24 Open-source Free RTSP Viewers and Media Servers for IP-Camera Streams
RTMP (Real-Time Messaging Protocol) and RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol) viewers and servers are software tools that facilitate the viewing, streaming, and recording of media content, particularly IP-camera streams.
RTMP is a protocol commonly used for streaming audio, video, and data over the internet. It is widely supported by various media players, web browsers, and streaming platforms. RTMP viewers allow users to access and view media streams that are transmitted using the RTMP protocol.
These viewers often provide features such as playback controls, video quality adjustments, and support for multiple streams.
RTSP, on the other hand, is a protocol specifically designed for controlling the delivery of streaming media. It allows users to access and manage media streams from IP cameras, video servers, and other sources.
RTSP viewers enable users to view live or recorded video streams, switch between multiple cameras, and adjust settings such as video quality and layout.
In addition to viewers, there are also RTMP and RTSP servers. These servers facilitate the distribution and delivery of media streams. They receive media content from sources such as IP cameras and transmit it to viewers or other servers.
RTMP and RTSP servers often offer features like recording, transcoding, load balancing, and integration with other software or platforms.
Overall, RTMP and RTSP viewers and servers play a crucial role in the streaming and management of media content, particularly IP-camera streams.
They provide users with the ability to access, view, record, and distribute media streams, offering flexibility, customization options, and scalability for effective surveillance, broadcasting, and video streaming purposes.
RTSP Viewers and Media Servers for IP-Camera Streams offer several advantages and benefits:
- Flexibility: RTSP Viewers and Media Servers allow you to access and view IP-camera streams from various devices and platforms, including desktop computers, smartphones, and tablets.
- Customizability: These solutions often provide customizable features and settings, allowing you to tailor the viewing experience according to your preferences. You can adjust video quality, playback controls, and layout options to suit your needs.
- Multi-stream support: RTSP Viewers and Media Servers typically support multiple camera streams, enabling you to monitor and switch between different IP cameras simultaneously. This is particularly useful for surveillance systems that require monitoring multiple locations or angles.
- Recording and playback: Many of these solutions offer the ability to record and store IP-camera streams for future reference. You can review footage, analyze events, and extract important information when needed.
- Remote access: With RTSP Viewers and Media Servers, you can remotely access IP-camera streams over the internet. This means you can monitor your cameras and view live footage from anywhere, providing peace of mind and enhancing security.
- Integration: These solutions often integrate with other software and platforms, allowing for seamless integration into existing systems. For example, they may support integration with home automation systems or video management software.
- Scalability: RTSP Viewers and Media Servers can be easily scaled to accommodate a growing number of IP cameras. Whether you need to add more cameras to your surveillance system or expand your streaming capabilities, these solutions can adapt to your changing needs.
Here, you can find the best open-source IP-Camera and RTSP media servers for security camera streams.
1- IP Freely
IP-Freely is an open-source free IP/ Web camera stream viewer and recorder with a clean UI, multi-threading, and cross-platform compatibility.
It supports up to 4 user-configurable camera streams, allows viewing of on-board storage, and enables snapshot images and video recordings.
It also offers scheduled recording, motion detection with customizable settings, and a built-in disk space manager. Planned features include motion-triggered email alerts and a built-in web server.
2- RTSP Camera view
RTSP Camera View is a free and open-source tool for monitoring IP cameras. It allows users to view streaming video sources in a grid mode.
Features
- Expanding the entire window by double-clicking on the stream
- Automatic switching to high / low resolution stream
- Support for command line parameters
- Launching on the screen with the specified number, full-screened
- Customizable source name
- Alert on video lost
3- EasyPlayer
This is a free, elegant, simple, fast RTSP/ RTMP/ HLS/ HTTP Player.
It support RTSP (RTP over TCP/UDP)version & RTMP version & Pro version,cover all kinds of streaming media!
4- Flyleaf (Libray)
Media Player .NET Library for WinUI 3/ WPF/WinForms (based on FFmpeg/DirectX).
5- RTSP
This project is an open-source that enables you to play RTSP stream from IP camera in browser in this HTML5 player without plugins.
6- Firescrew
Firescrew is a cutting-edge application written in Go that enables real-time object and motion detection from an RTSP network camera.
It leverages advanced image processing techniques and machine learning models to identify specific objects such as cars, people, and more.
Features
- Real-Time Motion Detection: Firescrew can detect motion from a live feed and provide real-time alerts.
- Object Identification: Identify specific objects like cars and people in real-time.
- Model Flexibility: Firescrew can use the latest YOLOv8 model, MobileNET with Coral TPU or YOLOv8s with CoreML (MAC Only) for enhanced performance.
- Performance: Firescrew takes full advantage of Go's concurrency handling and speed, providing a high-performance solution for real-time image processing.
- RTSP Network Camera Support: Firescrew is compatible with RTSP network cameras, extending its applicability in a wide range of scenarios.
- MQTT/Webhook/Script/Slack: Firescrew can send events to MQTT/Webhook/Script/Slack for further processing.
- Natural Language Search: Firescrew supports natural language processing for searching events based on time/type/camera.
- In-House Quality Control: At Firescrew, we believe in sampling our own "product," chasing the next high in innovation like caffeine-fueled engineers on a coding binge. We don't just build technology; we live it, breathe it, and occasionally spill coffee on it – all to ensure we're delivering a product that's up to snuff!
7- Frigate
The Frigate is an advanced Network Video Recorder (NVR) specifically designed for Home Assistant. It offers a comprehensive solution for IP camera management, coupled with cutting-edge AI object detection capabilities.
By leveraging the power of OpenCV and Tensorflow, Frigate is able to perform real-time object detection right on your local network.
One of the key features of Frigate is its compatibility with the Google Coral Accelerator. While the Coral is not mandatory, it is highly recommended to enhance the performance of Frigate.
With the Coral, you can experience unparalleled processing power, surpassing even the capabilities of top-of-the-line CPUs.
It can effortlessly handle over 100 frames per second (FPS) with minimal resource consumption.
Features
- Tight integration with Home Assistant via a custom component
- Designed to minimize resource use and maximize performance by only looking for objects when and where it is necessary
- Leverages multiprocessing heavily with an emphasis on realtime over processing every frame
- Uses a very low overhead motion detection to determine where to run object detection
- Object detection with TensorFlow runs in separate processes for maximum FPS
- Communicates over MQTT for easy integration into other systems
- Records video with retention settings based on detected objects
- 24/7 recording
- Re-streaming via RTSP to reduce the number of connections to your camera
- WebRTC & MSE support for low-latency live view
8- MONITOR
MONITOR is a self-hosted free open-source allows for easy playback and recording of various media formats, including TV, radio, movies, music, and IP cameras.
It features seamless integration with VLC media player, requires no installation, and runs discreetly in the taskbar.
Users can split and reconnect large media files, utilize multiple monitors, and connect to local and web-based media resource locators. The software is customizable, portable, and efficient in terms of system resources.
Features
- Full source code included (C#)
- Includes some .m3u playlists files as examples
- On double click: Starts MONITOR + Video display + Record or Play
- Plays/Record many many known media file formats (Uses VLC)
- Watch TV, Radio, Movies, Music, IP-Cameras, etc... (Uses VLC)
- Portable (No install is required)
- Non intrusive (Runs in taskbar)
- Split files (Re-Connects)
- Multiple monitors (Multiple instances)
- Connects to local or web MRLs (Uses VLC)
- And... Its SMALL! :)
- Accepts IPTV Channels (m3u, m3u8, playlists)
9- VideoEye
VideoEye is an open-source stream analysis software. It can play and make analysis of video bit stream.
It supports multiple kind of sources, include: HTTP, RTMP, RTSP and files, etc. The software can make real time stream analysis and show the result graphically.
Currently the software is under development yet.
Features
- Real time video/audio stream analysis
- Support File,HTTP,RTSP,RTMP....
- Detailed analysis: QP,MB type,MV...
- Raw analysis: Color Histogram, Canny Edge detector...
10- Sunny Player
Sunny Player is a streaming player frontend and more, available for Linux, Win32, and Mac. It also includes an Encoder for Win32.
It supports streaming (broadcasting) on the network, including internet radio/video, streaming, mms, rtp, rtsp, http, tcp, and udp. This player utilizes the VLC media player.
Features
- Broadcasting vod, live media player
- Screen, camera, file, cddvd, network support
- Easy interface ( switch to audio and video file interface, automatically.)
- Cascadable play (near future)
- Grid streaming ( far future )
- Playlist ( internet radio/tv list, local file list, stream list )
- Drag and drop, easy moving. system tray, marquee text
- Notify subtitle, subtitle finder.
- Recording, streaming support.
- Chat support.
- Media information ( meta, codec, status )
11- RTSP Simple Server
rtsp-simple-server is a server and proxy that allows users to publish, read, and proxy live video and audio streams.
It supports features such as proxying streams, reading and publishing live streams, redirecting readers to other RTSP servers, and compatibility with the Raspberry Pi Camera.
It is compatible with Linux, Windows, and macOS and does not require any dependencies or interpreters.
Features
- Proxy streams from other servers or cameras, always or on-demand
- Read live streams from the server
- Publish live streams to the server
- Redirect readers to other RTSP servers (load balancing)
- Natively compatible with the Raspberry Pi Camera
- Read Prometheus-compatible metrics
12- Moment Media Server with FTMPT support
This is a free and open-source Media server, streaming video server. Supports RTMP, RTMPT, HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), RTSP, MPEG-TS protocols.
Streaming to PC, Mac, iPhone and Android. Live transcoding. Streaming and recording for IP cameras. Video chat and video conferencing.
13- Kinoglaz RTSP
Kinoglaz is a pure C++ RTSP Streaming Server. Features seek / scale support, TCP tunneling, playlists, runtime stream composition.
Actually supports MPEG4 video (like xvid), MPEG2 / MP3 / AAC audio.
Features
- Seek and scale support
- Playlists
- In-play ads support
- mp4v, mpga, aac
- GPL-3.0
14- EasyDarwin
EasyDarwin is an open-source, high-performance RTSP streaming server that offers optimization on streaming, keyframe caching, RESTful and web management.
It supports distributed load balancing and provides a simple streaming media cloud platform architecture.
EasyDarwin also includes an efficient open-source audio encoding library for transcoding various audio data into AAC format. It offers a range of practical tools to help developers with operation, maintenance, and debugging.
Features
- Implement streaming audio and video product functions
- Simple, efficient, and stable open source audio encoding library
- Supports transcoding of various audio data into AAC format
- Able to transcode G.711A/ PCMA, and G.711U/ PCMU
- Open source and high performance
15- UDP IPTV to RTSP Proxy
UDP IPTV to RTSP proxy is a lightweight GNU/ Linux daemon that allows on-demand access to UDP multicast streams via RTSP and unicast RTP protocols.
It is designed for small office or home LANs where multicast support is limited. The software is not suitable for large-scale installations or serving untrusted clients.
16- KOM(S) Streaming System
The KOM(S) Streaming System (komssys) implements a streaming system based on the IETF protocols RTSP, SDP, RTP/RTCP with the intention of providing a base for researchers and other developers.
Komssys includes code for a server, a client, and a proxy.
17- MediaMTX
MediaMTX (formerly rtsp-simple-server) is an easy-to-use and independent real-time media server and media proxy.
It empowers the broadcasting, playback, proxying, and capturing of video and audio streams.
It has been meticulously crafted as a "media router" that effectively directs media streams from one endpoint to another.
18- Restreamer
The Restreamer is a comprehensive streaming server solution designed for self-hosting. It boasts a visually appealing user interface and eliminates the need for ongoing license costs.
You can easily upload your live stream to popular platforms such as YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Vimeo, or other streaming solutions like Wowza.
The Restreamer also enables you to effortlessly receive video data from OBS and publish it using the RTMP and SRT server.
Features
- Simplified User-Interface
- Easy wizard configuration
- Multiple audio/video inputs, outputs, protocols, and codecs
- ReStreaming to platforms such as YouTube-Live, to software such as Wowza Media Server, and others based on protocols such as RTMP, SRT, ...
- Option to mux a separate audio channel to the video
- Build-in VideoJS-Player for your Website
- Configurable publication website for streaming without player embedding
- Content license with Creative Commons
- HTTP/S- (HLS), RTMP/S- & SRT-Streaming Server
- Automatic Let's Encrypt HTTPS certification
- Viewer/Bandwidth Monitoring and limiting
- Raspberry Pi (MMAL/OMX), Nvidia Cuda, Intel VAAPI support
- Support for Hardware- and Virtual-Devices
- FFmpeg Video-Processing (as native as possible)
- REST-API (JSON) and 100% Swagger documented
- Resource Monitoring (optionally by Prom-Metrics)
- Server- and Process-Logging
- GDPR compliant without third-party providers and does not save audience data
19- Xiu
Xiu is a simple,high performance and secure live media server written in pure Rust, it now supports popular live protocols like RTMP[cluster]/ RTSP/ WebRTC[Whip/Whep]/ HLS/HTTP-FLV.
Features
- Support multiple platforms(Linux/MacOS/Windows).
- Support RTMP.
- Support publishing or subscribing H.264/AAC streams.
- Support GOP cache which can be configured in the configuration file.
- Support protocol conversion from RTMP to HTTP-FLV/HLS.
- Support cluster.
- Support RTSP.
- Support publishing or subscribing H.265/H.264/AAC stream over both TCP(Interleaved) and UDP.
- Support protocol conversion from RTSP to RTMP/HLS/HTTP-FLV.
- Support WebRTC(Whip/Whep).
- Support publishing rtc stream using Whip.
- Support subscribing rtc stream using Whep.
- Support HTTP-FLV/HLS protocols(Transferred from RTMP/RTSP).
- Support configuring the service using command line or a configuration file.
- Support HTTP API/Notifications.
- Support querying stream information.
- Support notification of stream status.
- Support token authentications.
- Support recording live streams into HLS files(m3u8+ts).
20- Dorsvr Streaming Server
Go RTSP Streaming Server
21- ZLMediaKit
ZLMediaKit is an open-source high-performance, enterprise-level streaming media service framework based on C++11.
Features
- Developed with C++11, avoiding the use of raw pointers, providing stable and reliable code with superior performance.
- Supports multiple protocols (RTSP/RTMP/HLS/HTTP-FLV/WebSocket-FLV/GB28181/HTTP-TS/WebSocket-TS/HTTP-fMP4/WebSocket-fMP4/MP4/WebRTC), and protocol conversion.
- Developed with multiplexing/multithreading/asynchronous network IO models, providing excellent concurrency performance and supporting massive client connections.
- The code has undergone extensive stability and performance testing, and has been extensively used in production environments.
- Supports all major platforms, including linux, macos, ios, android, and windows.
- Supports multiple instruction set platforms, such as x86, arm, risc-v, mips, Loongson, and Shenwei.
- Provides ultra-fast startup, extremely low latency (within 500 milliseconds, and can be as low as 100 milliseconds), and excellent user experience.
- Provides a comprehensive standard C API that can be used as an SDK or called by other languages.
- Provides a complete MediaServer server, which can be deployed directly as a commercial server without additional development.
- Provides a complete restful api and web hook, supporting rich business logic.
- Bridges the video surveillance protocol stack and the live streaming protocol stack, and provides comprehensive support for RTSP/RTMP.
- Fully supports H265/H264/AAC/G711/OPUS.
- Provides complete functions, including clustering, on-demand protocol conversion, on-demand push/pull streams, playback before publishing, and continuous publishing after disconnection.
- Provides ultimate performance, supporting 10W-level players on a single machine and 100Gb/s-level IO bandwidth capability.
- Provides ultimate user experience with exclusive features.
- Who is using zlmediakit?
- Fully supports IPv6 networks.
22- RTSP server
gst-rtsp-server is a library on top of GStreamer for building an RTSP server.
23- RTSPServer
RTSPServer stream live source using Live555; RTSPClient pull stream using FFmpeg.
24- v4l2rtspserver
RTSP Server for V4L2 device capture supporting HEVC/H264/JPEG/VP8/VP9.