Stream Video Web Camera to Twitch Using Python for Free

 

Figure 1. Stream camera framework.

Twitch is a live-streaming platform similar to YouTube and other entertainment services. It allows developers to express their creativity by creating programs for streaming data such as video, audio, and chat.

Twitch is a free solution for regular users who don’t have or don’t want to rent a VPS to develop RTMP services for video streaming. Twitch can be connected to an IP camera or other software tools loke OBS for video streaming.

In this study, the author proposes a framework for streaming video from a parking lot camera to Twitch. Figure 1 shows a brief visualization of the proposed framework. The objective of this proposed framework is to provide an inexpensive solution for online video streaming using components that can easily be gathered from the market.

The components are consist of :

• 1.      The rear park assist dash camera has a 170-degree wide-angle view.
• 2.      Easy CAP
• 3.      Python source code that streams incoming video data from Easy CAP to Twitch.
• 4.      Twitch the live streaming titan of the internet

The rear park assists dash camera’s output is in an analog signal form, which is the RCA standard for video data. The video analog output is captured and converted into digital data that can be recognized by any programming language with Easy CAP device.

Easy CAP is a generic name for an inexpensive, widely available USB video capture adapter. These small devices, which resemble dongles, are designed to capture analog audio and video signals from sources such as VHS players, camcorders, DVD players, and older video game consoles. This device can convert analog signals into a digital format on a computer. The digital video data is then managed and transmitted using a Python source code, enabling it to live on Twitch.

This is the source code that was used to stream video data to Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/).

The source code uses the Python programming language.

This code requires a combination of ingest endpoints to speed up streaming video, which can be accessed at https://help.twitch.tv/s/twitch-ingest-recommendation?language=en_US as well as a stream key, which can be accessed at https://dashboard.twitch.tv/. The ingest endpoints and stream key are then located in the RTMP_URL variable.

import cv2 import subprocess   # --- Configuration --- # Webcam capture settings WEBCAM_INDEX = 1  # Default webcam FRAME_WIDTH = 640 FRAME_HEIGHT = 480 FPS = 30   # RTMP server URL RTMP_URL = 'rtmp://jkt02.contribute.live-video.net/app/live_1329481927_EzJgamxsFHyjz8GT5YN14FsI86blUT'   # --- FFmpeg Command --- # This command is configured to receive raw video data from the script, # encode it to H.264, and stream it to the RTMP server. ffmpeg_cmd = [     'ffmpeg',     '-y',  # Overwrite output file if it exists     '-f', 'rawvideo',     '-vcodec', 'rawvideo',     '-pix_fmt', 'bgr24',  # OpenCV provides frames in BGR format     '-s', f'{FRAME_WIDTH}x{FRAME_HEIGHT}',     '-r', str(FPS),     '-i', '-',  # Input from stdin     '-c:v', 'libx264',     '-pix_fmt', 'yuv420p',     '-preset', 'ultrafast',     '-f', 'flv',     RTMP_URL ]   # --- Main Streaming Logic --- def stream_webcam():     """     Captures the webcam feed and streams it to the RTMP server.     """     # Start the FFmpeg subprocess     process = subprocess.Popen(ffmpeg_cmd, stdin=subprocess.PIPE)       # Open the webcam     cap = cv2.VideoCapture(WEBCAM_INDEX)     cap.set(cv2.CAP_PROP_FRAME_WIDTH, FRAME_WIDTH)     cap.set(cv2.CAP_PROP_FRAME_HEIGHT, FRAME_HEIGHT)     cap.set(cv2.CAP_PROP_FPS, FPS)       if not cap.isOpened():         print("Error: Could not open webcam.")         return       print("Streaming to RTMP server. Press 'q' to quit.")       while True:         ret, frame = cap.read()         if not ret:             print("Error: Could not read frame.")             break           # Write the frame to the stdin of the FFmpeg subprocess         try:             process.stdin.write(frame.tobytes())         except (BrokenPipeError, IOError):             # FFmpeg process has closed             print("FFmpeg process closed. Exiting.")             break           # Display the frame (optional)         cv2.imshow('Webcam Feed', frame)         if cv2.waitKey(1) & 0xFF == ord('q'):             break       # --- Cleanup ---     print("Stopping stream.")     cap.release()     process.stdin.close()     process.wait()     cv2.destroyAllWindows()   if __name__ == '__main__':     stream_webcam()

 

REFERENCES :

How to connected the IP cam to Twitch : https://www.cctvcameraworld.com/live-streaming-cameras/how-to-stream-ip-camera-to-twitch.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawLXKZ5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFrcXRPM3g0eVlKNGp2WlRjAR79S9xdMXnpa5YbtfIFT7so7KEd8HpBiSiz-MN8NMTAXI_IxXTNXf5O-lrEnw_aem_J-oOgSQ9RdJr49DS8zUcSw