Create Adaptive Streaming with NGINX RTMP

In my previous articles How to build NGINX RTMP module, Setup Live Streaming with NGINX RTMP module and Publishing Stream with Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), I have examined how to stream a video file with FFmpeg encoder without any conversion. The streaming output is the same as the input sources.

For converting live streams into several streams resolution for adaptive streaming purpose, we need to make sure server have enough CPU for the workload. This is to prevent live streaming from continuous delays and even worst, server become unresponsive and hang. To prevent this case happen then we need to think about the resolution that will be offering for adaptive streaming. Normally, there are 4 variants that we can use for adaptive streaming consist of

1. 240p Low Definition stream at 288kbps

2. 480p Standard Definition stream at 448kbps

3. 540p Standard Definition stream at 1152kbps

4. 720p High Definition stream at 2048kbps

You may refer to youtube help for live encoder settings, bitrates and resolutions

Configure nginx.conf for Adaptive Live Streaming

Here is my own configuration (simple configuration). In this configuration, I used resolution 240p, 480p, 720p.

#user  nobody;

worker_processes  1;

error_log  logs/error.log debug;

events {

    worker_connections  1024;

}

http {

    include       mime.types;

    default_type  application/octet-stream;

    sendfile        on;

    keepalive_timeout  65;

    server {

        listen       8080;

        server_name  localhost;

        

        # rtmp stat

        location /stat {

            rtmp_stat all;

            rtmp_stat_stylesheet stat.xsl;

        }

        location /stat.xsl {

            # you can move stat.xsl to a different location

            # in my case, i used /home/addies/build/nginx-rtmp-module

            root /home/addies/build/nginx-rtmp-module;

        }

        location /hls {

                add_header 'Cache-Control' 'no-cache';

                add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' '*' always;

                add_header 'Access-Control-Expose-Headers' 'Content-Length,Content-Range';

                add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers' 'Range';

                if ($request_method = 'OPTIONS') {

                       add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' '*';

                       add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers' 'Range';

                       add_header 'Access-Control-Max-Age' 1728000;

                       add_header 'Content-Type' 'text/plain charset=UTF-8';

                       add_header 'Content-Length' 0;

                       return 204;

                }

                #serve HLS fragments

                types {

                       application/dash+xml mpd;

                       application/vnd.apple.mpegurl m3u8;

                       video/mp2t ts;

                }

                root /home/addies/live/;

                add_header Cache-Control no-cache;            

        }

        # rtmp control

        location /control {

            rtmp_control all;

        }

        error_page   500 502 503 504  /50x.html;

        location = /50x.html {

            root   html;

        }

    }

}

rtmp {

    server {

        listen 1935;

        ping 30s;

        notify_method get;

        application live {

            live on;     

            exec_pull ffmpeg -re -i http://your_ip_source/$app/$name

 -vcodec libx264 -threads 0 -vprofile baseline -acodec aac -strict -2 -b:v 1920k -b:a 128k -vf "scale=1280:trunc(ow/a/2)*2" -tune zerolatency -preset veryfast -crf 23 -f flv rtmp://localhost:1935/show/${name}_720

-vcodec libx264 -threads 0 -vprofile baseline -acodec aac -strict -2 -b:v 1024k -b:a 128k -vf "scale=854:trunc(ow/a/2)*2" -tune zerolatency -preset veryfast -crf 23 -f flv rtmp://localhost:1935/show/${name}_480

 -vcodec libx264 -threads 0 -vprofile baseline -acodec aac -strict -2 -b:v 300k -b:a 96k -vf "scale=426:trunc(ow/a/2)*2" -tune zerolatency -preset veryfast -crf 23 -f flv rtmp://localhost:1935/show/${name}_240;

        }

       application show {

            live on;

            hls on;

            hls_path /home/addies/live/hls;

            hls_nested on;

            record off;

            

            # Instruct clients to adjust resolution according to bandwidth

            hls_variant _720 BANDWIDTH=2048000; # High bitrate, HD 720p resolution

            hls_variant _480 BANDWIDTH=448000; # Medium bitrate, SD resolution

            hls_variant _240 BANDWIDTH=288000; # Low bitrate, sub-SD resolution

        }

    }

}

After finished the configuration then you need to create folder for hls files that created by nginx
cd ~
mkdir live
cd ~/live
mkdir hls
cd ~
chmod -R 755 /home/addies/live

To test your configuration then you need to open linux terminal and type command

ffmpeg -re -i /home/addies/stream/any_files_for_testing.mp4 -vcodec libx264 -threads 0 -vprofile baseline -acodec aac -strict -2 -b:v 1920k -b:a 128k -vf "scale=1280:trunc(ow/a/2)*2" -tune zerolatency -preset veryfast -crf 23 -f flv rtmp://localhost:1935/live/any_name  -vcodec libx264 -threads 0 -vprofile baseline -acodec aac -strict -2 -b:v 1024k -b:a 128k -vf "scale=854:trunc(ow/a/2)*2" -tune zerolatency -preset veryfast -crf 23 -f flv rtmp://localhost:1935/live/any_name  -vcodec libx264 -threads 0 -vprofile baseline -acodec aac -strict -2 -b:v 300k -b:a 96k -vf "scale=426:trunc(ow/a/2)*2" -tune zerolatency -preset veryfast -crf 23 -f flv rtmp://localhost:1935/live/any_name 

Next, you can play from vlc player by inputing the stream url:

http://your_server/hls/any_name.m3u8

Other Topics:

How to build NGINX RTMP module, Setup Live Streaming with NGINX RTMP module, Publishing Stream with Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), Create Adaptive Streaming with NGINX RTMP, Implementing Filtergraph in Streaming with NGINX RTMP, How to Implement Running Text in Streaming with NGINX RTMP, How to build OpenSceneGraph with Code::Blocks, How to build OpenSceneGraph with Visual Studio 2010, Building Geometry Model, How to run OpenSceneGraph with Netbean IDE 8.2 C++, Rendering Basic Shapes, Using OSG Node to Load 3D Object Model, Rendering 3D Simulator with OpenSceneGraph, How to compile wxWidgets with Visual Studio 2010