I want to configure a local webcam to stream (and possibly record) a live feed open to the internet, and acess it half-world away while traveling, using FOSS only acessing it via Android VLC

This guide was quite comprehensive; however the packages for nginx-rtmp are quite abandoned in arch linux. So I thought maybe WebRTC could be an alternative - the communication itself should be encrypted, which WebRTC seems to do; however, I still can’t figure out if VLC will handle this well

Also, it seems that I might need to self-host a VPN to achieve this? What are my options? Has anyone else done this ?

  • @TCB13English
    4•1 year ago

    MediaMTX

    Going to Mars seems easier and less resource intensive than that thing.

    MediaMTX can sort a lot of this for you. Then its just a matter of accessing your feed on vlc.

    Here is how you really “just access your feed from VLC” in three easy easy steps:

    Step 1. Configure nginx repositories (http://nginx.org/en/linux_packages.html)

    Step 2. Install nginx / nginx-rtmp

    Step 3. Edit nginx config to add:

    rtmp {
        server {
                listen 1935;
                chunk_size 4096;
                allow publish 127.0.0.1;
                deny publish all;

                application live {
                        live on;
                        exec_pull /usr/bin/ffmpeg -f v4l2 -input_format h264 -video_size 1920x1080 -i /dev/video4 -copyinkf -codec copy -f flv rtmp://127.0.0.1/live/stream;
                        record off;
                }
        }
}

    A few notes:

    • /dev/video4 is your camera;
    • Some systems (debian) may require this sudo usermod -a -G video www-data to make sure it will work. Because ffmpeg will be launched with the www-data user that doesn’t have access to the video cameras.
    • It will even turn off the camera if nobody is connected;
    • Use ffmpeg -f v4l2 -list_formats all -i /dev/video0 to find what formats your camera supports;
    • Watch the stream from VLC with the url: rtmp://device-ip/live/stream

    Enjoy.