Infinite stream from a video file (in a loop)

Question

Is there any way howto create an infinite h264 stream from a video file (eg. mp4, avi, ...). I'd like to use ffmpeg to transcode avi file to h264 but there's no loop option for output.

score 22 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 25 '16 at 04:28

22

You should be able to use the -stream_loop -1 flag before the input (-i):

ffmpeg -threads 2 -re -fflags +genpts -stream_loop -1 -i ./test.mp4 -c copy ./test.m3u8

The -fflags +genpts will regenerate the pts timestamps so it loops smoothly, otherwise the time sequence will be incorrect as it loops.

answered Jul 25 '16 at 04:28

chovy

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The stream_loop bug still happens. – Gyan Jul 25 '16 at 05:08
1

Works fine on ffmpeg 3.3 Ubuntu 16.04 has 2.8 IIRC. Thanks. – Ark74 Jul 12 '17 at 02:49

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:46

6

No you can't. There is no such command in ffmpeg to loop video. You can use -loop for image only. If you are interested you can use concat demuxer. Create a playlist file e.g. playlist.txt

Inside playlist.txt add the video location

file '/path/to/video/video.mp4'
file '/path/to/video/video.mp4'
file '/path/to/video/video.mp4'
file '/path/to/video/video.mp4'
file '/path/to/video/video.mp4'

Run ffmpeg

ffmpeg -f concat -i playlist.txt -c copy output.mp4

See here

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:46

Community

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1

answered Jun 18 '15 at 07:56

budthapa

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you can loop video by either using a stream loop `-stream_loop` or a loop filter: `-filter_complex loop=repeat:size:start' for more info read the documentation on the [FFMPEG site](https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#loop) – user2843110 Nov 02 '17 at 20:42
There's also `movie=` which can loop, and works fine here. – Ken Sharp Feb 15 '18 at 13:31

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 18 '20 at 19:54

If you want to have a live stream by looping a single video file then you could split it into .ts files and then simulate .m3u8 file with a php script which would return different .ts based on current time. You could try something similar to this:

<?php
// lets assume that we have stream splitted to parts named testXXXXX.ts
// and all parts have 2.4 seconds and we want to play in loop part
// from test0.ts to test29.ts forever in a live stream
header('Content-Type: application/x-mpegURL');
$time = intval(time() / 2.40000);
$s1 = ($time + 1) % 30;
$s2 = ($time + 2) % 30;
$s3 = ($time + 3) % 30;
$s4 = ($time + 4) % 30;
?>
#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-VERSION:3
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:2
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:<?php echo "$time\n"; ?>
#EXTINF:2.40000,
test<?php echo $s1; ?>.ts
<?php if ($s2 < $s1) echo "#EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY\n"; ?>
#EXTINF:2.40000,
test<?php echo $s2; ?>.ts
<?php if ($s3 < $s2) echo "#EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY\n"; ?>
#EXTINF:2.40000,
test<?php echo $s3; ?>.ts
<?php if ($s4 < $s3) echo "#EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY\n"; ?>
#EXTINF:2.40000,
test<?php echo $s4; ?>.ts

Infinite stream from a video file (in a loop)

3 Answers3