Programming
How to play UStream channels in VLC
Contents
Introduction
Ustream.tv doesn’t support opening streams in VLC by default, but it is possible with some effort. Most video streaming sites use the Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) for transmitting video data to your flash player. Using rtmpdump we can connect to RTMP streams, and record them or play them in VLC.
1: Install rtmpdump
On Ubuntu:
$ sudo apt-get install rtmpdump
Binaries for all platforms: here.
2: Find the RTMPDump Parameters
It’s not trivial to find out the correct parameters for rtmpdump, so use this Python script:
#!/usr/bin/env python # This script finds the rtmpdump command syntax for opening a UStream stream. import sys import urllib2 import re def getVideoData(url): # Get the HTML contents req = urllib2.Request(url) response = urllib2.urlopen(req) html = response.read() # Extract the channel ID from the HTML channelId = None m = re.search("Channel\sID\:\s+(\d+)", html) if (m): channelId = m.group(1) # Extract the channel title from the HTML channelTitle = None m = re.search("property\=\"og\:url\"\s+content\=\"http\:\/\/www." + "ustream\.tv\/(?:channel\/)?([^\"]+)\"", html) if (m): channelTitle = m.group(1) amfContent = None if (channelId): amfUrl = ("http://cdngw.ustream.tv/Viewer/getStream/1/" + channelId + ".amf") response = urllib2.urlopen(amfUrl) amfContent = response.read() rtmpUrl = re.search("(rtmp\:\/\/[^\x00]+)", amfContent).group(1) f = open('tmp.txt', 'w') f.write(amfContent) streamName = re.search("streamName(?:\W+)([^\x00]+)", amfContent).group(1) return (channelId, channelTitle, rtmpUrl, streamName) def getRtmpCommand(rtmpUrl, streamName): result = ("rtmpdump -v -r \"" + rtmpUrl + "/" + streamName + "\"" " -W \"http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf\" --live") return result def main(argv=None): # Process arguments if argv is None: argv = sys.argv[1:] usage = ("Usage: ustreamRTMPDump.py[filename]\n" "e.g. \"ustreamRTMPDump.py 'http://www.ustream.tv/ffrc'\"") if (len(argv) < 1): print usage return # Get RTMP information and print it url = argv[0] print "Opening url: " + url + "\n" (channelId, channelTitle, rtmpUrl, streamName) = getVideoData(url) print "Channel ID: " + channelId print "Channel Title: " + channelTitle print "RTMP URL: " + rtmpUrl print "RTMP Streamname: " + streamName + "\n" rtmpCmd = getRtmpCommand(rtmpUrl, streamName) print "RTMP Command:\n" + rtmpCmd if __name__ == "__main__": main()
To use this script to get the rtmpdump command for a UStream channel, simply call it with the channel URL:
python ustreamRTMPDump.py <url>
For example:
$ python ustreamRTMPDump.py "http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles" Opening url: http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles Channel ID: 3064708 Channel Title: decoraheagles RTMP URL: rtmp://ustreamlivefs.fplive.net/ustream3live-live/ RTMP Streamname: stream_live_1_1_3064708 RTMP Command: rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://ustreamlivefs.fplive.net/ustream3live-live//stream_live_1_1_3064708" -W "http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" --live
Running this command will connect to the stream and write the binary data to the terminal as characters. Not exactly what we want. But we can easily write the stream data to a file, or play it in VLC!
3: Record or Play the Stream
To play the stream in VLC, simply pipe the command into VLC by adding | vlc -.
$ rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://ustreamlivefs.fplive.net/ustream3live-live//stream_live_1_1_3064708" -W "http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" --live | vlc -
To record the stream to a file video.flv simply add -o video.flv to the command.
$ rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://ustreamlivefs.fplive.net/ustream3live-live//stream_live_1_1_3064708" -W "http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" --live -o video.flv
You can then play this file in VLC, even while it is being recorded:
$ vlc video.flv
Example Output
$ rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://ustreamlivefs.fplive.net/ustream3live-live//stream_live_1_1_3064708" -W "http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" --live | vlc - RTMPDump v2.4 (c) 2010 Andrej Stepanchuk, Howard Chu, The Flvstreamer Team; license: GPL VLC media player 2.0.1 Twoflower (revision 2.0.1-0-gf432547) WARNING: You haven't specified an output file (-o filename), using stdout [0x8d07908] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface. ERROR: RTMP_HashSWF: couldn't contact swfurl http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf (HTTP error 302) Connecting ... INFO: Connected... Starting Live Stream INFO: Metadata: INFO: author INFO: copyright INFO: description INFO: keywords INFO: rating INFO: title INFO: presetname Custom INFO: creationdate Sat May 19 23:01:07 2012 INFO: videodevice ATI AVStream Analog Capture INFO: framerate 30.00 INFO: width 720.00 INFO: height 480.00 INFO: videocodecid avc1 INFO: videodatarate 500.00 INFO: avclevel 50.00 INFO: avcprofile 77.00 INFO: videokeyframe_frequency1.00 INFO: audiodevice Microphone (Realtek High Defini INFO: audiosamplerate 22050.00 INFO: audiochannels 1.00 INFO: audioinputvolume 100.00 INFO: audiocodecid .mp3 INFO: audiodatarate 48.00 0.634 kB / 0.00 sec"sni-qt/24365" WARN 20:30:09.944 void StatusNotifierItemFactory::connectToSnw() Invalid interface to SNW_SERVICE 36.430 kB / 0.00 sec[flv @ 0xb5211aa0] Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate 214.671 kB / 1.13 sec
Thanks for the help, script works a treat. –
Good idea to publish that script. Unfortunately, I can’t get it working (Win X86-64), there is an error:
File "ustreamRTMPDump.py", line 59 print usage ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntaxI’m wondering if you can fix it?
Hi,
The code works fine here, I just tested it on an old Ubuntu installation with Python 2.6.5. What is your Python version? I haven’t tested it, but if you are using Python 3 then it is entirely possible this script doesn’t work. So be sure to use Python 2.6 or 2.7.
Hi, I have no knowledge of python whatsoever however I have gotten far enough to be able to run .py files. Could somebody walk me through what I have to put where in here preferably in baby steps please, you don’t have to explain the inner workings of python to me, literally just what URLs and such I have to put where for this to work? It’s just I have a great idea but I need to get this to work for it to work, thanks in advance. Also sorry if that’s asking too much.
You say you can run .py files, so all you have to do is call the script with the URL of the UStream video as a parameter:
python ustreamRTMPDump.py "http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles"Sorry about this, I think I got slightly ahead of myself. I have the means to run the script I just don’t know how. Where do I have to put the script.py for the command line to recognise it as I keep getting invalid syntax?
You can put the script anywhere. Just put it in a directory, navigate to that directory, and enter the command. If you can’t figure it out you can post the error here…
Basically this.
The first command will work if you put the script in
C:\Python27\ustreamRTMPDump.py. You may want to check out a Python tutorial first if you run into more problems. Good luck!Just responding to say I got it working
Thanks for the help, script works a treat.