bash script to switch between video file and live camera

tonj · 10-06-2014, 08:07 AM

I'm running a centos 6 server (command line only) with ffmpeg and I want to create a script that will switch between a video file and live camera and back again.

what I've done already:
1) I have scripts for both the mp4 video and the live camera that will stream them to red5 server like so:
# etc/init.d/stream start <-- this streams the live cam to red5 media server and it works fine
# /etc/init.d/video start <-- this starts the mp4 video and does the same.
I've also done:
#/etc/init.d/mylist start <-- this starts a file called mylist.txt which plays a set of mp4's in sequence and stream them to red5 server. It works fine and mylist.txt contains this:

Code:

file 'video1.mp4'
file 'video2.mp4'
file 'video3.mp4'

the problem with mylist.txt is it only caters for files and I don't know if it's possible to syntax this file to play a live camera stream for a certain time.
All the above scripts work fine, I just need to work out a way to switch from one to the other. I have done a search on google but couldn't find any examples that did this. Thanks for any help.

Kustom42 · 10-07-2014, 05:15 PM

If all you need is a delay between switching from one command to the next you can use the sleep command but im not sure if thats what you are looking for.

So like

Code:

ffmpeg command to play video1.mp4
sleep 300 # Sleep for 5 minutes
ffmpeg command to play video2.mpy
sleep 300 # sleep for 5 minutes

This is a way simple solution and may not be what you are looking for, if its not let us know and can get into more technical scripting if needed.

tonj · 10-08-2014, 04:05 AM

thankyou for that, I have tried something similar to your suggestion but it is not useable. I'm beginning to think that what I need may not be possible. I need to seamlessly switch from pre-recorded video to live camera and both of these streams go to red5 server like so:

Quote:

live (web) camera - /dev/video0
# /root/bin/ffmpeg -f video4linux2 -i '/dev/video0' blah-de-blah...'rtmp://<red5-server>:1935/live/livestream1'"

Quote:

video.mp4 file
# /root/bin/ffmpeg -i /path/to/video.mp4 blah-de-blah...'rtmp://<red5server>:1935/live/livestream1'"

Because both streams go out on port 1935 they can't both run at the same time. They could if I had a second red5 server on a different port but that wouldn't work because the player on the web pulls the stream via port 1935. Stopping one stream and then starting the next doesn't work because the video player (which is on a web page) doesn't cater for auto resume when the stream stops. So I need seamless immediate switching at the source of the video. I may have to go for a hardware solution. I have tried other solutions like LIVES and snowmix but I got nowhere with LIVES (I think it's an abandoned project) and I haven't been able to get past an install problem yet with snowmix.
sorry for the long-winded post

zhjim · 10-09-2014, 03:12 AM

Maybe checkout http://www.mltframework.org/bin/view/MLT/Melted. Also a different tool but seems to suite.

tonj · 10-09-2014, 03:41 AM

thankyou for that zhjim I'll check it out