In-Depth Streaming Guide

This guide provides more detailed examples of how to push streams to and play streams from LiveGo using common tools.

Pushing Streams (Ingest)

Any RTMP-compliant encoder can push a stream to LiveGo.

Using FFmpeg

FFmpeg is a powerful command-line tool for media manipulation. It's excellent for testing, scripting, or streaming from a file.

Prerequisites:

  • You have a stream name (e.g., my_stream).
  • You have obtained a channelkey from the API: curl "http://localhost:8090/control/get?room=my_stream".

Example: Streaming a video file

This command reads a file, input.mp4, and streams its content to LiveGo without re-encoding, which is efficient.

# Replace {channelkey} with your actual key
ffmpeg -re -i input.mp4 -c copy -f flv rtmp://localhost:1935/live/{channelkey}
  • -re: Reads the input at its native frame rate.
  • -i input.mp4: Specifies the input file.
  • -c copy: Copies the streams without re-encoding.
  • -f flv: Specifies the output format as FLV, required for RTMP.

Using OBS Studio

OBS Studio is a popular free and open-source software for live streaming and recording.

  1. Open Settings: Go to File > Settings.

  2. Go to the Stream Tab:

    • Service: Select Custom....
    • Server: Enter the RTMP ingest URL: rtmp://localhost:1935/live.
    • Stream Key: Paste the channelkey you obtained from the LiveGo API.
    • Apply and Start Streaming: Click OK to save the settings, then click Start Streaming in the main OBS window.

Playing Streams (Egress)

Using VLC or ffplay

For desktop playback, media players like VLC or the ffplay command-line tool are great options.

  • RTMP Playback:

    • URL: rtmp://localhost:1935/live/my_stream
    • Command: ffplay rtmp://localhost:1935/live/my_stream

  • HTTP-FLV Playback:

    • URL: http://localhost:7001/live/my_stream.flv
    • Command: ffplay http://localhost:7001/live/my_stream.flv

  • HLS Playback:

    • URL: http://localhost:7002/live/my_stream.m3u8
    • Command: ffplay http://localhost:7002/live/my_stream.m3u8

Web Playback with flv.js

As mentioned in the README.md, LiveGo works well with flv.js for low-latency streaming in web browsers.

Here is a minimal HTML example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>LiveGo with flv.js</title>
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/flv.js/dist/flv.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <video id="videoElement" controls autoplay muted></video>

    <script>
        if (flvjs.isSupported()) {
            var videoElement = document.getElementById('videoElement');
            var flvPlayer = flvjs.createPlayer({
                type: 'flv',
                isLive: true,
                url: 'http://localhost:7001/live/my_stream.flv' // Your stream URL
            });
            flvPlayer.attachMediaElement(videoElement);
            flvPlayer.load();
            flvPlayer.play();
        }
    </script>
</body>
</html>

To use this example:

  1. Save the code as index.html.
  2. Make sure a stream named my_stream is being published to LiveGo.
  3. Open the index.html file in a web browser.

Note: You may need to serve this HTML file from a local web server to avoid CORS issues, or configure LiveGo to send appropriate CORS headers if you deploy it on a different domain.