How to Play Back Recordings Using RTSP with "Range" Header in GStreamer

[truongnv1903]

Hello,

I am working with AXIS P1377-LE and AXIS 1467-LE cameras and need to play back recordings using RTSP with a specific start and stop time.

I initially attempted to set the "Range" parameter directly in the RTSP URL, using different formats such as:

rtsp://root:password@cameraIP/axis-media/media.amp?recordingid=ID&range=npt=10:60
rtsp://root:password@cameraIP/axis-media/media.amp?recordingid=ID&range=clock=20250205T120000Z-20250205T120100Z
rtsp://root:password@cameraIP/axis-media/media.amp?recordingid=ID&range=smpte=00:10:00-00:15:00
However, this approach did not work. Axis Support informed me that the "Range" field is an RTSP header, not a URL parameter, and needs to be set within the RTSP request itself.

I am using GStreamer in C++ to parse the RTSP stream. I successfully used the export-recording API to extract and play recordings within a custom time range, but I still need a way to play recordings directly via RTSP with a specified range.

My questions:

How can I correctly set the "Range" header in an RTSP request when using GStreamer?
Does GStreamer support setting the RTSP "Range" header, and if so, how can it be implemented?
Any guidance or example implementations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[github-actions[bot]]

This automatically generated reply acts as a friendly reminder.

Answers to your questions will most often come from the community, from developers like yourself. You will, from time to time, find that Axis employees answers some of the questions, but this is not a guarantee. Think of the discussion forum as a complement to other support channels, not a replacement to any of them.

If your question remains unanswered for a period of time, please revisit it to see whether it can be improved by following the guidelines listed in Axis support guidelines.

[rocky-ji]

I know in ffplay -ss can seek ss seconds and playback.
ffplay -ss 100 rtsp://root:[email protected]/axis-media/media.amp?recordingid=20240717_231914_DE8A_B8A44F6F250E

I tried to ask chatgpt to translate it into gst-launch-1.0, but it seems it will always play from the start in gst-launch-1.0, it is mentioned that rtspsrc does not have good support for seek.

gst-launch-1.0 rtspsrc location="rtsp://root:[email protected]/axis-media/media.amp?recordingid=20250212_133419_3287_B8A44F284CF7" do-timestamp=true ! rtph264depay ! h264parse ! decodebin ! videoconvert ! autovideosink seek=true seek-time=100000000000

[truongnv1903]

Dear rocky-ji,

Thank you for your support and insights. I appreciate the suggestion regarding ffplay -ss, and I also found that seeking is possible in GStreamer via code using gst_event_new_seek(). I tested it, and it works as expected for seeking within the stream.

gboolean seek_to_time(gpointer user_data) {
SeekData *data = (SeekData *)user_data;
GstElement *pipeline = data->pipeline;
gint64 seconds = data->seek_time;

GstEvent *seek_event = gst_event_new_seek(
    1.0, // Normal speed
    GST_FORMAT_TIME,
    (GstSeekFlags)(GST_SEEK_FLAG_FLUSH | GST_SEEK_FLAG_KEY_UNIT),
    GST_SEEK_TYPE_SET,
    seconds * GST_SECOND, // Convert seconds to nanoseconds
    GST_SEEK_TYPE_NONE,
    GST_CLOCK_TIME_NONE
);

gboolean success = gst_element_send_event(pipeline, seek_event);
if (success) {
    g_print("Seeking to %lld seconds\n", seconds);
} else {
    g_printerr("Seek failed!\n");
}

// Free memory
g_free(data);
return FALSE;

}

However, my goal is to seek using the Range parameter directly in the RTSP URL. If you have any further insights on whether this is achievable or if RTSP headers must be explicitly set instead, I’d appreciate your guidance.

Thanks again for your help!

Best regards,
Truong Nguyen

[rocky-ji]

Haven't tried that, hope it will help.

https://developer.axis.com/vapix/network-video/edge-storage-api/#play-recording-using-rtsp

[truongnv1903]

Thank you for the link. I’m already familiar with this documentation, but unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get it to work as expected. If you have any additional insights or examples on how to implement seeking using the Range parameter in RTSP, I’d appreciate it.