Nginx with rtmp-module streaming video on demand with HLS/http

Question

I am planning to do a video on demand streaming solution which will have around 500 to 1000 clicks per week. I am streaming a live event once a week via Wowza Media Server an Amazons EC2. The plan is now to have a record of that event during the week until the next live event and then override the file with the new record. Wowza is an expensive solution for 24/7 and during the week we won't have that much parallel traffic, which led me to nginx with rtmp-module. I played with it and it was no problem to a) livestream with it (RTMP/Flash only) and b) doing a video on demand stream of a file via RTMP/Flash. But for mobile devices like iOS, Android and so on I need to have a http/hls stream like Wowza does. I know it is possible to have a http/hls stream of a live event with nginx and rtmp-module. But I don't know if it is possible to have an on demand http/hls stream with nginx and rtmp-module. I couldn't find any information about that and all example configurations are only for LIVE streaming and not VoD.

Could anyone please tell me:

1. Is VoD over http/hls possible with nginx and rtmp-module?
2. How would an example configuration look like?

Answer 1

I finally tested nginx with rtmp-module for the flash and a handmaded/automated solution with a script and a cronjob and the following ffmpeg-syntax for hls:

ffmpeg -i input.m4v -acodec copy -bsf:a h264_mp4toannexb -g 105 -vcodec libx264 -vprofile baseline -bf 0 -maxrate 850k -bufsize 850k -s 960x540 -bsf:v dump_extra -map 0 -f segment -segment_format mpegts -segment_list "abc.m3u8" -segment_time 2 abc-%d.ts

note that this is for linux based systems and it is necessary to escape the % under windows like abc-%%d.ts.

Answer 2

The nginx-rtmp module itself is open sourced, providing RTMP and live HLS streams.

However, the VOD HLS streaming is delivered only as part of their commercial solution: http://nginx.com/products/

So relatively to Nginx' support price, Wowza monthly subscription seems a better choice in terms of cost of ownership for your case.