An implementation of a rtsp client based on the .net framework

A .net library for receiving raw audio/video streams using rtsp.

Main features

• No external dependencies
• Easy to used
• Support Unicast TCP (interleaved mode) / Unicast UDP / Multicast Streaming transports
• Support multiple type of authentications: Basic and digest ( MD5, SHA1, SHA256, SHA512 )
• Support auto reconnection in case of network failures
• Support of event Handlers for connection loss, receiving packet, etc...
• Provide classes to access to the SDP informations
• Thread safe, except the sdp classes and some rtp classes
• Reduce memory copy for large memory blocks by using System.ArraySegment in order to minimize the usage of System.Buffer.BlockCopy
• Handle large streams with a high bitrate like 50 MBits per second
• Force the creation of ports used for receiving packets in case if the ports are temporaly used by some others applications
• Support RTSP message reordering when multiple requests are sended and responses arrive in a different order
• Support RTP packet reordering
• Support RTP - RFC 2435 - frame parsing (MJPEG) and picture reconstruction from packets (new implementation which include memory optimizations)

➡️ RTP HEVC/H264 a new implementation is actually in progress

How to receive raw rtp packets using the rtsp client ?

Like this :

using ( var client = new RtspClient() )
{
    // Raised when a successfull connection or when the communication has been recovered after a lost
    client.Connected += (sender, e) =>
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Client connected - " + client.Configuration.Uri);
    };

    // Raised when the communication has been lost
    client.Disconnected += (sender, e) =>
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Client disconnected - " + DateTime.Now);
    };

    // Raised when a raw media data has been received 
    client.PacketReceived += (sender, e) =>
    {
        var interleavedPacket = e.Packet as RtspInterleavedPacket;

	if ( interleavedPacket != null && interleavedPacket.Channel > 0 )
	    return;
	
	if ( RTPPacket.TryParse( e.Packet.Data , out RTPPacket packet ) )
            Console.WriteLine( "DataReceived {0}" , packet.Payload.Length );
    };

    client.Configuration.Uri = "rtsp://127.0.0.1/toy.mp4";
    client.Configuration.UserName = "admin";
    client.Configuration.Password = "camera123";
    client.Configuration.KeepAliveType = RtspKeepAliveType.Options; 
    client.Configuration.ReceiveTimeout = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(3);
    client.Configuration.SendTimeout = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5);

    client.Configuration.DeliveryMode = RtspDeliveryMode.Tcp;
    client.Configuration.MediaFormat = RtspMediaFormat.Video;

    client.StartCommunication(); 

    Console.WriteLine("Press any keys to close the application");
    Console.ReadKey();
}

About the connection class

The RtspConnection class will give you more features and a direct access to the protocol messaging layer. The following code demonstrate how to list the supported methods available on a security camera:

using ( var connection = new RtspConnection() )
{
    // Events subscriptions

    connection.Opened               += (sender, e) => Console.WriteLine("Connected");
    connection.MessageReceived      += (sender, e) => Console.WriteLine("Message received");
    connection.MessageSended        += (sender, e) => Console.WriteLine("Message sended");
    connection.DataReceived         += (sender, e) => Console.WriteLine("Data received");
    connection.AuthenticationFailed += (sender, e) => Console.WriteLine("Authentication failed");
    connection.Closed               += (sender, e) => Console.WriteLine("Connection closed");
    connection.Error                += (sender, e) => Console.WriteLine("Error occurs");

    // Connect to rtsp server (happytime-rtsp-server.exe)
    
    connection.Open("rtsp://192.168.1.11/city1.mp4");
     
    // Request the available methods from a server

    connection
            .GetOptions()
            .Invoke()
            .Response
            .GetHeaderPublicOptions()
            .ToList()
            .ForEach( Console.WriteLine )
            ;
}

Below, on the pseudo code, the remote method invocation works like this:

var bodyResult =

 connection

        .Play()

        .AddHeader( new RtspHeaderContentType( RtspMimeType.ApplicationText ) )
        .AddHeader( "X-Header1" , "my value 1")
        .AddHeader( "X-Header2" , "my value 2")
        .AddHeader( "X-Header3" , "my value 3")
        .AddHeader( "X-Header4" , "my value 4")
        .AddHeader( "X-Header5" , "my value 5")
        .AddHeader( "X-Header6" , "some_values={0}-{1};other_param={2};" , 1234 , 4321 , 5000 )

        .WriteBodyLine( "timestamp:{0}" , DateTime.Now )
        .WriteBodyLine( "computer:{0}" , System.Environment.Machine )
        .WriteBodyLine( "uuid:{0}" , Guid.NewGuid() )

        .Invoke()
	
        .Response

        .GetBody()
        ;

You will be able to decorate each request by adding customs headers, because some cameras can not reply to a request that just contains only standard headers or if there the message contains incomplete headers. If you want to invoke a method on a particular server, you MUST read the server documentation especially the SETUP method. For instance, the SETUP are used to ask to the camera to create a streaming session that relies on a specific transport layers.

⚠️: The only thing to known about the connection class is that the current implementation does not support SSL/TLS. But not yet.

About Session Description Protocol layer

That's an exemple of how to used the SDP.

var sessionDescriptor = new SessionDescriptor();

sessionDescriptor.Origin.UserName = "John";
sessionDescriptor.Origin.Address = "192.168.1.23";
sessionDescriptor.Origin.AddressType = AddressType.IPV4;
sessionDescriptor.Origin.NetworkType = NetworkType.Internet;
sessionDescriptor.Origin.Version = "V1";
sessionDescriptor.Origin.SessionId = "123456789";
sessionDescriptor.Version.Value = 1;
sessionDescriptor.SessionName.Value = "My session name";
sessionDescriptor.Repeats.Add(new RepeatField(new ValueTime(1, 2), new ValueTime(3, 4)));
sessionDescriptor.Repeats.Add(new RepeatField(new ValueTime(10, 20), new ValueTime(30, 40)));
sessionDescriptor.Attributes.Add(new AttributeField("myAttribute1", "myValue1"));
sessionDescriptor.Attributes.Add(new AttributeField("myAttribute2", "myValue2"));
sessionDescriptor.Attributes.Add(new AttributeField("myAttribute2", "myValue3"));

sessionDescriptor.Phones.Add(new PhoneField("+33 1 12 34 56 78"));
sessionDescriptor.Phones.Add(new PhoneField("+33 1 12 34 56 79"));
sessionDescriptor.Uri.Value = "rtsp://192.168.1.11:554/video/channel/1";

for ( int i = 1; i <= 10; ++ i )
{
    var mediaDescription = new MediaDescriptionField();

    mediaDescription.Payload = 1 + i;
    mediaDescription.Port = 10 + i;
    mediaDescription.Profile = ProfileType.AVP;
    mediaDescription.Protocol = ProtocolType.RTP;
    mediaDescription.Type = MediaType.Video;

    mediaDescription.Encryption.Key = "myKey"+i.ToString();
    mediaDescription.Encryption.Method = "myMethod"+i.ToString();
    mediaDescription.Connection.Address = "192.168.1."+i.ToString();
    mediaDescription.Connection.AddressType = AddressType.IPV4;
    mediaDescription.Connection.NetworkType = NetworkType.Internet;
    mediaDescription.Bandwiths.Add(new BandwithField("modifier", i));
    mediaDescription.Bandwiths.Add(new BandwithField("modifier"+i.ToString(), i+i));
    mediaDescription.Attributes.Add(new AttributeField("myAttribute1", "myValue1"));
    mediaDescription.Attributes.Add(new AttributeField("myAttribute2", "myValue2"));
    mediaDescription.Attributes.Add(new AttributeField("myAttribute3", "myValue3"));

    sessionDescriptor.MediaDescriptions.Add(mediaDescription);
}

Console.WriteLine( sessionDescriptor.ToString() );

if ( SessionDescriptor.TryParse( sessionDescriptor.ToString() , out SessionDescriptor descriptor ) )
{
    Console.WriteLine("Session descriptor parsed");
}

Test player

This project contains also a sample that demonstrate how to create a video player from a mjpeg rtsp source.

Getting more details ?

If you want to get more details, you can send me an email to "[email protected]"