ffmpeg stops streaming after 900 seconds from Axis Camera to FLV RTMP

Question

Audio and video works for 900 seconds and then, ffmpeg stops with:

video:1889kB audio:1825kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 2.162866%

I stream from an AXIS IP camera through ffmpeg over nginx.

ffmpeg -v verbose -i rtsp://root:pass@192.168.0.106/axis-media/media.amp -itsoffset 00:00:05 -acodec copy -ac 1 -ab 64k -ar 16000 -f flv -r 5 -qscale 1 -b 128kB rtmp://192.168.0.107/myapp/test

I tested many commands, but this one gave me the best results.

Console output:

    ffmpeg -v verbose -i rtsp://root:pass@192.168.0.106/axis-media/media.amp -itsoffset 00:00:05 -acodec copy -ac 1 -ab 64k -ar 16000 -f flv -r 5 -qscale 1 -b 128kB rtmp://192.168.0.107/myapp/test 
ffmpeg version 0.8.6-6:0.8.6-1ubuntu2, Copyright (c) 2000-2013 the Libav developers
  built on Mar 30 2013 22:20:06 with gcc 4.7.2
  configuration: --arch=amd64 --enable-pthreads --enable-runtime-cpudetect --extra-version='6:0.8.6-1ubuntu2' --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --enable-bzlib --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libfreetype --enable-gnutls --enable-libgsm --enable-libpulse --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-vaapi --enable-vdpau --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-zlib --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-libcdio --enable-x11grab --shlibdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --enable-shared --disable-static
  libavutil    51. 22. 1 / 51. 22. 1
  libavcodec   53. 35. 0 / 53. 35. 0
  libavformat  53. 21. 1 / 53. 21. 1
  libavdevice  53.  2. 0 / 53.  2. 0
  libavfilter   2. 15. 0 /  2. 15. 0
  libswscale    2.  1. 0 /  2.  1. 0
  libpostproc  52.  0. 0 / 52.  0. 0
*** THIS PROGRAM IS DEPRECATED ***
This program is only provided for compatibility and will be removed in a future release. Please use avconv instead.
[rtsp @ 0x63fb20] SDP:
v=0
o=- 1376246125522976 1376246125522976 IN IP4 192.168.0.106
s=Media Presentation
e=NONE
b=AS:50064
t=0 0
a=control:*
a=range:npt=0.000000-
m=video 0 RTP/AVP 96
c=IN IP4 0.0.0.0
b=AS:50000
a=framerate:5.0
a=transform:-1,0,0;0,-1,0;0,0,1
a=control:trackID=1
a=rtpmap:96 H264/90000
a=fmtp:96 packetization-mode=1; profile-level-id=4D0029; sprop-parameter-sets=Z00AKeKQKD9gLcBAQGkHiRFQ,aO48gA==
m=audio 0 RTP/AVP 97
c=IN IP4 0.0.0.0
b=AS:64
a=control:trackID=2
a=rtpmap:97 mpeg4-generic/16000/1
a=fmtp:97 streamtype=5; profile-level-id=15; mode=AAC-hbr; config=1408; sizeLength=13; indexLength=3; indexDeltaLength=3; profile=1; bitrate=64000;

[rtsp @ 0x63fb20] Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 180000.00 (180000/1) -> 90000.00 (180000/2)
Input #0, rtsp, from 'rtsp://root:pass@192.168.0.106/axis-media/media.amp':
  Metadata:
    title           : Media Presentation
  Duration: N/A, start: 0.062063, bitrate: N/A
    Stream #0.0: Video: h264 (Main), yuvj420p, 320x240 [PAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], 90k tbr, 90k tbn, 180k tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: aac, 16000 Hz, mono, s16
Incompatible pixel format 'yuvj420p' for codec 'flv', auto-selecting format 'yuv420p'
[buffer @ 0x641aa0] w:320 h:240 pixfmt:yuvj420p
[avsink @ 0x6512a0] auto-inserting filter 'auto-inserted scaler 0' between the filter 'src' and the filter 'out'
[scale @ 0x645540] w:320 h:240 fmt:yuvj420p -> w:320 h:240 fmt:yuv420p flags:0x4
Output #0, flv, to 'rtmp://192.168.0.107/myapp/test':
  Metadata:
    title           : Media Presentation
    encoder         : Lavf53.21.1
    Stream #0.0: Video: flv, yuv420p, 320x240 [PAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], q=2-31, 1024 kb/s, 1k tbn, 5 tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: aac, 16000 Hz, mono
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
  Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
Press ctrl-c to stop encoding
frame= 1185 fps=  5 q=1.0 Lsize=    3794kB time=236.80 bitrate= 131.2kbits/s    
video:1889kB audio:1825kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 2.162866%

Answer 1

If ffmpeg stops encoding, then there's no more input to parse, or the stream has ended. This is a problem with the stream itself, or probably a bug in your ffmpeg version.

The one you're using is an old and (known to be) broken version provided by the Ubuntu package sources. Consider updating to a recent ffmpeg and trying again.

---

As for the muxing overhead:

Whenever you take video, audio or subtitle streams and put them into a container format (such as FLV in your case), the container needs some additional data to mux (multiplex) these streams.

It's basically metadata that is wrapped around the actual data, and you cannot get rid of this overhead. Every container will introduce a muxing overhead, but it'll usually be less than a few per cent of the actual data.

If you have very strict requirements on how much bandwidth you have available, you should therefore factor in the possible overhead when encoding the video and audio streams. For example, if you have 1500 kBit/s video and 128 kBit/s audio, the whole bandwidth needed is more than 1628 kBit/s (e.g. 1660 kBit/s).