 900 MHz Duron with a cheapo Bt848 based TV capture card. I'm using stock Linux 2.4.17 with the stock drivers. [Actually that isn't true, I needed some special drivers for my motherboard-based sound card.] I understand that FreeBSD systems work just fine as well.

How do I make it work?

First, build the kit. It *really* helps to have installed LAME first. Then when you run the avserver ./configure, make sure that you have the "--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 avconv:
./avserver -f doc/avserver.conf &
./avconv -i INPUTFILE http://localhost:8090/feed1.ffm
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
http://<linuxbox>:8090/test.asf
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.

What happens next?

You should edit the avserver.conf file to suit your needs (in terms of frame rates etc). Then install avserver and avconv, write a script to start them up, and off you go.

Troubleshooting

I don't hear any audio, but video is fine. Maybe you didn't install LAME, or got your ./configure statement wrong. Check the avconv 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 avconv. The audio and video lose sync after a while. Yes, they do. After a long while, the video update rate goes way down in WMP. Yes, it does. Who knows why? 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].

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 avserver parameters must match the original parameters used to record the file. If they do not, then avserver 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 avserver.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.]

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, avserver (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 avserver.conf that will add the 15 second prebuffering on all requests that do not otherwise specify a time. In addition, avserver 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 avserver.conf to limit the amount of bandwidth consumed by live streams.

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.

Does the "?date=" stuff work.

Yes (subject to the limitation outlined above). Also note that whenever you start avserver, it deletes the ffm file (if any parameters have changed), thus wiping out what you had recorded before. The format of the "?date=xxxxxx" is fairly flexible. You should use one of the following formats (the 'T' is literal):
* YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS (localtime)
* YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ (UTC)
You can omit the YYYY-MM-DD, and then it refers to the current day. However note that ?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: http://localhost:8080/test.asf?date=2002-07-26T23:05:00.

Stream specifiers

Some options are applied per-stream, e.g. bitrate or codec. Stream specifiers are used to precisely specify which stream(s) does a given option belong to. A stream specifier is a string generally appended to the option name and separated from it by a colon. E.g. "-codec:a:1 ac3" option contains "a:1" stream specifer, which matches the second audio stream. Therefore it would select the ac3 codec for the second audio stream. A stream specifier can match several stream, the option is then applied to all of them. E.g. the stream specifier in "-b:a 128k" matches all audio streams. An empty stream specifier matches all streams, for example "-codec copy" or "-codec: copy" would copy all the streams without reencoding. Possible forms of stream specifiers are:

stream_index

Matches the stream with this index. E.g. "-threads:1 4" would set the thread count for the second stream to 4.

stream_type[:stream_index]

stream_type is one of: 'v' for video, 'a' for audio, 's' for subtitle, 'd' for data and 't' for attachments. If stream_index is given, then matches stream number stream_index of this type. Otherwise matches all streams of this type.

p:program_id[:stream_index]

If stream_index is given, then matches stream number stream_index in program with id program_id. Otherwise matches all streams in this program.

Generic options

These options are shared amongst the av* tools.

-L

Show license.

-h, -?, -help, --help [arg]

Show help. An optional parameter may be specified to print help about a specific item.

 

Possible values of arg are:

-version

Show version.

-formats

Show available formats.

 

The fields preceding the format names have the following meanings:

-codecs

Show all codecs known to libavcodec.

 

Note that the term 'codec' is used throughout this documentation as a shortcut for what is more correctly called a media bitstream format.

-decoders

Show available decoders.

-encoders

Show all available encoders.

-bsfs

Show available bitstream filters.

-protocols

Show available protocols.

-filters

Show available libavfilter filters.

-pix_fmts

Show available pixel formats.

-sample_fmts

Show available sample formats.

-loglevel loglevel | -v loglevel

Set the logging level used by the library. loglevel is a number or a string containing one of the following values:

AVOptions

These options are provided directly by the libavformat, libavdevice and libavcodec libraries. To see the list of available AVOptions, use the -help option. They are separated into two categories:

generic

These options can be set for any container, codec or device. Generic options are listed under AVFormatContext options for containers/devices and under AVCodecContext options for codecs.

private

These options are specific to the given container, device or codec. Private options are listed under their corresponding containers/devices/codecs.

For example to write an ID3v2.3 header instead of a default ID3v2.4 to an MP3 file, use the id3v2_version private option of the MP3 muxer:
avconv -i input.flac -id3v2_version 3 out.mp3
All codec AVOptions are obviously per-stream, so the chapter on stream specifiers applies to them Note -nooption syntax cannot be used for boolean AVOptions, use -option 0/-option 1. Note2 old undocumented way of specifying per-stream AVOptions by prepending v/a/s to the options name is now obsolete and will be removed soon.

Codec AVOptions

-b[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)

set bitrate (in bits/s)

-bt[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

Set video bitrate tolerance (in bits/s). In 1-pass mode, bitrate tolerance specifies how far ratecontrol is willing to deviate from the target average bitrate value. This is not related to minimum/maximum bitrate. Lowering tolerance too much has an adverse effect on quality.

-flags[:stream_specifier] flags (input/output,audio,video)

Possible values:

-sub_id[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-me_method[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

set motion estimation method

 

Possible values:

-extradata_size[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-time_base[:stream_specifier] rational number ()

-g[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

set the group of picture (GOP) size

-ar[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,audio)

set audio sampling rate (in Hz)

-ac[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,audio)

set number of audio channels

-cutoff[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio)

set cutoff bandwidth

-frame_size[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio)

-frame_number[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-delay[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-qcomp[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

video quantizer scale compression (VBR). Constant of ratecontrol equation. Recommended range for default rc_eq: 0.0-1.0

-qblur[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

video quantizer scale blur (VBR)

-qmin[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

minimum video quantizer scale (VBR)

-qmax[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

maximum video quantizer scale (VBR)

-qdiff[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

maximum difference between the quantizer scales (VBR)

-bf[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

use 'frames' B frames

-b_qfactor[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

QP factor between P- and B-frames

-rc_strategy[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

ratecontrol method

-b_strategy[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

strategy to choose between I/P/B-frames

-ps[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

RTP payload size in bytes

-mv_bits[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-header_bits[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-i_tex_bits[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-p_tex_bits[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-i_count[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-p_count[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-skip_count[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-misc_bits[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-frame_bits[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-codec_tag[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-bug[:stream_specifier] flags (input,video)

work around not autodetected encoder bugs

 

Possible values:

-lelim[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

single coefficient elimination threshold for luminance (negative values also consider DC coefficient)

-celim[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

single coefficient elimination threshold for chrominance (negative values also consider DC coefficient)

-strict[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,audio,video)

how strictly to follow the standards

 

Possible values:

-b_qoffset[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

QP offset between P- and B-frames

-err_detect[:stream_specifier] flags (input,audio,video)

set error detection flags

 

Possible values:

-has_b_frames[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-block_align[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-mpeg_quant[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

use MPEG quantizers instead of H.263

-qsquish[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

how to keep quantizer between qmin and qmax (0 = clip, 1 = use differentiable function)

-rc_qmod_amp[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

experimental quantizer modulation

-rc_qmod_freq[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

experimental quantizer modulation

-rc_override_count[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-rc_eq[:stream_specifier] string (output,video)

Set rate control equation. When computing the expression, besides the standard functions defined in the section 'Expression Evaluation', the following functions are available: bits2qp(bits), qp2bits(qp). Also the following constants are available: iTex pTex tex mv fCode iCount mcVar var isI isP isB avgQP qComp avgIITex avgPITex avgPPTex avgBPTex avgTex.

-maxrate[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)

Set maximum bitrate tolerance (in bits/s). Requires bufsize to be set.

-minrate[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)

Set minimum bitrate tolerance (in bits/s). Most useful in setting up a CBR encode. It is of little use otherwise.

-bufsize[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)

set ratecontrol buffer size (in bits)

-rc_buf_aggressivity[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

currently useless

-i_qfactor[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

QP factor between P- and I-frames

-i_qoffset[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

QP offset between P- and I-frames

-rc_init_cplx[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

initial complexity for 1-pass encoding

-dct[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

DCT algorithm

 

Possible values:

-lumi_mask[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

compresses bright areas stronger than medium ones

-tcplx_mask[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

temporal complexity masking

-scplx_mask[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

spatial complexity masking

-p_mask[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

inter masking

-dark_mask[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

compresses dark areas stronger than medium ones

-idct[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,video)

select IDCT implementation

 

Possible values:

-slice_count[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-ec[:stream_specifier] flags (input,video)

set error concealment strategy

 

Possible values:

-bits_per_coded_sample[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-pred[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

prediction method

 

Possible values:

-aspect[:stream_specifier] rational number (output,video)

sample aspect ratio

-debug[:stream_specifier] flags (input/output,audio,video,subtitles)

print specific debug info

 

Possible values:

-vismv[:stream_specifier] integer (input,video)

visualize motion vectors (MVs)

 

Possible values:

-cmp[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

full-pel ME compare function

 

Possible values:

-subcmp[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

sub-pel ME compare function

 

Possible values:

-mbcmp[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

macroblock compare function

 

Possible values:

-ildctcmp[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

interlaced DCT compare function

 

Possible values:

-dia_size[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

diamond type & size for motion estimation

-last_pred[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

amount of motion predictors from the previous frame

-preme[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

pre motion estimation

-precmp[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

pre motion estimation compare function

 

Possible values:

-pre_dia_size[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

diamond type & size for motion estimation pre-pass

-subq[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

sub-pel motion estimation quality

-dtg_active_format[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-me_range[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

limit motion vectors range (1023 for DivX player)

-ibias[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

intra quant bias

-pbias[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

inter quant bias

-color_table_id[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-global_quality[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)

-coder[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

Possible values:

-context[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

context model

-slice_flags[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-xvmc_acceleration[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-mbd[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

macroblock decision algorithm (high quality mode)

 

Possible values:

-stream_codec_tag[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-sc_threshold[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

scene change threshold

-lmin[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

minimum Lagrange factor (VBR)

-lmax[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

maximum Lagrange factor (VBR)

-nr[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

noise reduction

-rc_init_occupancy[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

number of bits which should be loaded into the rc buffer before decoding starts

-inter_threshold[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

-flags2[:stream_specifier] flags (input/output,audio,video)

Possible values:

-error[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

-qns[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

deprecated, use mpegvideo private options instead

-threads[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,video)

Possible values:

-me_threshold[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

motion estimation threshold

-mb_threshold[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

macroblock threshold

-dc[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

intra_dc_precision

-nssew[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

nsse weight

-skip_top[:stream_specifier] integer (input,video)

number of macroblock rows at the top which are skipped

-skip_bottom[:stream_specifier] integer (input,video)

number of macroblock rows at the bottom which are skipped

-profile[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)

Possible values:

-level[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)

Possible values:

-skip_threshold[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

frame skip threshold

-skip_factor[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

frame skip factor

-skip_exp[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

frame skip exponent

-skipcmp[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

frame skip compare function

 

Possible values:

-border_mask[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

increase the quantizer for macroblocks close to borders

-mblmin[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

minimum macroblock Lagrange factor (VBR)

-mblmax[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

maximum macroblock Lagrange factor (VBR)

-mepc[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

motion estimation bitrate penalty compensation (1.0 = 256)

-skip_loop_filter[:stream_specifier] integer (input,video)

Possible values:

-skip_idct[:stream_specifier] integer (input,video)

Possible values:

-skip_frame[:stream_specifier] integer (input,video)

Possible values:

-bidir_refine[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

refine the two motion vectors used in bidirectional macroblocks

-brd_scale[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

downscale frames for dynamic B-frame decision

-keyint_min[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

minimum interval between IDR-frames (x264)

-refs[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

reference frames to consider for motion compensation

-chromaoffset[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

chroma QP offset from luma

-trellis[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)

rate-distortion optimal quantization

-sc_factor[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

multiplied by qscale for each frame and added to scene_change_score

-mv0_threshold[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

-b_sensitivity[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

adjust sensitivity of b_frame_strategy 1

-compression_level[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)

-min_prediction_order[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio)

-max_prediction_order[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio)

-timecode_frame_start[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

GOP timecode frame start number, in non-drop-frame format

-request_channels[:stream_specifier] integer (input,audio)

set desired number of audio channels

-bits_per_raw_sample[:stream_specifier] integer ()

-channel_layout[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,audio)

Possible values:

-request_channel_layout[:stream_specifier] integer (input,audio)

Possible values:

-rc_max_vbv_use[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

-rc_min_vbv_use[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)

-ticks_per_frame[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,audio,video)

-color_primaries[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,video)

-color_trc[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,video)

-colorspace[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,video)

-color_range[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,video)

-chroma_sample_location[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,video)

-log_level_offset[:stream_specifier] integer ()

set the log level offset

-slices[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)

number of slices, used in parallelized encoding

-thread_type[:stream_specifier] flags (input/output,video)

select multithreading type

 

Possible values:

-audio_service_type[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio)

audio service type

 

Possible values:

-request_sample_fmt[:stream_specifier] integer (input,audio)

Possible values:

Format AVOptions

-probesize integer (input)

set probing size

-packetsize integer (output)

set packet size

-fflags flags (input/output)

Possible values:

-analyzeduration integer (input)

how many microseconds are analyzed to estimate duration

-cryptokey hexadecimal string (input)

decryption key

-indexmem integer (input)

max memory used for timestamp index (per stream)

-rtbufsize integer (input)

max memory used for buffering real-time frames

-fdebug flags (input/output)

print specific debug info

 

Possible values:

-max_delay integer (input/output)

maximum muxing or demuxing delay in microseconds

-fpsprobesize integer (input)

number of frames used to probe fps

-f_err_detect flags (input)

set error detection flags (deprecated; use err_detect, save via avconv)

 

Possible values:

-err_detect flags (input)

set error detection flags

 

Possible values:

Main options

-f configfile

Use configfile instead of /etc/avserver.conf.

-n

Enable no-launch mode. This option disables all the Launch directives within the various <Stream> sections. Since avserver will not launch any avconv instances, you will have to launch them manually.

-d

Enable debug mode. This option increases log verbosity, directs log messages to stdout.