Video over IP

 

Simple over view

 

There are three types of video streaming they are:

 

  1. Unicast from one computer to an other or others
  2. Multicast from one computer to multiple computers as a broadcast
  3. Streaming Server on-Demand play back and/or live streaming

 

Streaming protocols are:

UDP (User Datagram Protocol)

RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol)

RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol)

 

UDP and RTP are both used for Unicast and Multicasting

RTSP is used for on-Demand play back

 

There are a number of video and sound coders and decoders that can be use for streaming, and there are also different streaming formats.

 

Video coders that I use are:

mpeg 1, mpeg 2, mpeg 4 and H264

 

Sound coders that I use are:

PCM, mpeg 1, mpeg 2, mpeg 3, mpeg 4 (AAC), AC3 and AAC+

UDP / RTP

For unicast streaming I have setup all the devices on my network to a static IP address. You need to know where to send the video packets. If the streaming PC need to know the target PC IP address (192.168.0.110) and port (1234). On the TX computer you set the Target IP address in

this case it would be (192.168.0.110:1234). If there is more then one device that you are streaming to, then you will need to specify all the IP address.

 

UDP / RTP

Multicast is a form of broadcast to any number of devices on a network. When you are running a multicast it basically floods the network with video packets. To setup a multicast there is a range of broadcast IP address form 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255. The TX computer is set to an IP address within this range, and it’s the same for the RX side.

RTSP

My Streaming server is running 24/7 the software that I used is Darwin Streaming Server. There are a large number of video files that can be streamed on demand. The media players that I use, are QuickTime and the other is VLC.

 

Live broadcasting from a Streaming server:

To do this you need to log into the server, then the Streaming server software acts as the relay computer.