Does RTSP work on the new iPhone? Can you stream in realtime?

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Level 2

325 points

Does RTSP work on the new iPhone? Can you stream in realtime?

I'm wondering if one of you nice folks with a new iPhone can check and see if the new gadget can stream RTSP files (audio and video) in real-time from a QuickTime Streaming Server? I will run a test all weekend for you to use. You can access this streaming file at: http://tec.streamguys.net/tec.sdp It is a rebroadcast of The Education Channel in Tampa, Florida. It is being encoded using an Apple Xserve running QuickTime Broadcaster and using the default 3G/GPRS preset. I am keeping the bandwidth low, around 56K. All I get on my "old-fashioned" iPhone is a play symbol with a line trough it. Although, this works fine with Safari on a Mac. I was told earlier this was an EDGE issue and that 3G would support this. anyone confirm that? Thanks!

Posted on Jul 11, 2008 1:32 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 25, 2008 3:09 AM in response to Scott Maiden

hi scott,

no chance, even the new 2.0 does not support rtsp streaming yet. you can though play certain other quicktime files, but they are not streamed.
I am still figuring out a way around this problem since i need rtsp streaming. ORB is a program which can do it to a certain extent (listen to live radio)... so the question is how do they do it?!...
If you have any updates/made it possible to stream, please tell me.

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Answer 2

Scott Maiden Author

Level 2

325 points

Jul 25, 2008 6:06 AM in response to cmdrcoolx

Thanks for the reply... I've been asking this question for months now and that was the FIRST response from anyone at all. I figured it didn't. That's a shame to because Apple makes really great FREE software for streaming RTSP (QuickTime Broadcaster). Anyways, I too have heard of some apps doing some type of streaming, but at a cost of the loss of the ability to receive phone calls. No good. I need to be able to "monitor" a RTSP stream for lengths of time AND be able to receive phone calls. And I need to be able to do this OFF WIFI of course. In WiFi situations, I'd just use a computer for this. I was really hoping the iPhone would be my mobile answer for this. It seems everything must be NOT LIVE to work, that is everything must be simply a QuickTime Progressive download. That's ok for short archived stuff, but for live and long files, forget it. Shame. I'm starting to think this is a "Content Provider" issue and not a technical hurdle of some kind. My old Samsung blade phone could (can) stream RTSP. Maybe the thought of allowing live streaming threatens the bottom end for some of these providers (?).

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Answer 3

Jul 28, 2008 7:55 AM in response to Scott Maiden

Hi Scott,
I'm the developer of ooTunes. I've got a fair amount of experience streaming to iphones (even live stuff) so if you send me an email (use the support form at http://ootunes.com ) I'd be happy to help you out if I can.
As far as using both data and voice, I believe that 3g lets you do that, but edge doesn't. I could be wrong about that though.

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Answer 4

Jul 30, 2008 6:45 AM in response to Scott Maiden

Scott, "I too have heard of some apps doing some type of streaming, but at a cost of the loss of the ability to receive phone calls."

Just curious... +*what apps are you talking about?*+

I'm looking into picking up a Linksys IP Cam which offers the RTSP option for streaming video. I too won't have a problem monitoring the house/kids when I'm at home via WiFi but really would like to have that access when I'm out w/ my iPhone too.

While I'd hate to give up the ability to send/receive calls... at least its a step I'd be will to try for a temporary quick look to be sure all is ok. Then turn it off and go back to being accessible. (hey its a risk I'm willing to take).

thanks

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Answer 5

Proxima

Level 1

21 points

Aug 13, 2008 11:16 AM in response to Steven Woolley

Does ooTunes support live video streaming? Or just stored content, as the iphone video support seems to be limited solely to fetching stored content.

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Answer 6

cdixon99

Level 1

0 points

Aug 20, 2008 6:40 AM in response to Scott Maiden

How does Orb do it, indeed. This is a pretty easy thing to get at by looking at their website: http://www.orb.com/iphone_how.

The best quote I have ever seen from a legit and mature business:

"Step 2: On your jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch..."

While this could be a useful message to Apple to support RTSP because corporations are working around the limitations they place on their phone, this also seems to indicate that Orb may not be the best example to use in a iPhone development conversation.

Chris

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Answer 7

Aug 20, 2008 3:55 PM in response to Proxima

It can do live stuff, but it's not technically "streaming". Basically, the way iPhone does video and audio "streams" is using byte-range requests (it requests a specific set of bytes from the stream). This is obviously easier if you have a stored file, but ooTunes uses some trickery to work on live audio streams... the same could be applied to live video streams (given enough bandwidth) but I haven't had anyone show much interest in that yet so it's still on the TODO list.

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Answer 8

Aug 21, 2008 11:05 PM in response to Scott Maiden

I tried this URL from my Windows Vista Safari browser as well as from my brand new iPhone, and I get the following error:
RTSP/1.0 400 Bad Request
Server: DSS/5.5 (Build/489.7; Platform/Linux; Release/Darwin; )
Cseq:
Connection: Close

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Answer 9

Aug 22, 2008 8:10 AM in response to cdixon99

cdixon99 wrote:
"Step 2: On your jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch..."

Priceless.

Would like to see this available via the iTunes App Store.
Currently, as long as I have a good connection on my local WIFI network, I can view my WVC54GCA cam fairly well through my browser. I'd prefer better streaming though.

All in due time I guess.

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Answer 10

Lonnie D

Level 1

4 points

Oct 18, 2008 1:10 AM in response to Scott Maiden

So riddle me this....

Why does it give an option to push a mobile (iphone) version of an imovie project to youtube when the iphone doesn't support RTSP? I just wasted 2 hours putting something up, and I can't even view it on the youtube app for iphone...
It puts it in .m4v format, which the iphone supports, but it gives me the message:
This video currently doesn't support iphone. So after researching on youtube, I get this RTSP compatability crap. First I have to deal with this new imovie app, piece of crap that it is after the easy to use ilife 6 version, and the only advantage to the app is the (upload to youtube or myspace feature) which doesn't work. Steve Jobs better get his act together on this or be left in the dust because apple is becoming the difficult way, instead of the user friendly way that it used to tote with OSX.

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