ESP32-CAM and live streaming to Youtube

Projects Programming
1

Hi,

I bought a ESP32-CAM and got it running following this tutorial here: ESP32-CAM Video Streaming Web Server (works with Home Assistant) | Random Nerd Tutorials

Now I want to live stream to Google. It should work, if you send the stream to a special URL:

rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2/[your-secret-key-here]

I want to change the Arduino code to do so, and I have programming skills. But I really don't know how to start.

From this script:

static esp_err_t stream_handler(httpd_req_t *req){
  camera_fb_t * fb = NULL;
  esp_err_t res = ESP_OK;
  size_t _jpg_buf_len = 0;
  uint8_t * _jpg_buf = NULL;
  char * part_buf[64];

  res = httpd_resp_set_type(req, _STREAM_CONTENT_TYPE);
  if(res != ESP_OK){
    return res;
  }

  while(true){
    fb = esp_camera_fb_get();
    if (!fb) {
      Serial.println("Camera capture failed");
      res = ESP_FAIL;
    } else {
      if(fb->width > 400){
        if(fb->format != PIXFORMAT_JPEG){
          bool jpeg_converted = frame2jpg(fb, 80, &_jpg_buf, &_jpg_buf_len);
          esp_camera_fb_return(fb);
          fb = NULL;
          if(!jpeg_converted){
            Serial.println("JPEG compression failed");
            res = ESP_FAIL;
          }
        } else {
          _jpg_buf_len = fb->len;
          _jpg_buf = fb->buf;
        }
      }
    }
    if(res == ESP_OK){
      size_t hlen = snprintf((char *)part_buf, 64, _STREAM_PART, _jpg_buf_len);
      res = httpd_resp_send_chunk(req, (const char *)part_buf, hlen);
    }
    if(res == ESP_OK){
      res = httpd_resp_send_chunk(req, (const char *)_jpg_buf, _jpg_buf_len);
    }
    if(res == ESP_OK){
      res = httpd_resp_send_chunk(req, _STREAM_BOUNDARY, strlen(_STREAM_BOUNDARY));
    }
    if(fb){
      esp_camera_fb_return(fb);
      fb = NULL;
      _jpg_buf = NULL;
    } else if(_jpg_buf){
      free(_jpg_buf);
      _jpg_buf = NULL;
    }
    if(res != ESP_OK){
      break;
    }
    //Serial.printf("MJPG: %uB\n",(uint32_t)(_jpg_buf_len));
  }
  return res;
}

What must be changed to send it to the Youtube URL? Can someone point me in the right direction please? Where to I start. :smiley:

greetings and thanks,
André

2

You should research motion-jpeg (ESP32CAM) and Real Time Messaging Protocol (YouTube).

Most of the cheap WiFi cameras are capable of using rtmp,
but I never really stumbled over source code of such devices.

So you will have to write (or find) a rtmp server implementation for the ESP32.

This GitHub - hpwit/Stream-video-esp32 seems to be good starting point.

If you want to stream Youtube video
you need to install youtube-dl brew install youtube-dl and then do:
./StreamVideo -i $(youtube-dl -f bestvideo -g https://youtu.be/CZ9Pu9Usk5o) -d 123x48 -a 192.168.1.22

3

Thanks! I will read the resources and try to figure out if and how it could work.

I also found this library, maybe it's partly helpful: GitHub - geeksville/Micro-RTSP: A RTSP video server intended for very small CPUs (ESP32 etc)

greetings,
André

4

Any luck with this?
I am struggling with the same to find an implementation.
I believe it should be pretty simple, but same as you, I am missing the starting point.
Any info or insights you have gained will be appreciated.
--Abhinav

5

Hey,

not yet and don't have much time to investigate it. :frowning: I created an issue in this library here, but got no response until now: https://github.com/geeksville/Micro-RTSP/issues/19

I put the "project" on ice until I have more time or maybe someone else has done this already.

greetings,
André

6

Might be nice since you have figured it out to post your code to help others.

7

Martin please share your sketch...I was trying similar. No luck yet.

Thanks!

8

martinius96:
Sorry, but I am not interested to share that source code.

I dislike that such habits very much.

9

martinius96:
Yes, dislike that, I spent 3 months making code and now you think I will send it to you because you simple want it... haha, NO.
If someone is interested in buying code, or binary file (will cost less), then contact me at: martinius96@gmail.com

I hope I can remember your nick, but I'm pretty confident that I will.

10

Now people will be motivated to duplicate your efforts and give it away for free to thank you. If an ESP32- CAM can serve up a single frame, then serving up repeating frames should be fairly easy.

11

Here is a link to a working Example FOR FREE https://www.hackster.io/BnBe_Club/9-rtsp-video-streamer-using-the-esp32-cam-board-8832b4

12

Hello,

Has any one get the solution to this exact scenario: where the stream of the esp32-cam can be post directly to youtube or any other rmtp server. I have done POC with raspberry pie and android OS but didn\t get any success for esp32-cam.

@5ran6 thanks for sharing your article but it is not showcasing solution expected in the thread as it is making the esp-32 as local streaming server which can be accessed over local wifi network, however expected is to have a sketch that will publish the stream to some server like youtube. as similar to

"ffmpeg -re -i lion-sample.mkv -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -maxrate 3000k -bufsize 6000k -pix_fmt yuv420p -g 50 -c:a aac -b:a 160k -ac 2 -ar 44100 -f flv rtmp://XX.XXX.XXX/live/key" is doing in linux