Rtmp Web Player
- tertomicirrstead
- Aug 17, 2023
- 6 min read
Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) was initially aproprietary protocol developed by Macromedia for streaming audio,video and data over the Internet, between a Flash player and aserver. Macromedia is now owned by Adobe, which has released anincomplete version of the specification of the protocol for publicuse.
Rtmp Web Player
The online video world is constantly changing. Flash, which was the dominant online video player for decades, is not obsolete. The HTML5 video player has replaced flash as the dominant online video player, and new video players continue to emerge on the market.
Access to HTML5 video players has improved online video in many aspects, including compatibility, general speed, and security. If you want to stream online videos, you need to understand how RTMP players and HTML5 have worked to replace the Flash player.
The rise of HTML5 technology can be credited to the browsers, mobile device developers, and streaming CDNs that have turned a cold shoulder to Flash Player in favor of this new and improved video player.
Almost any video you watch today on your laptop, computer, smartphone, or smart TV uses an HTML5 video player. At first, there were concerns and challenges in terms of compatibility, but today, this technology is a standard in the world of video streaming. Flash player is dead, it is now about HTML5.
Luckily, many strategies were set in place to make the transition easier. Among these options, one ideal method was using an embedded video player software for deployment to websites under your control. Many of these video players supported the RTMP (Real-time messaging protocol) technology to work with flash-enabled players, HTML5 video, or both. It is easy to embed RTMP stream into an HTML5 video player. RTMP is often used in browsers to transition to HTML5 video player
As we mentioned RTMP was used for delivery with the Flash video player. In fact, the protocol was created by Macromedia (which is now Adobe) to be used specifically with the Flash video player. It transported the video from the CDN servers to the user-facing video player.
HLS can also be used to ingest, but an HTML5 RTMP player is still the most compatible option among affordable and reliable live stream encoders. Another advantage of using RTMP ingest as opposed to HLS is that it is capable of streaming with much lower latency. RTMP has survived the transition from Flash Player to HTML 5 in the video world.
Video streaming technology is constantly evolving, so it is difficult to determine how long it will be until something new comes around and makes each of these protocols obsolete. However, for now, the HLS delivery/RTMP ingest combination is what works the best with the HTML5 video player. RTMP viewers remain vital to the online video experience.
The HTML5 video player is customizable which makes on-brand streaming totally manageable. This creates a more professional look and an enhanced viewer experience, which is why so many professional broadcasters are happy with this video player. HTML 5 has taken over for the Flash player.
It is really easy to integrate HTML5 video players with your website or platform. With an HTML5 video player, you can easily integrate videos onto all of your websites and platforms that you work with.
With an HTML5 video player, you can easily expand on the video player. You can quickly add in additional applications and links, such as social media links or CTA buttons, helping to make your video content more engaging and action-driven for your business.
Since the most popular smartphone creators intentionally made it impossible to stream with Flash Player, the highly compatible HTML5 video player is definitely the winner in terms of accessibility and compatibility.
Maximum compatibility means maximum reach. This is music to the ears of broadcasters who want to reach large audiences for the sake of maximizing revenue or brand exposure. You want to use a video player with the biggest possible reach, which an RTMP HTML5 video player provides.
An HTML5 RTMP player is compatible with the fastest, most reliable encoders. This is possible by RTMP ingest, meaning the delivery of content from an RTMP encoder to an online video host This is a live streaming dream. This cuts latency drastically, which means that near-real-time latency is a possibility.
One of the easiest ways to broadcast via an HTML5 video player is with the help of your online video platform. At one point, varying live streaming platforms provided different video player options, but right now, HTML5 is the standard. It allows you to connect with the biggest possible audience.
Here at Dacast, our video player is based on video.js. This means that our player is an HTML5 video player and equipped for HTTPS delivery. Our HTML5 video player uses HLS for delivery and either HLS or RTMP for ingest.
In terms of live streaming software solutions that Dacast offers, our video players are compatible with every modern web browser, including Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge, Safari, Vivaldi, UC Browser, Samsung Internet, and many others.
Combined with a fast first-frame time, this guarantees a pleasant experience for users. Dacast also supports plugins for extending the functionality of your video player, as well as popular advertising standards such as VAST2.
Finally, the Dacast video player has a dedicated video API. This API integrates with Google Analytics, which allows you to connect players to your account to see how individual videos perform. You can also integrate live events into your analytics account, allowing you to track audiences in real-time.
Embedding an HTML5 video player from Dacast on your website, an RTMP mobile app, or a smart TV app is very easy. With most online video platforms, this takes a simple copy and paste of the embed code into the code of your site or app.
Flash is no longer the dominant force it once was, and HTML5 video players are the way to go. This transition has improved online video streaming and has created a better scenario for broadcasters and viewers, alike. You can use RTMP with an HTML5 video player to create the best viewing experience.
Due to this RTMP streaming support is declining rapidly. But it is still very useful for broadcasting live, because of its low-latency. The Broadcaster ingest the stream through a RTMP server which then encodes and sends the resultant stream to a HLS [2] (HTTP Live Streaming) URL. Which then can use a number of players and devices from desktops to smartphones to social media sites.
While ffmpeg is running, you can connect to your RTMP stream from a video player. If you have VLC, mpv, or another media player installed locally, you should be able to view your stream by opening the URL rtmp://your_domain/live/stream in your media player. Your stream will terminate after ffmpeg has finished playing the video. If you want it to keep looping indefinitely, you can add -stream_loop -1 to the beginning of your ffmpeg command.
Note: You can also stream directly to, for example, Facebook Live using ffmpeg without needing to use Nginx-RTMP at all by replacing rtmp://localhost/live/stream in your ffmpeg command with rtmps://live-api-s.facebook.com:443/rtmp/your-facebook-stream-key. YouTube uses URLs like rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2. Other streaming providers that can consume RTMP streams should behave similarly.
Save and close the file. The stat.xsl file from this configuration block is used to style and display an RTMP statistics page in your browser. It is provided by the libnginx-mod-rtmp library that you installed earlier, but it comes zipped up by default, so you will need to unzip it and put it in the /var/www/html/rtmp directory to match the above configuration. Note that you can find additional information about any of these options in the Nginx-RTMP documentation.
The Nginx-RTMP module supports both standards. To add HLS and DASH support to your server, you will need to modify the rtmp block in your nginx.conf file. Open /etc/nginx/nginx.conf using nano or your preferred editor, then add the following highlighted directives:
As of today, 10/31/2022 the following command does not work properly. The file does not exist when I try to run it. I ended up getting the xsl file from the github repo. I did do a find on the system and was unable to find any stat.xsl.gz available, so it appears they may not package this file any longer with the rtmp module. Please update accordingly or let me know if I am wrong.
This HLS test player, which also supports MPEG-DASH playback, is an easy way to test playback for streams created in Wowza Video and Wowza Streaming Engine. Just enter a stream or playback URL in the player below and click Start.
Though Adobe discontinued support for the Flash player in 2020, the RTMP protocol is still widely used. Even if you no longer display the stream directly in a browser, streams can be received via the RTMP protocol by video applications such as the VLC Player. In addition, RTMP is now mainly used in conjunction with a HLS server.
One of the main priorities for livestreaming is to keep the player synchronized with the stream: adaptive streaming is a technique for doing this in the case of low bandwidth. The idea is that the data transfer rate is monitored and if it looks like it's not keeping up, we drop down to a lower bandwidth (and consequently lower quality) stream. In order to have this capability, we need to use formats that facilitate this. Livestreaming formats generally allow adaptive streaming by breaking streams into a series of small segments and making those segments available at different qualities and bit rates. 2ff7e9595c
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