How to List Devices and Stream Live Video with FFmpeg to RTMP and RTSP

Listing Local Devices with FFmpeg

Run the following command to display video and microphone devices recognized by DirectShow on Windows: ffmpeg -list_devices true -f dshow -i dummy The output highlights video devices and microphone devices in red.

Streaming to an RTMP Server

Use FFmpeg to capture from the Lenovo EasyCamera and the default microphone, encode with libx264, and push the stream to an RTMP endpoint:

ffmpeg -f dshow -i video="Lenovo EasyCamera":audio="麦克风 (Realtek High Definition Audio)" \
 -vcodec libx264 \
 -acodec copy -preset:v ultrafast -tune:v zerolatency \
 -f flv "rtmp://aitech.com/live/tinywan123"

Viewing the Live Stream with VLC

Open VLC media player and open the network stream URL (RTMP or RTSP) to watch the live video.

Streaming to an RTSP Server (EasyDarwin)

Push the same capture to an RTSP server using FFmpeg. The command below includes the libvo_aacenc audio codec and sets the output format to RTSP:

ffmpeg -f dshow \
 -i video="Lenovo EasyCamera":audio="麦克风 (Realtek High Definition Audio)" \
 -vcodec libx264 \
 -acodec libvo_aacenc \
 -preset:v ultrafast -tune:v zerolatency \
 -f rtsp rtsp://13313.3123/tinywan123.sdp

Setting Frame Rate and Bitrate

When streaming via RTSP, you may need to set the frame rate (e.g., 25 fps) before the output URL and optionally increase the bitrate:

ffmpeg -f dshow \
 -i video="Lenovo EasyCamera":audio="麦克风 (Realtek High Definition Audio)" \
 -vcodec libx264 \
 -acodec libvo_aacenc -b 1080k \
 -r 25 \
 -preset:v ultrafast -tune:v zerolatency \
 -f rtsp rtsp://127.0.0.1/tinywan123.sdp