mjpg-streamer running on roboRIO

[virtuald]

This sounds great. I've been contemplating finding something like this and compiling for the roborio (though I was considering ffmpeg et al), now I don't have to!

I've been nervous about running the streaming stuff in the same process as our robot code (particularly since we're in python and there are GIL contention issues), so having a standalone executable sounds great.

[cbf]

Have you guys run this during a competition yet? I would be concerned about the bandwidth taken by two simultaneous video streams. In the past, we've accidentally saturated the feed between our laptop and the robot with a single 640 x 480 stream.

[EmileH]

How do you display it on the PC, thru smartdashboard or VLC? And does the FMS allow for communications over the ports used?

[taichichuan]

Originally Posted by emileh3467

How do you display it on the PC, thru smartdashboard or VLC? And does the FMS allow for communications over the ports used?

Actually, a simple web browser will do the display just fine. You can compile mjpg-streamer for vlc, udp, rtsp or one of several other options. However, we've just been using the output_http.so plugin and Chrome, Firefox or IE to display it on the DS. You can even make it start automatically just like the dashboard normally would if you want to.

HTH,

Mike

[virtuald]

We're actually doing our DS in HTML/JS, with a python interface to forward networktables to/from the HTML page, so the mjpg-streamer is exactly what we're looking for. We played with it a little bit today and it's pretty sweet, but haven't wired it into our interface yet.

I'm curious, what javascript magic do you need to do to switch streams? Is there a delay? We setup two servers, and were able to stream two cameras that way. Didn't try the JS magic yet.

[taichichuan]

Originally Posted by cbf

Have you guys run this during a competition yet? I would be concerned about the bandwidth taken by two simultaneous video streams. In the past, we've accidentally saturated the feed between our laptop and the robot with a single 640 x 480 stream.

Actually, you drop a Javascript page onto the ./www directory that has a button that allows you to switch between the streams. So, you're not getting both streams simultaneously unless you want them.

HTH,

Mike