raspi-live

raspi-live is a Node.js Express webserver that takes streaming video from the Raspberry Pi Camera module and makes it available on the web via HLS or DASH.

Run it via a simple command line interface:

raspi-live start

The server will start serving the streaming files on /camera. Point streaming video players to /camera/livestream.m3u8 for HLS or /camera/livestream.mpd for DASH.

Usage

$ raspi-live --help
Usage: raspi-live [options] [command]

self-contained raspberry pi video streaming server

Options:
  -v, --version    output the version number
  -h, --help       output usage information

Commands:
  start [options]  start streaming video from the raspberry pi camera module

Options

-v, --version

Output the version number.

-h, --help

Output information on how to use the command line interface.

Commands

start [options]

Start streaming video from the raspberry pi camera module.

Options

-d, --directory

The directory used to host the streaming video files. Those concerned about the long-term health of their pi's SD card may opt to point raspi-live to a RAMDisk so that the files are only stored in memory. However, this also means that you will be unable to recover any of the footage if the power is cut.

Defaults to /home/<USERNAME>/camera but /srv/camera is recommended as raspi-live is a server.

-f, --format

• hls (default)
• dash

-w, --width

Video resolution width.

Defaults to 1280.

-h, --height

Video resolution height.

Defaults to 720.

-r, --framerate

Number of video frames per second.

Defaults to 25.

-x, --horizontal-flip

Flip the video horizontally.

Disabled by default.

-y, --vertical-flip

Flip the video vertically.

Disabled by default.

-c, --compression-level

Level the video is compressed for download via the internet. Value must be between 0 and 9.

Defaults to 9.

-t, --time

The duration of the streaming video file in seconds.

Defaults to 2.

-l, --list-size

The number of streaming video files included in the playlist.

Defaults to 10.

-s, --storage-size

The number of streaming video files stored after they cycle out of the playlist. This is useful in cases where you want to look at previously recorded footage. The streaming video files are 2 seconds long by default so to have a 24-hour cycle of recorded video, specify 43200 (make sure to have enough storage space).

Defaults to 10.

-p, --port

Port number the server runs on.

Defaults to 8080.

Install

Raspberry Pi Camera module

raspi-live only supports streaming video from the Raspberry Pi camera module. Here's a the official documentation on how to connect and configure it: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/camera/.

FFmpeg

raspi-live uses FFmpeg, a video conversion command-line utility, to process the streaming H.264 video that the Raspberry Pi camera module outputs. Version 4.0 or higher is required. Here's how to install it on your Raspberry Pi:

1. Download and configure FFmpeg via:

sudo apt-get install libomxil-bellagio-dev
wget -O ffmpeg.tar.bz2 https://ffmpeg.org/releases/ffmpeg-snapshot-git.tar.bz2
tar xvjf ffmpeg.tar.bz2
cd ffmpeg
sudo ./configure --arch=arm --target-os=linux --enable-gpl --enable-omx --enable-omx-rpi --enable-nonfree

2. Run sudo make -j$(grep -c ^processor /proc/cpuinfo) to build FFmpeg and get a cup of coffee or two. This will take a while.
3. Install FFmpeg via sudo make install regardless of the model of your Raspberry Pi.
4. Delete the FFmpeg directory and tar file that were created during the download process in Step 1. FFmpeg has been installed so they are no longer needed.

CLI

Install it globally:

npm install raspi-live -g
raspi-live --help

Or use npx:

npx raspi-live --help

Video Stream Playback

raspi-live is only concerned with streaming video from the camera module and does not offer a playback solution.

Browser support between the different streaming formats varies so in most cases a JavaScript playback library will be necessary. For more information on this, check out Mozilla's article on the subject.

Performance

HLS and DASH inherently have latency baked into the technology. To reduce this, set the time option to 1 or .5 seconds and increase the list and storage size via the list-size and storage-size options. Ideally, there should be 12 seconds of video in the list and 50 seconds of video in storage.