RTSP Protocol

RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) is the most commonly used protocol in the security surveillance domain. Monibuca V6 supports RTSP publishing and subscribing, with compatibility for both RTP over TCP (Interleaved) and RTP over UDP transport modes.

Basic Information

Property	Value
Default Port	8554
Transport Layer	TCP (signaling) + TCP/UDP (media)
Publish	✅ Supported
Subscribe	✅ Supported
Latency	0.5-2 seconds
Feature Flag	rtsp

Note

The default port is 8554 instead of the standard 554 to avoid requiring root privileges to bind privileged ports on Linux. If you need to use port 554, ensure you run the service with appropriate permissions.

Configuration

Feature Activation

Cargo.toml

[features]
rtsp = ["dep:plugin-rtsp"]

Configuration File

rtsp:
  enable: true
  tcp:
    listen_addr: ":8554"
  udp_port_min: 10000
  udp_port_max: 20000

Option	Type	Default	Description
enable	bool	true	Whether to enable the RTSP plugin
tcp.listen_addr	string	":8554"	RTSP service listen address
udp_port_min	u16	10000	RTP over UDP port range start
udp_port_max	u16	20000	RTP over UDP port range end

Transport Modes

RTP over TCP (Interleaved)

Multiplexes RTP data over the RTSP TCP connection, suitable for environments where firewalls restrict UDP.

# FFmpeg force TCP transport
ffplay -rtsp_transport tcp rtsp://localhost:8554/live/test

RTP over UDP

Uses separate UDP port pairs for RTP data transport, offering lower latency. The server automatically allocates available ports from the configured port range (default 10000-20000).

# FFmpeg using UDP transport (default)
ffplay -rtsp_transport udp rtsp://localhost:8554/live/test

Publishing

Publishing with FFmpeg

# RTSP publish (TCP transport)
ffmpeg -re -i input.mp4 -c copy -rtsp_transport tcp -f rtsp rtsp://localhost:8554/live/test

# RTSP publish (UDP transport)
ffmpeg -re -i input.mp4 -c copy -f rtsp rtsp://localhost:8554/live/test

# Camera capture and publish
ffmpeg -f v4l2 -i /dev/video0 \
  -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -tune zerolatency \
  -f rtsp rtsp://localhost:8554/live/camera

Camera Integration

Most IP cameras support RTSP output. Use Monibuca as an RTSP client to pull streams from cameras:

# Typical camera RTSP URL formats
# Hikvision
rtsp://admin:password@192.168.1.100:554/Streaming/Channels/101

# Dahua
rtsp://admin:password@192.168.1.100:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0

Subscribing

Subscribing with FFplay

# TCP mode subscribe
ffplay -rtsp_transport tcp rtsp://localhost:8554/live/test

# UDP mode subscribe
ffplay rtsp://localhost:8554/live/test

Subscribing with VLC

1. Open VLC, select Media → Open Network Stream
2. Enter URL: rtsp://localhost:8554/live/test
3. Click Play

Stream Path Format

RTSP URL format: rtsp://host:port/{app}/{stream}

For example, rtsp://localhost:8554/live/test corresponds to stream path live/test.

Cross-Protocol Forwarding

Streams published via RTSP can be played back through other protocols:

# RTSP publish
ffmpeg -re -i input.mp4 -c copy -f rtsp rtsp://localhost:8554/live/test

# Play via HTTP-FLV
ffplay http://localhost:8080/flv/live/test.flv

# Play via HLS
ffplay http://localhost:8080/hls/live/test/index.m3u8

# Play via RTMP
ffplay rtmp://localhost:1935/live/test

FAQ

Insufficient UDP Ports

When connecting a large number of cameras simultaneously, you may need to expand the UDP port range:

rtsp:
  udp_port_min: 10000
  udp_port_max: 60000

NAT Traversal Issues

In NAT environments, it is recommended to use TCP transport mode to avoid UDP port mapping issues.