How to Build an Nginx RTMP Server on Windows and Stream Local Video with FFmpeg

RTMP Overview

RTMP (Real‑Time Messaging Protocol) is a streaming protocol originally owned by Adobe. It typically transports FLV or F4V streams over a single TCP channel, carrying both commands and media data.

FFmpeg Overview

FFmpeg is an open‑source suite (LGPL/GPL) that can record, convert, and stream audio‑video. It provides a complete solution for capturing, transcoding, and streaming media.

Download Tools

Download FFmpeg from http://www.ffmpeg.org/ and the Windows build of Nginx‑RTMP from https://github.com/zhongwcool/nginx-rtmp-win64. After extracting, keep the three executable files in the bin directory.

Configure Nginx‑RTMP

The provided nginx.conf already contains an rtmp block. The key directives are: listen 1935; – the port Nginx listens on for RTMP. application live { live on; } – the publishing endpoint.

application hls { live on; hls on; hls_path temp/hls; hls_fragment 8s; }

– enables HLS output, stores segments in temp/hls, each fragment lasting 8 seconds.

Full configuration snippet:

#user  nobody;
worker_processes  1;

events {
    worker_connections  1024;
}

rtmp {
    server {
        listen 1935;
        application live {
            live on;
        }
        application hls {
            live on;
            hls on;
            hls_path temp/hls;
            hls_fragment 8s;
        }
    }
}

http {
    include       mime.types;
    default_type  application/octet-stream;
    sendfile        on;
    keepalive_timeout  65;
    server {
        listen       110;
        server_name  localhost;
        location / {
            root   html;
            index  index.html index.htm;
        }
        error_page   500 502 503 504  /50x.html;
        location = /50x.html {
            root   html;
        }
    }
}

After editing, create the directory temp/hls inside the Nginx folder.

Start Nginx

Double‑click nginx.exe. Verify the process in Task Manager or inspect the logs folder for errors.

Prepare FFmpeg and Video

Place the target video (e.g., D:\test\1.mp4) and ffmpeg.exe in the same folder.

Create Streaming Script

Create start.bat with the following command:

ffmpeg.exe -re -i D:\test\1.mp4 -vcodec libx264 -acodec aac -f flv rtmp://127.0.0.1:1935/live/badao

The command streams the local file to the RTMP URL rtmp://127.0.0.1:1935/live/badao, where 1935 matches the Nginx listen port, live is the application name, and badao is a custom stream key.

Run the batch file by double‑clicking it; FFmpeg will start pushing the video to Nginx.

Test with VLC

Download VLC from https://www.videolan.org/vlc/, open “Media → Open Network Stream”, and enter the same RTMP URL ( rtmp://127.0.0.1:1935/live/badao). VLC should display the streamed video, confirming that the Nginx‑RTMP server and FFmpeg pipeline are working correctly.