Camera Streaming and Multimedia

This project supports streaming video feeds and images via a variety of interfaces and protocols, including:

MIPI CSI cameras
V4L2 cameras
RTP / RTSP
Videos & Images
Image sequences
OpenGL windows

Streams are identified via a resource URI and accessed through the videoSource and videoOutput APIs. The tables below show the supported input/output protocols and example URIs for each type of stream:

Input Streams

	Protocol	Resource URI	Notes
MIPI CSI camera	`csi://`	`csi://0`	CSI camera 0 (substitute other camera numbers for `0`)
V4L2 camera	`v4l2://`	`v4l2:///dev/video0`	V4L2 device 0 (substitute other camera numbers for `0`)
RTP stream	`rtp://`	`rtp://@:1234`	localhost, port 1234 (requires additional configuration)
RTSP stream	`rtsp://`	`rtsp://<remote-ip>:1234`	Replace `<remote-ip>` with remote host's IP or hostname
Video file	`file://`	`file://my_video.mp4`	Supports loading MP4, MKV, AVI, FLV (see codecs below)
Image file	`file://`	`file://my_image.jpg`	Supports loading JPG, PNG, TGA, BMP, GIF, ect.
Image sequence	`file://`	`file://my_directory/`	Searches for images in alphanumeric order

Supported decoder codecs: H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MJPEG
The file://, v4l2://, and csi:// protocol prefixes can be omitted from the URI as shorthand

Output Streams

	Protocol	Resource URI	Notes
RTP stream	`rtp://`	`rtp://<remote-ip>:1234`	Replace `<remote-ip>` with remote host's IP or hostname
Video file	`file://`	`file://my_video.mp4`	Supports saving MP4, MKV, AVI, FLV (see codecs below)
Image file	`file://`	`file://my_image.jpg`	Supports saving JPG, PNG, TGA, BMP
Image sequence	`file://`	`file://image_%i.jpg`	`%i` is replaced by the image number in the sequence
OpenGL window	`display://`	`display://0`	Creates GUI window on screen 0

Supported encoder codecs: H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9, MJPEG
The file:// protocol prefixes can be omitted from the URI as shorthand
By default, an OpenGL display window will be created unless --headless is specified

Command-Line Arguments

Each example C++ and Python program from jetson-inference accepts the same set of command-line arguments for specifying stream URIs and additional options. So these options can be used on any of the examples (e.g. imagenet/imagenet.py, detectnet/detectnet.py, segnet/segnet.py, video-viewer/video-viewer.py, ect). These command-line arguments generally take the form:

$ imagenet [options] input_URI [output_URI]  # output URI is optional

where the input and output URIs are specified by two positional arguments. For example:

$ imagenet input.jpg output.jpg              # classify input.jpg, save as output.jpg

As mentioned above, any of the examples from jetson-inference can be substituted here, since they use the same command-line parsing. Below are additional stream options that can be specified when running each program:

Input Options

    input_URI            resource URI of the input stream (see table above)
  --input-width=WIDTH    explicitly request a resolution of the input stream
  --input-height=HEIGHT  (resolution is optional, except required for RTP)
  --input-codec=CODEC    RTP requires the codec to be set, one of these:
                             * h264, h265
                             * vp8, vp9
                             * mpeg2, mpeg4
                             * mjpeg
  --input-flip=FLIP      flip method to apply to input (excludes V4L2):
                             * none (default)
                             * counterclockwise
                             * rotate-180
                             * clockwise
                             * horizontal
                             * vertical
                             * upper-right-diagonal
                             * upper-left-diagonal
  --input-loop=LOOP      for file-based inputs, the number of loops to run:
                             * -1 = loop forever
                             *  0 = don't loop (default)
                             * >0 = set number of loops
  --input-rtsp-latency=2000
                         Number of milliseconds to buffer of an incoming RTSP 
                             stream. Setting it to zero can give very low 
                             delay, but may result in jitter depending on 
                             network performance.

Output Options

    output_URI           resource URI of the output stream (see table above)
  --output-codec=CODEC   desired codec for compressed output streams:
                            * h264 (default), h265
                            * vp8, vp9
                            * mpeg2, mpeg4
                            * mjpeg
  --bitrate=BITRATE      desired target VBR bitrate for compressed streams,
                         in bits per second. The default is 4000000 (4 Mbps)
  --headless             don't create a default OpenGL GUI window

Below are example commands of launching the video-viewer tool on various types of streams. You can substitute the other programs for video-viewer in these commands, since they parse the same arguments. In the Source Code section of this page, you can browse the contents of the video-viewer source code to show how to use the videoSource and videoOutput APIs in your own applications.

MIPI CSI cameras

MIPI CSI cameras are compact sensors that are acquired directly by the Jetson's hardware CSI/ISP interface. Supported CSI cameras include:

Raspberry Pi Camera Module v2 (IMX219) for Jetson Nano and Jetson Xavier NX
OV5693 camera module from the Jetson TX1/TX2 devkits.
See the Jetson Partner Supported Cameras page for more sensors supported by the ecosystem.

Here's a few examples of launching with a MIPI CSI camera. If you have multiple CSI cameras attached, subsitute the camera number for 0:

$ video-viewer csi://0                        # MIPI CSI camera 0 (substitue other camera numbers)
$ video-viewer csi://0 output.mp4             # save output stream to MP4 file (H.264 by default)
$ video-viewer csi://0 rtp://<remote-ip>:1234 # broadcast output stream over RTP to <remote-ip>

By default, CSI cameras will be created with a 1280x720 resolution. To specify a different resolution, use the --input-width and input-height options. Note that the specified resolution must match one of the formats supported by the camera.

$ video-viewer --input-width=1920 --input-height=1080 csi://0

V4L2 cameras

USB webcams are most commonly supported as V4L2 devices, for example Logitech C270 or C920.

$ video-viewer v4l2:///dev/video0                 # /dev/video0 can be replaced with /dev/video1, ect.
$ video-viewer /dev/video0                        # dropping the v4l2:// protocol prefix is fine
$ video-viewer /dev/video0 output.mp4             # save output stream to MP4 file (H.264 by default)
$ video-viewer /dev/video0 rtp://<remote-ip>:1234 # broadcast output stream over RTP to <remote-ip>

note: if you have a MIPI CSI camera plugged in, it will also show up as /dev/video0. Then if you plug in a USB webcam, that would show up as /dev/video1, so you would want to substitue /dev/video1 in the commands above. Using CSI cameras through V4L2 is unsupported in this project, because through V4L2 they use raw Bayer without ISP (instead, use CSI cameras as shown above).

V4L2 Formats

By default, V4L2 cameras will be created using the camera format with the highest framerate that most closely matches the desired resolution (by default, that resolution is 1280x720). The format with the highest framerate may be encoded (for example with H.264 or MJPEG), as USB cameras typically transmit uncompressed YUV/RGB at lower framerates. In this case, that codec will be detected and the camera stream will automatically be decoded using the Jetson's hardware decoder to attain the highest framerate.

If you explicitly want to choose the format used by the V4L2 camera, you can do so with the --input-width, --input-height, and --input-codec options. Possible decoder codec options are --input-codec=h264, h265, vp8, vp9, mpeg2, mpeg4, mjpeg

$ video-viewer --input-width=1920 --input-height=1080 --input-codec=h264 /dev/video0

When you run one of the jetson-inference programs on a V4L2 source, the different formats that the V4L2 camera supports will be logged to the terminal. However you can also list these supported formats with the v4l2-ctl command:

$ sudo apt-get install v4l-utils
$ v4l2-ctl --device=/dev/video0 --list-formats-ext

RTP

RTP network streams are broadcast to a particular host or multicast group over UDP/IP. When recieving an RTP stream, the codec must be specified (--input-codec), because RTP doesn't have the ability to dynamically query this. This will use RTP as input from another device:

$ video-viewer --input-codec=h264 rtp://@:1234         # recieve on localhost port 1234
$ video-viewer --input-codec=h264 rtp://224.0.0.0:1234 # subscribe to multicast group

The commands above specify RTP as the input source, where another remote host on the network is streaming to the Jetson. However, you can also output an RTP stream from your Jetson and transmit it to another remote host on the network.

Transmitting RTP

To transmit an RTP output stream, specify the target IP/port as the output_URI. If desired, you can specify the bitrate (the default is --bitrate=4000000 or 4Mbps) and/or the output codec (the default is --output-codec=h264) which can be h264, h265, vp8, vp9, mjpeg

$ video-viewer --bitrate=1000000 csi://0 rtp://<remote-ip>:1234         # transmit camera over RTP, encoded as H.264 @ 1Mbps 
$ video-viewer --output-codec=h265 my_video.mp4 rtp://<remote-ip>:1234  # transmit a video file over RTP, encoded as H.265

When outputting RTP, you need to explicitly set the IP address or hostname of the remote host (or multicast group) that the stream is being sent to (shown above as <remote-ip>). See below for some pointers on viewing the RTP stream from a PC.

Viewing RTP Remotely

If your Jetson is transmitting RTP to another remote host (like a PC), here are some example commands that you can use to view the stream:

Using GStreamer:

Install GStreamer and run this pipeline (replace port=1234 with the port you are using)

 $ gst-launch-1.0 -v udpsrc port=1234 \
 caps = "application/x-rtp, media=(string)video, clock-rate=(int)90000, encoding-name=(string)H264, payload=(int)96" ! \
 rtph264depay ! decodebin ! videoconvert ! autovideosink

Using VLC Player:
- Create a SDP file (.sdp) with the following contents (replace 1234 with the port you are using)
```
  c=IN IP4 127.0.0.1
  m=video 1234 RTP/AVP 96
  a=rtpmap:96 H264/90000
```
- Open the stream in VLC by double-clicking the SDP file
- You may want to reduce the File caching and Network caching settings in VLC as shown here
If your remote host is another Jetson:
- Use the same video-viewer command as above (replace 1234 with the port you are using)
```
 $ video-viewer --input-codec=h264 rtp://@:1234
```

RTSP

RTSP network streams are subscribed to from a remote host over UDP/IP. Unlike RTP, RTSP can dynamically query the stream properties (like resolution and codec), so these options don't need to be explicitly provided.

$ video-viewer rtsp://<remote-ip>:1234 my_video.mp4      # subscribe to RTSP feed from <remote-ip>, port 1234 (and save it to file)
$ video-viewer rtsp://username:password@<remote-ip>:1234 # with authentication (replace username/password with credentials)

note: RTSP is supported as an input only. Outputting RTSP would require additional support in GStreamer for an RTSP server.

Video Files

You can playback and record video files in MP4, MKV, AVI, and FLV formats.

# playback
$ video-viewer my_video.mp4                              # display the video file
$ video-viewer my_video.mp4 rtp://<remote-ip>:1234       # transmit the video over RTP

# recording
$ video-viewer csi://0 my_video.mp4                      # record CSI camera to video file
$ video-viewer /dev/video0 my_video.mp4                  # record V4L2 camera to video file

Codecs

When loading video files, the codec and resolution is automatically detected, so these don't need to be set. When saving video files, the default codec is H.264, but this can be set with the --output-codec option.

$ video-viewer --output-codec=h265 input.mp4 output.mp4  # transcode video to H.265

The following codecs are supported:

Decode - H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MJPEG
Encode - H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9, MJPEG

Resizing Inputs

When loading video files, the resolution is automatically detected. However, if you would like the input video to be re-scaled to a different resolution, you can specify the --input-width and --input-height options:

$ video-viewer --input-width=640 --input-height=480 my_video.mp4  # resize video to 640x480

Looping Inputs

By default, the video will terminate once the end of stream (EOS) is reached. However, by specifying the --loop option, you can set the number of loops that you want the video to run for. Possible options for --loop are:

-1 = loop forever
0 = don't loop (default)
>0 = set number of loops

$ video-viewer --loop=10 my_video.mp4    # loop the video 10 times
$ video-viewer --loop=-1 my_video.mp4    # loop the video forever (until user quits)

Image Files

You can load/save image files in the following formats:

Load: JPG, PNG, TGA, BMP, GIF, PSD, HDR, PIC, and PNM (PPM/PGM binary)
Save: JPG, PNG, TGA, BMP

$ video-viewer input.jpg output.jpg	# load/save an image

You can also loop images and image sequences - see the Looping Inputs section above.

Sequences

If the path is a directory or contains wildcards, all of the images will be loaded/saved sequentially (in alphanumeric order).

$ video-viewer input_dir/ output_dir/   # load all images from input_dir and save them to output_dir
$ video-viewer "*.jpg" output_%i.jpg    # load all jpg images and save them to output_0.jpg, output_1.jpg, ect

note: when using wildcards, always enclose it in quotes ("*.jpg"). Otherwise, the OS will auto-expand the sequence and modify the order of arguments on the command-line, which may result in one of the input images being overwritten by the output.

When saving a sequence of images, if the path is just to a directory (output_dir), then the images will automatically be saved as JPG with the format output_dir/%i.jpg, using the image number as it's filename (output_dir/0.jpg, output_dir/1.jpg, ect).

If you wish to specify the filename format, do so by using the printf-style %i in the path (output_dir/image_%i.png). You can apply additional printf modifiers such as %04i to create filenames like output_dir/image_0001.jpg.

Source Code

Streams are accessed using the videoSource and videoOutput objects. These have the ability to handle each of the types of streams from above through a unified set of APIs. Images can be captured and output in the following data formats:

Format string	`imageFormat` enum	Data Type	Bit Depth
`rgb8`	`IMAGE_RGB8`	`uchar3`	24
`rgba8`	`IMAGE_RGBA8`	`uchar4`	32
`rgb32f`	`IMAGE_RGB32F`	`float3`	96
`rgba32f`	`IMAGE_RGBA32F`	`float4`	128

the Data Type and imageFormat enum are C++ types
in Python, the format string can be passed to videoSource.Capture() to request a specific format (the default is rgb8)
in C++, the videoSource::Capture() template will infer the format from the data type of the output pointer

To convert images to/from different formats, see the Image Manipulation with CUDA page for more info.

Below is the source code to video-viewer.py and video-viewer.cpp, slightly abbreviated to improve readability:

Python

import jetson.utils
import argparse
import sys

# parse command line
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument("input_URI", type=str, help="URI of the input stream")
parser.add_argument("output_URI", type=str, default="", nargs='?', help="URI of the output stream")
opt = parser.parse_known_args()[0]

# create video sources & outputs
input = jetson.utils.videoSource(opt.input_URI, argv=sys.argv)
output = jetson.utils.videoOutput(opt.output_URI, argv=sys.argv)

# capture frames until user exits
while output.IsStreaming():
	image = input.Capture(format='rgb8')  // can also be format='rgba8', 'rgb32f', 'rgba32f'
	output.Render(image)
	output.SetStatus("Video Viewer | {:d}x{:d} | {:.1f} FPS".format(image.width, image.height, output.GetFrameRate()))

C++

#include "videoSource.h"
#include "videoOutput.h"

int main( int argc, char** argv )
{
	// create input/output streams
	videoSource* inputStream = videoSource::Create(argc, argv, ARG_POSITION(0));
	videoOutput* outputStream = videoOutput::Create(argc, argv, ARG_POSITION(1));
	
	if( !inputStream )
		return 0;

	// capture/display loop
	while( true )
	{
		uchar3* nextFrame = NULL;  // can be uchar3, uchar4, float3, float4

		if( !inputStream->Capture(&nextFrame, 1000) )
			continue;

		if( outputStream != NULL )
		{
			outputStream->Render(nextFrame, inputStream->GetWidth(), inputStream->GetHeight());

			// update status bar
			char str[256];
			sprintf(str, "Video Viewer (%ux%u) | %.1f FPS", inputStream->GetWidth(), inputStream->GetHeight(), outputStream->GetFrameRate());
			outputStream->SetStatus(str);	

			// check if the user quit
			if( !outputStream->IsStreaming() )
				break;
		}

		if( !inputStream->IsStreaming() )
			break;
	}

	// destroy resources
	SAFE_DELETE(inputStream);
	SAFE_DELETE(outputStream);
}

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Camera Streaming and Multimedia

Input Streams

Output Streams

Command-Line Arguments

Input Options

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MIPI CSI cameras

V4L2 cameras

V4L2 Formats

RTP

Transmitting RTP

Viewing RTP Remotely

RTSP

Video Files

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Resizing Inputs

Looping Inputs

Image Files

Sequences

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Camera Streaming and Multimedia

Input Streams

Output Streams

Command-Line Arguments

Input Options

Output Options

MIPI CSI cameras

V4L2 cameras

V4L2 Formats

RTP

Transmitting RTP

Viewing RTP Remotely

RTSP

Video Files

Codecs

Resizing Inputs

Looping Inputs

Image Files

Sequences

Source Code

Python

C++