FFMPEG- Streaming Stops after few seconds

Question

Hi there dear community

This is the thing that I am dealing with, since last few days. After thorough search in the ffmpeg community, I was unable to find the solution. I am unable to Stream local flv, to facebook rtmp server.

I am running the following command to stream my local flv video to the rtmp server of Facebook for Live-Streaming of my local File.

```ffmpeg -re -i SampleM.flv -acodec libmp3lame  -ar 44100 -b:a 128k -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v baseline -s 426x240 -bufsize 6000k -vb 400k -maxrate 1500k -deinterlace -vcodec libx264 -preset veryfast -g 30 -r 30 -f flv "rtmp://live-api.facebook.com:80/rtmp/my_key"```

It has been a misfortune-situation that even after reading ffmpeg documentation, I have been unable to find the issue that is leading me to this situation as follows.

I am still missing something that i need to know.

Following is the log to the execution of the above command.

```ffmpeg version N-91024-g293a6e8332 Copyright (c) 2000-2018 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 7.3.0 (GCC)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-sdl2 --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libfreetype --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-zlib --enable-gmp --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libmysofa --enable-libspeex --enable-libxvid --enable-libaom --enable-libmfx --enable-amf --enable-ffnvcodec --enable-cuvid --enable-d3d11va --enable-nvenc --enable-nvdec --enable-dxva2 --enable-avisynth
  libavutil      56. 18.100 / 56. 18.100
  libavcodec     58. 19.101 / 58. 19.101
  libavformat    58. 13.102 / 58. 13.102
  libavdevice    58.  4.100 / 58.  4.100
  libavfilter     7. 21.100 /  7. 21.100
  libswscale      5.  2.100 /  5.  2.100
  libswresample   3.  2.100 /  3.  2.100
  libpostproc    55.  2.100 / 55.  2.100
Input #0, flv, from '.\video.flv':
  Metadata:
    audiodelay      : 0
    canSeekToEnd    : 1
    creationdate    : Fri Feb 03 11:52:46 2006
                    :
  Duration: 00:00:16.92, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 316 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Audio: mp3, 22050 Hz, stereo, fltp, 40 kb/s
    Stream #0:1: Video: vp6f, 1 reference frame, yuv420p, 360x288 (368x288), 266 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 1k tbn
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:0 (vp6f (native) -> h264 (libx264))
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:1 (mp3 (mp3float) -> mp3 (libmp3lame))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[graph_1_in_0_0 @ 0000020c0bcc4200] tb:1/22050 samplefmt:fltp samplerate:22050 chlayout:0x3
[format_out_0_1 @ 0000020c0bca2cc0] auto-inserting filter 'auto_resampler_0' between the filter 'Parsed_anull_0' and the filter 'format_out_0_1'
[auto_resampler_0 @ 0000020c0bca5140] ch:2 chl:stereo fmt:fltp r:22050Hz -> ch:2 chl:stereo fmt:fltp r:44100Hz
[graph 0 input from stream 0:1 @ 0000020c0c4f4600] w:360 h:288 pixfmt:yuv420p tb:1/1000 fr:25/1 sar:0/1 sws_param:flags=2
[scaler_out_0_0 @ 0000020c0c4f73c0] w:426 h:240 flags:'bicubic' interl:0
[scaler_out_0_0 @ 0000020c0c4f73c0] w:360 h:288 fmt:yuv420p sar:0/1 -> w:426 h:240 fmt:yuv420p sar:0/1 flags:0x4
[libx264 @ 0000020c0bc80600] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2 AVX FMA3 BMI2 AVX2
[libx264 @ 0000020c0bc80600] profile Constrained Baseline, level 3.0
[libx264 @ 0000020c0bc80600] 264 - core 155 r2901 7d0ff22 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2003-2018 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=0 ref=1 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x1:0x111 me=hex subme=2 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=0 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=0 8x8dct=0 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chroma_qp_offset=0 threads=7 lookahead_threads=1 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=0 weightp=0 keyint=30 keyint_min=3 scenecut=40 intra_refresh=0 rc_lookahead=10 rc=abr mbtree=1 bitrate=400 ratetol=1.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmin=0 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 vbv_maxrate=1500 vbv_bufsize=6000 nal_hrd=none filler=0 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=1:1.00
Output #0, flv, to 'rtmp://live-api.facebook.com:80/rtmp/my key:
  Metadata:
    audiodelay      : 0
    canSeekToEnd    : 1
    creationdate    : Fri Feb 03 11:52:46 2006
                    :
    encoder         : Lavf58.13.102
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (libx264), 1 reference frame ([7][0][0][0] / 0x0007), yuv420p, 426x240, q=-1--1, 400 kb/s, 30 fps, 1k tbn, 30 tbc
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc58.19.101 libx264
    Side data:
      cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 1500000/0/400000 buffer size: 6000000 vbv_delay: -1
    Stream #0:1: Audio: mp3 (libmp3lame) ([2][0][0][0] / 0x0002), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, delay 1105, 128 kb/s
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc58.19.101 libmp3lame
No more output streams to write to, finishing.e=00:00:16.51 bitrate= 533.3kbits/s speed=0.992x
[flv @ 0000020c0bc97fc0] Failed to update header with correct duration.
[flv @ 0000020c0bc97fc0] Failed to update header with correct filesize.
frame=  424 fps= 25 q=-1.0 Lsize=    1153kB time=00:00:16.95 bitrate= 557.1kbits/s speed=0.997x
video:869kB audio:265kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 1.666647%
Input file #0 (.\video.flv):
  Input stream #0:0 (audio): 649 packets read (84767 bytes); 649 frames decoded (373824 samples);
  Input stream #0:1 (video): 424 packets read (566376 bytes); 424 frames decoded;
  Total: 1073 packets (651143 bytes) demuxed
Output file #0 (rtmp://live-api.facebook.com:80/rtmp/my key):
  Output stream #0:0 (video): 424 frames encoded; 424 packets muxed (889641 bytes);
  Output stream #0:1 (audio): 649 frames encoded (747648 samples); 650 packets muxed (271673 bytes);
  Total: 1074 packets (1161314 bytes) muxed
[libx264 @ 0000020c0bc80600] frame I:18    Avg QP:27.75  size:  7001
[libx264 @ 0000020c0bc80600] frame P:406   Avg QP:32.67  size:  1879
[libx264 @ 0000020c0bc80600] mb I  I16..4: 39.3%  0.0% 60.7%
[libx264 @ 0000020c0bc80600] mb P  I16..4:  8.3%  0.0%  2.3%  P16..4: 42.2% 16.2%  4.4%  0.0%  0.0%    skip:26.6%
[libx264 @ 0000020c0bc80600] final ratefactor: 28.61
[libx264 @ 0000020c0bc80600] coded y,uvDC,uvAC intra: 40.2% 33.7% 9.2% inter: 23.8% 7.5% 0.2%
[libx264 @ 0000020c0bc80600] i16 v,h,dc,p: 24% 50% 20%  6%
[libx264 @ 0000020c0bc80600] i4 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 13% 34% 18%  5%  5%  4%  8%  4%  8%
[libx264 @ 0000020c0bc80600] i8c dc,h,v,p: 67% 24%  7%  2%
[libx264 @ 0000020c0bc80600] kb/s:418.33```

This Image shows that The stream was alive few Few Seconds on Facebook

```[flv @ 0000020c0bc97fc0] Failed to update header with correct duration.
[flv @ 0000020c0bc97fc0] Failed to update header with correct filesize.```

Please correct me, the above error listed in the log, seems to be the main cause that the video stops streaming after few seconds. I've checked for the latency issues, But they won't help anyway.

Please Help me to tackle this issue. I'll be very much thankful. :')

Streaming ends even earlier, when I use Google compute engine, instead my own PC as streaming service.

Answer 1

At the end of muxing a flv file, FFmpeg updates the header (at front of file) with duration and filesize values. However, when you are streaming, ffmpeg can't seek to the front, so the warnings are displayed.

You can disable this function, by adding a flag (-flvflags no_duration_filesize), e.g.:

ffmpeg -re -i SampleM.flv -acodec libmp3lame -ar 44100 -b:a 128k \
  -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v baseline -s 426x240 -bufsize 6000k \
  -vb 400k -maxrate 1500k -deinterlace -vcodec libx264           \
  -preset veryfast -g 30 -r 30 -f flv                            \
  -flvflags no_duration_filesize                                 \
  "rtmp://live-api.facebook.com:80/rtmp/my_key"