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+\input texinfo @c -*- texinfo -*-
+
+@settitle FFserver Documentation
+@titlepage
+@sp 7
+@center @titlefont{FFserver Documentation}
+@sp 3
+@end titlepage
+
+
+@chapter Introduction
+
+FFserver is a streaming server for both audio and video. It supports
+several live feeds, streaming from files and time shifting on live feeds
+(you can seek to positions in the past on each live feed, provided you
+specify a big enough feed storage in ffserver.conf).
+
+This documentation covers only the streaming aspects of ffserver /
+ffmpeg. All questions about parameters for ffmpeg, codec questions,
+etc. are not covered here. Read @file{ffmpeg-doc.[texi|html]} for more
+information.
+
+@chapter QuickStart
+
+[Contributed by Philip Gladstone, philip-ffserver at gladstonefamily dot net]
+
+@section What can this do?
+
+When properly configured and running, you can capture video and audio in real
+time from a suitable capture card, and stream it out over the Internet to
+either Windows Media Player or RealAudio player (with some restrictions).
+
+It can also stream from files, though that is currently broken. Very often, a
+web server can be used to serve up the files just as well.
+
+@section What do I need?
+
+I use Linux on a 900MHz Duron with a cheapo Bt848 based TV capture card. I'm
+using stock linux 2.4.17 with the stock drivers. [Actually that isn't true,
+I needed some special drivers from my motherboard based sound card.]
+
+I understand that FreeBSD systems work just fine as well.
+
+@section How do I make it work?
+
+First, build the kit. It *really* helps to have installed LAME first. Then when
+you run the ffserver ./configure, make sure that you have the --enable-mp3lame
+flag turned on.
+
+LAME is important as it allows streaming of audio to Windows Media Player. Don't
+ask why the other audio types do not work.
+
+As a simple test, just run the following two command lines:
+
+@example
+./ffserver -f doc/ffserver.conf &
+./ffmpeg http://localhost:8090/feed1.ffm
+@end example
+
+At this point you should be able to go to your windows machine and fire up
+Windows Media Player (WMP). Go to Open URL and enter 
+
+@example
+    http://<linuxbox>:8090/test.asf
+@end example
+
+You should see (after a short delay) video and hear audio. 
+
+WARNING: trying to stream test1.mpg doesn't work with WMP as it tries to
+transfer the entire file before starting to play.
+
+@section What happens next?
+
+You should edit the ffserver.conf file to suit your needs (in terms of 
+frame rates etc). Then install ffserver and ffmpeg, write a script to start
+them up, and off you go.
+
+@section Troubleshooting
+
+@subsection I don't hear any audio, but video is fine
+
+Maybe you didn't install LAME, or get your ./configure statement right. Check
+the ffmpeg output to see if a line referring to mp3 is present. If not, then
+your configuration was incorrect. If it is, then maybe your wiring is not
+setup correctly. Maybe the sound card is not getting data from the right 
+input source. Maybe you have a really awful audio interface (like I do)
+that only captures in stereo and also requires that one channel be flipped. 
+If you are one of these people, then export 'AUDIO_FLIP_LEFT=1' before 
+starting ffmpeg.
+
+@subsection The audio and video loose sync after a while.
+
+Yes, they do.
+
+@subsection After a long while, the video update rate goes way down in WMP.
+
+Yes, it does. Who knows why?
+
+@subsection WMP 6.4 behaves differently to WMP 7.
+
+Yes, it does. Any thoughts on this would be gratefully received. These
+differences extend to embedding WMP into a web page. [There are two
+different object ids that you can use, one of them -- the old one -- cannot
+play very well, and the new one works well (both on the same system). However, 
+I suspect that the new one is not available unless you have installed WMP 7].
+
+@section What else can it do?
+
+There seems to be a bunch of code that allows you to replay previous
+video. I've never tried it, so it probably doesn't work properly. YMMV.
+In fact, in order to get some level of stability, ffserver now deletes
+all the previously sent video whenever it restarts.
+
+You can fiddle with many of the codec choices and encoding parameters, and
+there are a bunch more parameters that you cannot control. Post a message
+to the mailing list if there are some 'must have' parameters. Look in the
+ffserver.conf for a list of the currently available controls.
+
+It will automatically generate the .ASX or .RAM files that are often used
+in browsers. These files are actually redirections to the underlying .ASF
+or .RM file. The reason for this is that the browser often fetches the
+entire file before starting up the external viewer. The redirection files
+are very small and can be transferred quickly. [The stream itself is
+often 'infinite' and thus the browser tries to download it and never 
+finishes.]
+
+@section Tips
+
+* When you connect to a live stream, most players (WMP, RA etc) want to
+buffer a certain number of seconds of material so that they can display the
+signal continuously. However, ffserver (by default) starts sending data
+in real time. This means that there is a pause of a few seconds while the
+buffering is being done by the player. The good news is that this can be
+cured by adding a '?buffer=5' to the end of the URL. This says that the
+stream should start 5 seconds in the past -- and so the first 5 seconds 
+of the stream is sent as fast as the network will allow. It will then
+slow down to real time. This noticeably improves the startup experience.
+
+You can also add a 'Preroll 15' statement into the ffserver.conf that will
+add the 15 second prebuffering on all requests that do not otherwise
+specify a time. In addition, ffserver will skip frames until a key_frame
+is found. This further reduces the startup delay by not transferring data
+that will be discarded.
+
+* You may want to adjust the MaxBandwidth in the ffserver.conf to limit
+the amount of bandwidth consumed by live streams.
+
+@section Why does the ?buffer / Preroll stop working after a time?
+
+It turns out that (on my machine at least) the number of frames successfully
+grabbed is marginally less than the number that ought to be grabbed. This
+means that the timestamp in the encoded data stream gets behind real time.
+This means that if you say 'preroll 10', then when the stream gets 10
+or more seconds behind, there is no preroll left.
+
+Fixing this requires a require in the internals in how timestampts are 
+handled.
+
+@section Does the @code{?date=} stuff work.
+
+Yes (subject to the caution above). Also note that whenever you start
+ffserver, it deletes the ffm file, thus wiping out what you had recorded
+before. This behaviour is a temporary fix to various crashes. The aim is
+to fix it so that the old data is saved if possible.
+
+The format of the @code{?date=xxxxxx} is fairly flexible. You should use one
+of the following formats (the 'T' is literal):
+
+@example
+* YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS     (localtime)
+* YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ    (UTC)
+@end example
+
+You can omit the YYYY-MM-DD, and then it refers to the current day. However 
+note that @samp{?date=16:00:00}  refers to 4PM on the current day -- this may be
+in the future and so unlikely to useful.
+
+You use this by adding the ?date= to the end of the URL for the stream.
+For example:   @samp{http://localhost:8080/test.asf?date=2002-07-26T23:05:00}.
+
+@bye