Video Streaming Protocol

In this post, I wrote about video file format and video code. When you want to do live streaming, you need to know video streaming protocols.

You can upload a video as a file (flv, mp4 gif). However you cann’t download it after finishing upload. You should use a streaming protocol when you want to watch a partially downloaded video.

RTMP

It was initially developed by Macromedia which is owned by Adobe as proprietary protocol(for streaming data between a flash player and a server). Its specification has been released. It is used not only for a flash player.

RTSP

RTSP is an open protocol. Its RFC was published in 1998. 2.0 was published in 2016.

HLS

HLS was developed by Apple. Unlike other protocols, an entire stream is broken down into a small HTTP-based file downloads.

Although RTMP was initially developed for flash, it is still used especially when you upload a video stream. RTMP/RTSP are usually used for upload and HLS is getting popular for downloading a video stream. You can use a video tag in your html to play a HLS stream.