mjpg-streamer on a Raspberry Pi

This post covers downloading, installing and running mjp-streamer on a raspberry pi. There are two options for installation and streaming depending on if you stream from (1) a rapsberry pi camera module or (2) a USB camera.

• Sourcecode for mjpg-streamer
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/mjpg-streamer/

• Tutorials

  In what follows I am following this blog post …
  http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/how-to-build-and-run-mjpg-streamer-on-the-raspberry-pi

  This post is derived from previous link but explains how to install a USB webcam instead of raspberry pi camera module …
  http://jacobsalmela.com/raspberry-pi-webcam-using-mjpg-streamer-over-internet/

Install mjpg streamer

• Preliminaries

    sudo apt-get update  
    sudo apt-get upgrade  
  

• Install dependencies

    sudo apt-get install libjpeg8-dev imagemagick libv4l-dev

• make symbolic link to changed library names. Thanks to Miguel Grinberg for this

    ln -s /usr/include/linux/videodev2.h /usr/include/linux/videodev.h

• download mjpg-streamer

    wget http://sourceforge.net/code-snapshots/svn/m/mj/mjpg-streamer/code/mjpg-streamer-code-182.zip

• unzip

    unzip mjpg-streamer-code-182.zip  

Here is where the installation differs depending on if you are installing (1) a usb camera or (2) the raspberry pi camera module

(1) Raspberry Pi camera module

• build and install for raspberry pi camera module.

    # build with 'make'
    cd mjpg-streamer-code-182/mjpg-streamer  
    make mjpg_streamer input_file.so output_http.so  
    # install by copying files
    sudo cp mjpg_streamer /usr/local/bin  
    sudo cp output_http.so input_file.so /usr/local/lib/  
    sudo cp -R www /usr/local/www      

FOR COMPARISON, HERE IS SAME FOR USB CAMERA. IMPORTANT THING HERE IS '**input_uvc.so**'.

    # build with 'make'
    cd mjpg-streamer
    make mjpg_streamer input_file.so input_uvc.so output_http.so
    # install by copying
    sudo cp mjpg_streamer /usr/local/bin
    sudo cp output_http.so input_file.so input_uvc.so /usr/local/lib/
    sudo cp -R www /usr/local/www

I GUESS YOU COULD JUST FOLLOW 'USB CAMERA' AND IT WOULD WORK FOR BOTH

• start the raspberry pi camera module

    mkdir /tmp/stream  
    raspistill --nopreview -w 640 -h 480 -q 5 -o /tmp/stream/pic.jpg -tl 100 -t 9999999 -th 0:0:0 &  

• start mjpg-streamer for raspberry pi camera module. This streams using ‘input_file.so’

    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib  
    mjpg_streamer -i "input_file.so -f /tmp/stream -n pic.jpg" -o "output_http.so -w /usr/local/www"

(2) build for usb camera

• Plug in usb camera and verify it is automatically identified using ‘lsusb’. If it is not you need to get a different camera or go down the rabbit-hole of installing linux drivers (beyond the scope of this post).

    pi@pi50 ~ $ lsusb  
    Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9512 Standard Microsystems Corp.  
    Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub  
    Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp.  
    Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1a40:0201 Terminus Technology Inc. FE 2.1 7-port Hub  
    Bus 001 Device 005: ID 1415:2000 Nam Tai E&E Products Ltd. or OmniVision Technologies, Inc. Sony Playstation Eye  
  

  The last entry is my camera, a ‘Sony Playstation Eye’.

• install v4l-utils (THESE ARE WRONG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

  Getting v4l2 on the raspberry is witchcraft, as of march 2015 it seems to be installed by default???

  sudo apt-get install v4l2-utils sudo apt-get install uv4l2 uv4l2-raspicam

• Check the parameters of our USB camera

    v4l2-ctl --list-formats  
  	
    ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT  
        Index       : 0  
        Type        : Video Capture  
        Pixel Format: 'YUYV'  
        Name        : YUYV  
  

  The YUYV is very important, I need to pass a -y option to jpg_streamer –input command. If you see MPEG you don’t need this -y switch.

• Here are some other commands to learn about calling conventions. This one told me who to pass -y for YUYV to.

    mjpg_streamer --input "input_uvc.so --help"
    # note, i am not showing the output here
    # important line in output is this:
    #  [-y | --yuv ]..........: enable YUYV format and disable MJPEG mode

• build and install for usb camera. Critical thing here is ‘input_uvc.so’

    # build with 'make'
    cd mjpg-streamer
    make mjpg_streamer input_file.so input_uvc.so output_http.so
    # install by copying
    sudo cp mjpg_streamer /usr/local/bin
    sudo cp output_http.so input_file.so input_uvc.so /usr/local/lib/
    sudo cp -R www /usr/local/www

• run mjpg-streamer to stream from usb camera

  My usb camera uses YUYV, thus the ‘-y’

    /usr/local/bin/mjpg_streamer -i "/usr/local/lib/input_uvc.so -y" -o "/usr/local/lib/output_http.so -w /usr/local/www"

If my camera used MJPEG instead of YUYV, the command is the same without the '-y'.

    /usr/local/bin/mjpg_streamer -i "/usr/local/lib/input_uvc.so" -o "/usr/local/lib/output_http.so -w /usr/local/www"

done