Overview about media - codec, container, streaming

RTSP vs RTP

Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP)

• Application Layer protocol, similar to HTTP, SSH…
• Controlling protocol only, not data transporting
• Used to stream any data in any format (text, audio, video…)
• Client-server

Some request types:

• OPTIONS: similar to HTTP OPTIONS, server will response list of allowed request types
• DESCRIBE: description of data will be received
• SETUP, PLAY, PAUSE…

RTSP only provides establishing and controlling, not transmission.

For transmission, other protocols are used, like Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP)

Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP)

• Delivering audio and video over IP networks
• Combined with other controlling/signaling protocol
• Support profile, each profile with many payload formats
  • Profile defines codecs of payload
  • Payload type is defined in RTP package header

Media codec vs container

Media codecs

• Algos/methods for encoding and decoding data
• Specific for compression, quality…
• Popular codecs:
  • Video
  • Audio

Media container

• Defines format to contain/wrap the encoded media (produced by codec)
• Popular media containers