How can I verify that an RTMP stream URL is working?

Question

I have been put in charge of setting up a CDN account for streaming video but am not actually running the site that will host the content. How can I test that a published RTMP URL is working? Do I need to create a test page with a Flash video player or is there a simple tool that can consume RTMP streams that can be used to test? The URL is in the following format:

rtmp://example.fcod.llnwd.net/a1111/e11/test/example/file.flv

Solution 1

I was able to verify that it's working using rtmpdump found here:

https://github.com/mstorsjo/rtmpdump

Usage:

rtmpdump -r "rtmp://example.fcod.llnwd.net/a1111/e11/test/example/file.flv" -o test.flv

Solution 2

You might be able to open up a "network location" via VLC player.

Solution 3

This will definitely work: http://www.vlc.eu.pn/ (Original link broken, archived page linked)

Just go to the link above and test your rtmp url, easy and fast!

Solution 4

There's a test player built for CRTMPD (But it'll work for any RTMP server)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2918563/flvplayback.swf (Link broken)

Solution 5

Since rtmpdump is not in the repos for some linuxes (centos), here is an option that uses a much more common tool (curl):

if [[ `curl --connect-timeout 1 --output /dev/null --silent --head --fail rtmp://cp67126.edgefcs.net/ondemand/mp4:mediapm/ovp/content/test/video/spacealonehd_sounas_640_300.mp4 2>&1` ]]
then
  echo "failing!"
else
  echo "working!"
fi

NOTE: This can have false positives (Says a stream is working when it's not) but it works well enough for my needs.

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Comments

[Dave Forgac]

The version of VLC on my system doesn't seem to support RTMP however this solution should probably work otherwise. Thanks.