ffserver documentation update

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-The FFserver streaming HOWTO
-----------------------------
-
-Philip Gladstone <[email protected]>
-Last updated: July 26, 2002
-
-0. What is this HOWTO about?
-
-This covers only the streaming aspects of ffserver / ffmpeg. All questions about
-parameters for ffmpeg, codec questions, etc. are not covered here.
-
-You should also read the ffserver.txt file in this directory. It contains
-roughly the same information.
-
-1. What can this do?
-
-When properly configured and running, you can capture video and audio in real
-time from a suitable capture card, and stream it out over the Internet to
-either Windows Media Player or RealAudio player (with some restrictions).
-
-It can also stream from files, though that is currently broken. Very often, a
-web server can be used to serve up the files just as well.
-
-2. What do I need?
-
-I use Linux on a 900MHz Duron with a cheapo Bt848 based TV capture card. I'm
-using stock linux 2.4.17 with the stock drivers. [Actually that isn't true,
-I needed some special drivers from my motherboard based sound card.]
-
-I understand that FreeBSD systems work just fine as well.
-
-3. How do I make it work?
-
-First, build the kit. It *really* helps to have installed LAME first. Then when
-you run the ffserver ./configure, make sure that you have the --enable-mp3lame
-flag turned on.
-
-LAME is important as it allows streaming of audio to Windows Media Player. Don't
-ask why the other audio types do not work.
-
-As a simple test, just run the following two command lines:
-
-./ffserver -f doc/ffserver.conf &
-./ffmpeg http://localhost:8090/feed1.ffm
-
-At this point you should be able to go to your windows machine and fire up
-Windows Media Player (WMP). Go to Open URL and enter 
-
-    http://<linuxbox>:8090/test.asf
-
-You should see (after a short delay) video and hear audio. 
-
-WARNING: trying to stream test1.mpg doesn't work with WMP as it tries to
-transfer the entire file before starting to play.
-
-4. What happens next?
-
-You should edit the ffserver.conf file to suit your needs (in terms of 
-frame rates etc). Then install ffserver and ffmpeg, write a script to start
-them up, and off you go.
-
-5. Troubleshooting
-
-* I don't hear any audio, but video is fine
-
-Maybe you didn't install LAME, or get your ./configure statement right. Check
-the ffmpeg output to see if a line referring to mp3 is present. If not, then
-your configuration was incorrect. If it is, then maybe your wiring is not
-setup correctly. Maybe the sound card is not getting data from the right 
-input source. Maybe you have a really awful audio interface (like I do)
-that only captures in stereo and also requires that one channel be flipped. 
-If you are one of these people, then export 'AUDIO_FLIP_LEFT=1' before 
-starting ffmpeg.
-
-* The audio and video loose sync after a while.
-
-Yes, they do.
-
-* After a long while, the video update rate goes way down in WMP.
-
-Yes, it does. Who knows why?
-
-* WMP 6.4 behaves differently to WMP 7.
-
-Yes, it does. Any thoughts on this would be gratefully received. These
-differences extend to embedding WMP into a web page. [There are two
-different object ids that you can use, one of them -- the old one -- cannot
-play very well, and the new one works well (both on the same system). However, 
-I suspect that the new one is not available unless you have installed WMP 7].
-
-6. What else can it do?
-
-There seems to be a bunch of code that allows you to replay previous
-video. I've never tried it, so it probably doesn't work properly. YMMV.
-In fact, in order to get some level of stability, ffserver now deletes
-all the previously sent video whenever it restarts.
-
-You can fiddle with many of the codec choices and encoding parameters, and
-there are a bunch more parameters that you cannot control. Post a message
-to the mailing list if there are some 'must have' parameters. Look in the
-ffserver.conf for a list of the currently available controls.
-
-It will automatically generate the .ASX or .RAM files that are often used
-in browsers. These files are actually redirections to the underlying .ASF
-or .RM file. The reason for this is that the browser often fetches the
-entire file before starting up the external viewer. The redirection files
-are very small and can be transferred quickly. [The stream itself is
-often 'infinite' and thus the browser tries to download it and never 
-finishes.]
-
-7. Tips
-
-* When you connect to a live stream, most players (WMP, RA etc) want to
-buffer a certain number of seconds of material so that they can display the
-signal continuously. However, ffserver (by default) starts sending data
-in real time. This means that there is a pause of a few seconds while the
-buffering is being done by the player. The good news is that this can be
-cured by adding a '?buffer=5' to the end of the URL. This says that the
-stream should start 5 seconds in the past -- and so the first 5 seconds 
-of the stream is sent as fast as the network will allow. It will then
-slow down to real time. This noticeably improves the startup experience.
-
-You can also add a 'Preroll 15' statement into the ffserver.conf that will
-add the 15 second prebuffering on all requests that do not otherwise
-specify a time. In addition, ffserver will skip frames until a key_frame
-is found. This further reduces the startup delay by not transferring data
-that will be discarded.
-
-* You may want to adjust the MaxBandwidth in the ffserver.conf to limit
-the amount of bandwidth consumed by live streams.
-
-8. Why does the ?buffer / Preroll stop working after a time?
-
-It turns out that (on my machine at least) the number of frames successfully
-grabbed is marginally less than the number that ought to be grabbed. This
-means that the timestamp in the encoded data stream gets behind real time.
-This means that if you say 'preroll 10', then when the stream gets 10
-or more seconds behind, there is no preroll left.
-
-Fixing this requires a require in the internals in how timestampts are 
-handled.
-
-9. Does the ?date= stuff work.
-
-Yes (subject to the caution above). Also note that whenever you start
-ffserver, it deletes the ffm file, thus wiping out what you had recorded
-before. This behaviour is a temporary fix to various crashes. The aim is
-to fix it so that the old data is saved if possible.
-
-The format of the ?date=xxxxxx is fairly flexible. You should use one
-of the following formats (the 'T' is literal):
-
-* YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS     (localtime)
-* YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ    (UTC)
-
-You can omit the YYYY-MM-DD, and then it refers to the current day. However 
-note that ?date=16:00:00  refers to 4PM on the current day -- this may be
-in the future and so unlikely to useful.
-
-You use this by adding the ?date= to the end of the URL for the stream.
-For example:   http://localhost:8080/test.asf?date=2002-07-26T23:05:00