Videostream

stuartofmt

Videostream is a simple, lightweight video streamer for USB cameras, integrated Pi cameras and likely others.

I have noticed that some of us (me too) end up wresting with various software in order to successfully setup video streaming. As well some of the software has a large footprint and in some cases ends up consuming excessive amounts of CPU and other system resources.

Videostream addresses many of these issues by attempting a "goldilocks" solution - not too big/small not too complex - "just right".

It is particularly useful when you want to same video feed to be consumed by more than one application. For example you want to use a timelapse recording recording program and at the same time monitor in real time.

Videostream is designed to run continuously and can accept a http command to terminate the program. Typically, you would use a browser but curl or other means can be used.

It runs on Linux and Windows10 and WSL

###Version 1.0.0

Initial Version

###Version 1.1.0

[1] Improved the detection of size and formats

[2] Can now select a preferred format

[3] Improved the fallback to a lower size if the selected size is not available.

[4] If the preferred format is not available an available format will be used.

###Version 2.0.0

[1] Adds support for embedded cameras on the latest Raspberry Pi Release (Bullseye with Libcamera).

[2] Some internal restructuring to improve performance.

[3] Updated documentation

The main capabilities include:

Automatically scans for available cameras and determines the resolutions it / they support.
Supports USB cameras (most should work).
Supports integrated Pi Camera and likely other integrated cameras (e.g. from a laptop).
Is light in its use of system resources
Allows camera selection if more than one camera is available.
Allows video size selections.
Allows video rotation.
Allows video format selection

The full instructions for downloading / setup are found here:
https://github.com/stuartofmt/videostream

stuartofmt

Videostream on DWC uses the following (example) settings.

settings:

stuartofmt

Released Version 1.1.0.

[1] Improved the detection of size and formats

[2] Can now select a preferred format

[3] Improved the fallback to a lower size if the selected size is not available.

[4] If the preferred format is not available an available format will be used.

stuartofmt

Version 2.0.0

Adds support for embedded cameras on the latest Raspberry Pi Release (Bullseye with Libcamera).

See here for full documentation:

https://github.com/stuartofmt/videostream

fractalengineer

Hi @stuartofmt

I have a pi cam ribbon connected to my Rpi3b+ Duet3

I've tried following the steps on your wiki but I can't get it working; looks like everything is installed, I just can't get it started

I see you have 2 different starting methods; buster and bullseye.

My pi is running DuetPi; is there any way to make it work?

stuartofmt

@fractalengineer said in Videostream:

Hi @stuartofmt

I have a pi cam ribbon connected to my Rpi3b+ Duet3

I've tried following the steps on your wiki but I can't get it working; looks like everything is installed, I just can't get it started

I see you have 2 different starting methods; buster and bullseye.

My pi is running DuetPi; is there any way to make it work?

I too run a Pi3B+ with a Pi (ribbon cable) camera. So getting you up and running should be straightforward.

Buster and Bullseye refer to Debian releases. The "standard" pi install likely uses one of these.
There are significant differences to the camera drivers, introduced by RPi, for these versions. Essentially a "new way forward" starting with Bullseye. To confound matters further, there are differences between pre Pi4 and RP4.

The first thing to resolve is what OS are you using?

cat /etc/os-release

Next - what cameras are detected:

v4l2-ctl --list-devices

What is the output of:

ls /dev/video*

Multiple logical camera's will likely be present.

Once you know the answer to the questions above, then the notes and test programs will make more sense (i.e. which ones to use).

Before we go there, there a couple of simple tests that can be made, once the OS version is understood.

fractalengineer

@stuartofmt understood!

Thank you for your response; looks like it's running buster indeed

pi@duet3:~ $ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)"
NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="10"
VERSION="10 (buster)"
VERSION_CODENAME=buster
ID=raspbian
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianForums"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianBugs"

pi@duet3:~ $ v4l2-ctl --list-devices
bcm2835-codec-decode (platform:bcm2835-codec):
        /dev/video10
        /dev/video11
        /dev/video12
        /dev/video18

bcm2835-isp (platform:bcm2835-isp):
        /dev/video13
        /dev/video14
        /dev/video15
        /dev/video16

mmal service 16.1 (platform:bcm2835-v4l2-0):
        /dev/video0

pi@duet3:~ $ ls /dev/video*
/dev/video0   /dev/video11  /dev/video13  /dev/video15  /dev/video18
/dev/video10  /dev/video12  /dev/video14  /dev/video16

From there I can confirm opencv seems to be properly installed, as the cv2.__version__ command does return 3.4.4

Next I enabled the camera and performed the camera test; looks like it's on Cam0

pi@duet3:~ $ raspistill -v -o test.jpg

"raspistill" Camera App (commit bab9bf8790cd Tainted)

Camera Name ov5647
Width 2592, Height 1944, filename test.jpg
Using camera 0, sensor mode 0

GPS output Disabled

Quality 85, Raw no
Thumbnail enabled Yes, width 64, height 48, quality 35
Time delay 5000, Timelapse 0
Link to latest frame enabled  no
Full resolution preview No
Capture method : Single capture

Preview Yes, Full screen Yes
Preview window 0,0,1024,768
Opacity 255
Sharpness 0, Contrast 0, Brightness 50
Saturation 0, ISO 0, Video Stabilisation No, Exposure compensation 0
Exposure Mode 'auto', AWB Mode 'auto', Image Effect 'none'
Flicker Avoid Mode 'off'
Metering Mode 'average', Colour Effect Enabled No with U = 128, V = 128
Rotation 0, hflip No, vflip No
ROI x 0.000000, y 0.000000, w 1.000000 h 1.000000
Camera component done
Encoder component done
Starting component connection stage
Connecting camera preview port to video render.
Connecting camera stills port to encoder input port
Opening output file test.jpg
Enabling encoder output port
Starting capture -1
Finished capture -1
Closing down
Close down completed, all components disconnected, disabled and destroyed

Following this I tried launching the stream again with

python3 ./videostream.py -camera0 -port 8082 -rotate 180 -size 5 2>/dev/null

But the stream link remains empty.

I then went back to my install directory to check for videostream installation and got this

pi@duet3:~/videostream $ python3 ./videostream.py -h
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./videostream.py", line 10, in <module>
    import imutils
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'imutils'

So I reinstalled again, attempted to start it again and I'm getting the imutils message again

pi@duet3:~/videostream $ Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./videostream.py", line 10, in <module>
    import imutils
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'imutils'

I then tried using the apt-get command to fetch imutils but it won't find it.

Any tips from there? Thanks!

jay_s_uk

@fractalengineer try pip3 install imutils

fractalengineer

@jay_s_uk holy it's working! brilliant thank you, I've had this cam wired for the past 2years and couldn't get it to work haha

So do I need to go in putty and start the service every time I reboot? Or is there a way to have it autostart

stuartofmt

@fractalengineer said in Videostream:

@jay_s_uk holy it's working! brilliant thank you, I've had this cam wired for the past 2years and couldn't get it to work haha

So do I need to go in putty and start the service every time I reboot? Or is there a way to have it autostart

I set mine up to autostart using systemctl.

There are instructions here:

https://github.com/stuartofmt/videostream/blob/master/system-unit-file.md

and a sample unit file here:

https://github.com/stuartofmt/videostream/blob/master/videostream.service

fractalengineer

@stuartofmt Thank you!

Just wanted to post an update to say I got it working and it's running just fine; great work!

stuartofmt

@fractalengineer