Can anyone guide me or suggest how to make a client for live media server streaming over HTTP

Question

Can anyone guide me or suggest how to make a client using sockets for live media server streaming over HTTP, as I tried a lot but was not successful.

#define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN

#include <windows.h>
#include <winsock2.h>
#include <ws2tcpip.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>


// Need to link with Ws2_32.lib, Mswsock.lib, and Advapi32.lib
#pragma comment (lib, "Ws2_32.lib")
#pragma comment (lib, "Mswsock.lib")
#pragma comment (lib, "AdvApi32.lib")

//************All Declarations**********//
#define DEFAULT_BUFLEN 512000
#define DEFAULT_PORT "8000"

int __cdecl main(int argc, char **argv) 
{
    WSADATA wsaData;
    SOCKET ConnectSocket = INVALID_SOCKET;
    struct addrinfo *result = NULL,
        *ptr = NULL,
        hints;
    char *sendbuf = "this is a test";
    char recvbuf[DEFAULT_BUFLEN];
    int iResult;
    int recvbuflen = DEFAULT_BUFLEN;

    // Validate the parameters
    if (argc != 2) {
        printf("usage: %s server-name\n", argv[0]);
        getch();
        return 1;
    }

    // Initialize Winsock
    iResult = WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(2,2), &wsaData);
    if (iResult != 0) {
        printf("WSAStartup failed with error: %d\n", iResult);
        getch();
        return 1;
    }

    ZeroMemory( &hints, sizeof(hints) );
    hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC;
    hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;
    hints.ai_protocol = IPPROTO_TCP;

    // Resolve the server address and port
    iResult = getaddrinfo(argv[1], DEFAULT_PORT, &hints, &result);
    if ( iResult != 0 ) {
        printf("getaddrinfo failed with error: %d\n", iResult);
        WSACleanup();
        getch();
        return 1;
    }

    // Attempt to connect to an address until one succeeds
    for(ptr=result; ptr != NULL ;ptr=ptr->ai_next) {

        // Create a SOCKET for connecting to server
        ConnectSocket = socket(ptr->ai_family, ptr->ai_socktype, 
            ptr->ai_protocol);
        if (ConnectSocket == INVALID_SOCKET) {
            printf("socket failed with error: %ld\n", WSAGetLastError());
            WSACleanup();
            getch();
            return 1;
        }

        // Connect to server.
        iResult = connect( ConnectSocket, ptr->ai_addr, (int)ptr->ai_addrlen);
        if (iResult == SOCKET_ERROR) {
            closesocket(ConnectSocket);
            ConnectSocket = INVALID_SOCKET;
            continue;
        }
        break;
    }

    freeaddrinfo(result);

    if (ConnectSocket == INVALID_SOCKET) {
        printf("Unable to connect to server!\n");
        WSACleanup();
        getch();
        return 1;
    }

    // Send an initial buffer
    /*iResult = send( ConnectSocket, sendbuf, (int)strlen(sendbuf), 0 );
    if (iResult == SOCKET_ERROR) {
        printf("send failed with error: %d\n", WSAGetLastError());
        closesocket(ConnectSocket);
        WSACleanup();
        getch();
        return 1;
    }*/

    printf("Bytes Sent: %ld\n", iResult);

    // shutdown the connection since no more data will be sent
    iResult = shutdown(ConnectSocket, SD_SEND);
    if (iResult == SOCKET_ERROR) {
        printf("shutdown failed with error: %d\n", WSAGetLastError());
        closesocket(ConnectSocket);
        WSACleanup();
        getch();
        return 1;
    }

    // Receive until the peer closes the connection
    do {

        iResult = recv(ConnectSocket, recvbuf, DEFAULT_BUFLEN, 0);
        if ( iResult > 0 )
            printf("Bytes received: %d\n", iResult);
        else if ( iResult == 0 )
            printf("Connection closed\n");
        else
            printf("recv failed with error: %d\n", WSAGetLastError());

    } while( iResult > 0 );


    // cleanup
    getch();
    closesocket(ConnectSocket);
    WSACleanup();


    return 0;
}

I tried the above code, it works well with a server I create. The problem is I am streaming an transport stream file from live media server through http,but when I try to receive the data from my code of client I am able to connect at specific url but could not receive anything.

Answer 1

The easiest solution for you would be to use the openRTSP client from liveMedia as a starting point. It pretty much comes down to implementing the entire RTSP stack as well interleaving the media over the TCP connection. By passing in the "-T " as a command line parameter, you can configure openRTSP to stream over RTSP over TCP. You can then write your own application based on openRTSP in which you can then handle incoming media samples as desired.

I would advise you against implementing this functionality yourself from a socket-level. You would need to implement RTSP, RTP, RTCP, RTSP over HTTP tunneling, SDP, the various RTP payload formats e.g. for H.264. You socket-related code segment above doesn't begin to touch the surface.

If you want to see what the protocol exchange looks like, sniff the traffic from openRTSP to an RTSP server using wireshark. You can also find an RTSP server at liveMedia.