C# WinForm - RTSP IP Camera Viewer

• Download IPCameraViewer.zip - 1.6 MB

Links

For testing purposes you can use my demo IP camera RTSP stream:
rtsp://stream.szep.cz/user=test_password=test_channel=1_stream=1

Introduction

RTSP stands for Real-Time Streaming Protocol, a network protocol designed for transmitting multimedia data over a network. It is encountered in audio/video transmission, it works on the application layer of the ISO/OSI reference model and the default port is 554. Practically every IP camera or NVR supports RTSP. Remember, sometimes you have to enable RTSP on the camera and the specific RTSP address may be different depending on the IP camera manufacturer.

You can easily play the RTSP stream in your C# WinForm application using the VLC library and VlcControl.

The example project is able to play, snapshot, record and save video stream to file. It also checks if 32-bit VLC Media Player is installed on your computer - if not, it will direct you to download it.

Necessary Things to Do

You must have VLC Media Player already installed on computer where you want to execute this project.

If you want to use VLCControl in your own project, first of all you have to install NuGet package 'VLC.DotNet.Forms':
Project > Manage NuGet Packages > Browse > Type 'VLC.DotNet.Forms' > Install

Then add VlcControl to your formr:
Toolbox > VlcControl > drop VlcControl somewhere into your form

All VLC Controls needs to use vlclib.dll located in VLC installation folder, in my case C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC.

This path must be always set in VlcLibDirectory property (you can easily set this property in designer). In example project, VlcLibDirectory is already set.

Using the code

At the moment we already have 32-bit VLC Media Player installed on computer, NuGet package installed and VlcControl, in my case named VLCPlayer, added to the form.

1. How to play RTSP stream

 VLCPlayer.Stop();

 VLCPlayer.SetMedia(new Uri("rtsp://something.xx/"), string.Empty);

 VLCPlayer.Play();

or you can also use

 VLCPlayer.Play(new Uri("rtsp://something.xx/"));

2. How to play and record RTSP stream, then save recording to file

You have to use double backslash when defining the path, otherways it doesn't work.

 bool IsRecording;

 if (!IsRecording)
 {

     // Start recording

     if (VLCPlayer.IsPlaying)
     {

         string path = $@"c:\\Users\\{Environment.UserName}\\Desktop\\{Guid.NewGuid()}.mp4";


         // Magic option string that creates recording:

         var mediaOptions = new[] { ":sout=#duplicate{dst=display,dst=std{access=file,mux=mp4,dst=\"" + path + "\"}" };


         VLCPlayer.SetMedia(new Uri("rtsp://something.xx/"), mediaOptions);

         VLCPlayer.Play();


         IsRecording = true;


     }

 }

 else
 {

     // Stop recording

     IsRecording = false;

     VLCPlayer.Stop();

     // keep playing without recording

     VLCPlayer.SetMedia(new Uri("rtsp://something.xx/"), string.Empty);

     VLCPlayer.Play();

 }

3. How to take snapshot, then save to file

You have to use double backslash when defining the path, otherways it doesn't work.

 if (VLCPlayer.IsPlaying)
 {

     string path = $@"c:\\Users\\{Environment.UserName}\\Desktop\\{Guid.NewGuid()}.png";

     VLCPlayer.TakeSnapshot(path);

 }

or if you want to specify output image size in pixels (for example 400x300):

 if (VLCPlayer.IsPlaying)
 {

     string path = $@"c:\\Users\\{Environment.UserName}\\Desktop\\{Guid.NewGuid()}.png";

     VLCPlayer.TakeSnapshot(path, 400, 300);

 }

4. How to set the audio volume

 VLCPlayer.Audio.Volume = 69;

5. How to mute the audio

 VLCPlayer.Audio.IsMute = true;

6. How to set custom aspect ratio

 VLCPlayer.Video.AspectRatio = "16:9"; // 4:3 , 0:0 ...