Frame-by-frame MJPEG streaming with C#/ASP.NET MVC

Question

I have been trying to setup a MJPEG stream in ASP.NET. I want to retrieve a MJEPG stream from a URL, and send every frame that I get to every connected client. Examples that I have been able to find only read from a set file, instead of a continues stream from URL, and send the entire file through MultiStreamContent. Since I retrieve frame-by-frame, I cannot do this. I would like to know if it is possible to do what I want with ASP.NET MVC. I'm currently using AForge video to retrieve the MJPEG stream from a link. My code for the controller class:

using System.Net.Http;
using System.Web.Http;
using AForge.Video;

namespace VideoPrototypeMVC.Controllers
{
    public class CameraController : ApiController
    {
        int framecounter = 0;
        MJPEGStream stream = new MJPEGStream();

        [HttpGet]
        public void GetVideoContent()
        {   
            stream.Source = @"http://127.0.0.1:5002/stream";
            stream.NewFrame += new NewFrameEventHandler(showFrame);
            stream.Start();
            MultipartContent content = new MultipartContent();
            while (stream.IsRunning)
            {
            //Continues streaming should be here?
            }
        }

        //Can be used to display of a frame is available
        private void showFrame(object sender, NewFrameEventArgs eventArgs)
        {
            framecounter++;
            System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("New frame event: " + framecounter);

        }

        //Should be called at the end of the stream
        private void stopStream(object sender, ReasonToFinishPlaying reason)
        {
            System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Stop stream");
            stream.Stop();
            framecounter = 0;
        }
    }
}

This code is not final, but I just need to get the continues streaming down. I have found examples that use Socket servers, but I would like to stick to MVC since it allows me to set up the rest of the server easier.

Answer 1

To make sure other people will manage with this as well. I managed to combine what @Evk (Thank you once again) said, together with information I found here: creating my own MJPEG stream.

DO NOTE: The code below is just prototype/proof-of-concept! When I run this my processor shoots to 100% because of the endless while loop in StartStream. Will work on making this more event based but I thought the code below was more easely explained.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using System.Web;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Web.Http;
using AForge.Video;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Drawing.Imaging;
using System.Threading;

namespace VideoPrototypeMVC.Controllers
{
    public class CameraController : ApiController
    {
        private MJPEGStream mjpegStream = new MJPEGStream();
        private bool frameAvailable = false;
        private Bitmap frame = null;
        private string BOUNDARY = "frame";

        /// <summary>
        /// Initializer for the MJPEGstream
        /// </summary>
        CameraController()
        {
            mjpegStream.Source = @"{{INSERT STREAM URL}}";
            mjpegStream.NewFrame += new NewFrameEventHandler(showFrameEvent);
        }

        [HttpGet]
        public HttpResponseMessage GetVideoContent()
        {   
            mjpegStream.Start();
            var response = Request.CreateResponse();
            response.Content = new PushStreamContent((Action<Stream, HttpContent, TransportContext>)StartStream);
            response.Content.Headers.ContentType = System.Net.Http.Headers.MediaTypeHeaderValue.Parse("multipart/x-mixed-replace; boundary=" + BOUNDARY);
            return response;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Craete an appropriate header.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="length"></param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private byte[] CreateHeader(int length)
        {
            string header =
                "--" + BOUNDARY + "\r\n" +
                "Content-Type:image/jpeg\r\n" +
                "Content-Length:" + length + "\r\n\r\n";

            return Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(header);
        }

        public byte[] CreateFooter()
        {
            return Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("\r\n");
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Write the given frame to the stream
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="stream">Stream</param>
        /// <param name="frame">Bitmap format frame</param>
        private void WriteFrame(Stream stream, Bitmap frame)
        {
            // prepare image data
            byte[] imageData = null;

            // this is to make sure memory stream is disposed after using
            using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
            {
                frame.Save(ms, ImageFormat.Jpeg);
                imageData = ms.ToArray();
            }

            // prepare header
            byte[] header = CreateHeader(imageData.Length);
            // prepare footer
            byte[] footer = CreateFooter();

            // Start writing data
            stream.Write(header, 0, header.Length);
            stream.Write(imageData, 0, imageData.Length);
            stream.Write(footer, 0, footer.Length);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// While the MJPEGStream is running and clients are connected,
        /// continue sending frames.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="stream">Stream to write to.</param>
        /// <param name="httpContent">The content information</param>
        /// <param name="transportContext"></param>
        private void StartStream(Stream stream, HttpContent httpContent, TransportContext transportContext)
        {
            while (mjpegStream.IsRunning && HttpContext.Current.Response.IsClientConnected)
            {
                if (frameAvailable)
                {
                    try
                    {
                        WriteFrame(stream, frame);
                        frameAvailable = false;
                    } catch (Exception e)
                    {
                        System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(e);
                    }
                }else
                {
                    Thread.Sleep(30);
                }
            }
            stopStream();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// This event is thrown when a new frame is detected by the MJPEGStream
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="sender">Object that is sending the event</param>
        /// <param name="eventArgs">Data from the event, including the frame</param>
        private void showFrameEvent(object sender, NewFrameEventArgs eventArgs)
        {
            frame = new Bitmap(eventArgs.Frame);
            frameAvailable = true;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Stop the stream.
        /// </summary>
        private void stopStream()
        {
            System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Stop stream");
            mjpegStream.Stop();
        }
    }
}