webcam2rtsp 0.1.0

Cross-platform RTSP H.264 webcam streamer using GStreamer

webcam2rtsp

webcam2rtsp streams a local laptop or USB webcam over RTSP using Python and GStreamer. It supports Linux, macOS, and Windows when the matching GStreamer camera source plugin is installed.

Default stream URL:

rtsp://<computer-ip>:8854/webcam1

Features

• RTSP server with configurable bind address, port, and mount path
• Platform defaults for Linux, macOS, and Windows webcams
• Configurable camera device, resolution, framerate, and H.264 bitrate
• Custom GStreamer source support for unusual camera drivers
• Compatible with VLC, FFplay, and other RTSP clients

Install GStreamer

macOS

brew install gstreamer gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good gst-libav gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-ugly pygobject3

If Python cannot find the GStreamer libraries, export these variables:

webcam2rtsp --print-env

The command detects /opt/homebrew on Apple Silicon Macs and /usr/local on Intel Macs. It prints values like PATH, DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH, GI_TYPELIB_PATH, GST_PLUGIN_PATH, and GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH_1_0 only when those paths exist.

Linux

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y python3-gi python3-gst-1.0 gir1.2-gst-rtsp-server-1.0 \
  gstreamer1.0-tools gstreamer1.0-plugins-base gstreamer1.0-plugins-good \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly

Fedora:

sudo dnf install -y python3-gobject gstreamer1 gstreamer1-plugins-base \
  gstreamer1-plugins-good gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free gstreamer1-plugins-ugly \
  gstreamer1-rtsp-server

Windows

PyGObject usually does not install from normal PyPI on Windows. If you see No module named gi or Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement PyGObject, do not keep retrying pip install PyGObject.

Recommended Windows setup:

1. Install MSYS2 from:

https://www.msys2.org/

2. Open the MSYS2 UCRT64 shell.

3. Install Python, PyGObject, GStreamer, plugins, and RTSP server bindings:

pacman -S --needed mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-python mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-python-gobject mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gstreamer mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gst-plugins-base mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gst-plugins-good mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gst-plugins-bad mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gst-plugins-ugly mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gst-libav mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gst-rtsp-server

4. Install webcam2rtsp using the MSYS2 Python:

python -m pip install webcam2rtsp
webcam2rtsp-doctor

Install webcam2rtsp

After installing GStreamer for your operating system:

python -m pip install webcam2rtsp

If you want pip to also try installing the Python PyGObject binding on macOS or Linux, use the optional extra:

python -m pip install "webcam2rtsp[pygobject]"

For Debian/Ubuntu virtual environments that use python3-gi from apt, create the environment with system packages visible:

python3 -m venv --system-site-packages .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install webcam2rtsp

Verify the native GStreamer setup:

webcam2rtsp-doctor

On macOS and Windows, webcam2rtsp automatically detects common GStreamer install paths before importing PyGObject. If your shell still needs the same values permanently, print them with:

webcam2rtsp --print-env

Then add the printed lines to your shell profile, such as ~/.zshrc on macOS.

For local development from this repository:

git clone https://github.com/CosminBMemetea/webcam2rtsp.git
cd webcam2rtsp
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
python -m pip install -e .

On Debian/Ubuntu, prefer this venv command when using python3-gi from apt:

python3 -m venv --system-site-packages venv

requirements.txt is intentionally empty for runtime dependencies. The gi module comes from native PyGObject packages installed through Homebrew, apt, dnf, pacman, or another operating-system package manager.

Local development can run the same checks with:

python -m webcam2rtsp --doctor
python -m webcam2rtsp --print-env

Run

Use the default webcam:

python -m webcam2rtsp

Open the stream from another machine on the same network:

rtsp://<computer-ip>:8854/webcam1

Local test with FFplay:

ffplay rtsp://127.0.0.1:8854/webcam1

Configuration

python -m webcam2rtsp \
  --address 0.0.0.0 \
  --port 8554 \
  --mount-point /camera \
  --device /dev/video2 \
  --width 1280 \
  --height 720 \
  --framerate 30 \
  --bitrate 2500

Device examples:

# Linux
python -m webcam2rtsp --device /dev/video0

# macOS
python -m webcam2rtsp --device 0

# Windows
python -m webcam2rtsp --device 0

Use a custom GStreamer source when the default source is not right for your camera:

python -m webcam2rtsp --source "autovideosrc"
python -m webcam2rtsp --source "dshowvideosrc device-name=\"Integrated Camera\""

Available options:

python -m webcam2rtsp --help

Publish to PyPI

Build the package:

python -m pip install --upgrade build twine
python -m build

Check the package metadata:

python -m twine check dist/*

Upload to TestPyPI first:

python -m twine upload --repository testpypi dist/*

Upload to PyPI when the TestPyPI package installs correctly:

python -m twine upload dist/*

Platform Defaults

• Linux: v4l2src device="/dev/video0"
• macOS: avfvideosrc device-index=0
• Windows: mfvideosrc device-index=0

License

MIT