mobius-rtsp

mobius-rtsp is a GStreamer-based RTSP server for infinite video files streaming.

How It Works

1. Place supported video files in the data/videos folder
2. On startup, the server reads video filenames (without extensions) and adds them as RTSP streams
3. In infinite mode, each video is decoded in a dedicated producer pipeline and forwarded internally into the RTSP pipeline

Example:

videofile: data/videos/9c0a140d548c8313e7719b7590d029dc.mp4

rtsp stream: rtsp://0.0.0.0:8554/mobius-stream/9c0a140d548c8313e7719b7590d029dc

Supported video formats:

• mp4
• avi
• mkv
• mov
• webm
• flv
• wmv
• m4v
• 3gp

Prerequisites

System Dependencies

The following GStreamer libraries and plugins are required:

• libgstreamer1.0-0
• libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0
• libgstreamer-plugins-good1.0-0
• libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0
• libgstrtspserver-1.0-0
• gstreamer1.0-plugins-base
• gstreamer1.0-plugins-good
• gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad
• gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly
• gstreamer1.0-x
• gstreamer1.0-tools

Rust Compiler

Rust compiler version 1.88 or higher is required.

Installation and Running

Local Development

Build and run the project:

cargo run

Docker

Run using Docker Compose:

docker compose up

Configuration

The server can be configured using environment variables:

Core Settings

Variable	Default	Description
MOBIUS_PORT	8554	RTSP server port
MOBIUS_SHARED	true	Individual stream per client (false) or shared stream (true)
MOBIUS_PREFIX	mobius-stream	RTSP server resources prefix
MOBIUS_INFINITE	true	Streaming without EOS message by replaying an internal producer pipeline
MOBIUS_ENCODER_BITRATE	6000000	OpenH264 bitrate in bits per second
MOBIUS_ENCODER_GOP_SIZE	30	Number of frames between keyframes
MOBIUS_ENCODER_COMPLEXITY	high	OpenH264 complexity: low, medium, or high

Network Corruption

Variable	Default	Description
MOBIUS_CORRUPTED	false	Enable/Disable the dynamic network sabotage thread
MOBIUS_MIN_DROP_PROBABILITY	0.05	Packet loss probability during "normal" operation (0.0 to 1.0)
MOBIUS_MAX_DROP_PROBABILITY	0.9	Packet loss probability during "outage" (0.9 is recommended for glitches)
MOBIUS_MIN_TIME_BETWEEN_BREAK	10	Minimum uptime (seconds) before an outage occurs
MOBIUS_MAX_TIME_BETWEEN_BREAK	30	Maximum uptime (seconds) before an outage occurs
MOBIUS_MIN_DISCONNECTED_TIME	10	Minimum duration (seconds) of the network outage
MOBIUS_MAX_DISCONNECTED_TIME	30	Maximum duration (seconds) of the network outage

Configuration Examples

Custom port:

MOBIUS_PORT=9000 cargo run

Individual streams:

MOBIUS_SHARED=false cargo run

Resources prefix:

MOBIUS_PREFIX=custom-stream cargo run

Infinite streaming mode:

MOBIUS_INFINITE=true cargo run

Higher quality encoding:

MOBIUS_ENCODER_BITRATE=10000000 MOBIUS_ENCODER_GOP_SIZE=60 MOBIUS_ENCODER_COMPLEXITY=high cargo run

Docker with custom configuration:

docker run -p 9000:9000 -e MOBIUS_PORT=9000 -e MOBIUS_SHARED=false -v ./data:/mobius/data mobius-rtsp

Features

• Multi-format support: Works with all popular video formats
• Automatic stream discovery: Automatically detects video files in the videos directory
• Configurable streaming mode: Shared or individual streams per client
• Docker support: Ready-to-use Docker configuration
• Low latency: Optimized H.264 encoding with ultrafast presets
• Cross-platform: Works on Linux, macOS, and Windows
• Network corruption: Simulating a real camera by a stream sabotage
• More stable infinite mode: Dedicated producer pipelines are replayed internally without forwarding EOS into the RTSP path