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iosiphoneobjective-cffmpegvideo-streaming

Receiving "End of file" while streaming RTSP on iOS

I'm using ffmpeg library to stream RTSP from an IP camera in the local network. The streaming is working fine with the code.

The only problem is that the stream seems to stop after some time. On further debugging I found out that I'm receiving an "End of file" and thats why the loop is breaking.

while(!playerShouldStop)// && (av_read_frame(pFormatCtx, &pkt1)>=0))
    {
            int ret = av_read_frame(pFormatCtx, &pkt1);
            NSLog(@"av read frame returned = %s",av_err2str(ret));
            if(ret >= 0)
            {
                // process video
            }
            else 
               break;
    }

Logs says

av read frame returned = End of file

I downloaded Wireshark to check what RTSP packets I'm getting but no help there.

enter image description here

First of all is it normal to receive EOF in a live stream (which is not supposed to end).

Secondly, calling av_read_frame() again and again is not helping either, but when I restart the entire method ( right from avformat_open_input ) then it works. Just that the streaming isn't smooth and comes to a pause every now and then.

Solution

  • Ok...it seems to be working without EOF when i open the stream with AVDictionary options.

    AVDictionary *opts = 0;
int ret = av_dict_set(&opts, "rtsp_transport", "tcp", 0);

// Open video file and read header information into pFormatCtx
        if (avformat_open_input(&pFormatCtx, filename, NULL, &opts) != 0)
        {
            NSLog(@"Error opening video file.");
            return;
        }

        av_dict_free(&opts);

    Still, any proper explanation to this would be helpful.