Vehicle Streams Player

A simple browser-based player for viewing vehicle camera streams using WebSocket MPEGTS streams.

Features

• Display two independent video streams side by side
• Simple interface with minimal controls
• Fetch stream links from API with vehicle ID
• Manual refresh button to reload streams
• Error handling and status messages

Installation

npm install ws-mpegts-player

Using as a Node Module

Basic Usage

// Import the module
import { MpegtsPlayer, StreamService } from 'ws-mpegts-player';

// Create a stream service instance
const streamService = new StreamService();

// Fetch stream links for a vehicle
async function getStreams() {
  try {
    const streamLinks = await streamService.getStreamLinks('MH12SX6507');
    console.log(streamLinks);
    // { streamlink1: "ws://...", streamlink2: "ws://..." }
    
    return streamLinks;
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error fetching streams:', error);
  }
}

// Create a player when DOM is ready
document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', async () => {
  // Get a reference to your video element
  const videoElement = document.getElementById('videoPlayer');
  
  // Get stream URL
  const streams = await getStreams();
  
  // Create the player
  const player = MpegtsPlayer.createPlayer({
    videoElement: videoElement,
    url: streams.streamlink1,
    autoplay: true,
    onError: (error) => console.error('Player error:', error),
    onPlaying: () => console.log('Video is now playing')
  });
  
  // Cleanup when needed
  function stopPlayer() {
    MpegtsPlayer.destroyPlayer(player);
  }
});

API Reference

StreamService

// Initialize with custom options (optional)
const streamService = new StreamService({
  timeout: 5000 // Default: 10000ms
});

// Available methods
streamService.getStreamLinks(vehicleId); // Returns Promise<{streamlink1, streamlink2}>
streamService.checkStreamActive(streamUrl, timeout); // Returns Promise<boolean>
streamService.getBestStream(vehicleId); // Returns Promise<string> (best available stream)

MpegtsPlayer

// Create a player
const player = MpegtsPlayer.createPlayer({
  videoElement: document.getElementById('video'), // Required
  url: 'ws://stream-url', // Required
  autoplay: true, // Optional, default: false
  onError: (error) => {}, // Optional
  onPlaying: () => {}, // Optional
  onStatistics: (stats) => {}, // Optional
  playerConfig: {} // Optional mpegts.js config overrides
});

// Check if browser supports required features
const features = MpegtsPlayer.getFeatureSupport();
console.log(features.mseLivePlayback); // true if browser supports MSE live playback

// Destroy player when done
MpegtsPlayer.destroyPlayer(player);

// Check if a stream is active
MpegtsPlayer.checkStreamActive('ws://stream-url', 3000)
  .then(isActive => console.log('Stream active:', isActive));

HTML Example

See examples/simple-player.html for a complete implementation example.

Framework Integration

React Usage

import React, { useEffect, useRef, useState } from 'react';
import { MpegtsPlayer, StreamService } from 'ws-mpegts-player';

function VideoPlayer() {
  const videoRef = useRef(null);
  const [player, setPlayer] = useState(null);
  const [vehicleId, setVehicleId] = useState('MH12SX6507');
  const [status, setStatus] = useState('');

  useEffect(() => {
    // Cleanup function for when component unmounts
    return () => {
      if (player) {
        MpegtsPlayer.destroyPlayer(player);
      }
    };
  }, []);

  const loadStream = async () => {
    try {
      setStatus('Loading stream...');
      
      // Clean up previous player if it exists
      if (player) {
        MpegtsPlayer.destroyPlayer(player);
      }
      
      // Create service and fetch stream URLs
      const streamService = new StreamService();
      const streams = await streamService.getStreamLinks(vehicleId);
      
      // Create new player
      const newPlayer = MpegtsPlayer.createPlayer({
        videoElement: videoRef.current,
        url: streams.streamlink1,
        autoplay: true,
        onError: (error) => setStatus(`Error: ${error.detail || 'Player error'}`),
        onPlaying: () => setStatus('Stream playing')
      });
      
      setPlayer(newPlayer);
    } catch (error) {
      setStatus(`Error: ${error.message}`);
    }
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <div>
        <input 
          type="text" 
          value={vehicleId} 
          onChange={(e) => setVehicleId(e.target.value)}
          placeholder="Vehicle ID" 
        />
        <button onClick={loadStream}>Load Stream</button>
      </div>
      
      <div className="video-container">
        <video ref={videoRef} controls style={{ width: '100%', height: '300px' }}></video>
      </div>
      
      <div>{status}</div>
    </div>
  );
}

export default VideoPlayer;

Angular Usage

// video-player.component.ts
import { Component, ElementRef, OnDestroy, OnInit, ViewChild } from '@angular/core';
import { MpegtsPlayer, StreamService } from 'ws-mpegts-player';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-video-player',
  template: `
    <div>
      <div>
        <input 
          type="text" 
          [(ngModel)]="vehicleId" 
          placeholder="Vehicle ID"
        />
        <button (click)="loadStream()">Load Stream</button>
      </div>
      
      <div class="video-container">
        <video #videoElement controls style="width: 100%; height: 300px;"></video>
      </div>
      
      <div>{{ status }}</div>
    </div>
  `,
  styleUrls: ['./video-player.component.css']
})
export class VideoPlayerComponent implements OnInit, OnDestroy {
  @ViewChild('videoElement', { static: true }) videoElementRef!: ElementRef;
  
  vehicleId: string = 'MH12SX6507';
  status: string = '';
  private player: any = null;
  private streamService: StreamService;

  constructor() {
    this.streamService = new StreamService();
  }

  ngOnInit(): void {
    // Component initialization
  }

  ngOnDestroy(): void {
    // Clean up on component destruction
    if (this.player) {
      MpegtsPlayer.destroyPlayer(this.player);
    }
  }

  async loadStream(): Promise<void> {
    try {
      this.status = 'Loading stream...';
      
      // Clean up previous player if it exists
      if (this.player) {
        MpegtsPlayer.destroyPlayer(this.player);
      }
      
      // Fetch stream URLs
      const streams = await this.streamService.getStreamLinks(this.vehicleId);
      
      // Create new player
      this.player = MpegtsPlayer.createPlayer({
        videoElement: this.videoElementRef.nativeElement,
        url: streams.streamlink1,
        autoplay: true,
        onError: (error: any) => this.status = `Error: ${error.detail || 'Player error'}`,
        onPlaying: () => this.status = 'Stream playing'
      });
    } catch (error: any) {
      this.status = `Error: ${error.message}`;
    }
  }
}

Note: For Angular, you'll need to add FormsModule to your module imports for the [(ngModel)] binding to work.

Technical Details

The player uses:

• mpegts.js for decoding and playing MPEG-TS streams over WebSocket
• Axios for API calls
• Plain JavaScript for DOM manipulation and player management

Each video player is implemented independently to ensure one stream doesn't affect the other's performance.

API Integration

The system connects to a private API endpoint to retrieve WebSocket stream URLs for vehicle cameras. This endpoint requires a valid vehicle ID and returns two WebSocket URLs for different camera views.

Troubleshooting

If streams don't play:

• Check console logs for detailed error messages
• Verify the vehicle ID is correct
• Ensure both stream URLs are valid WebSocket URLs (starting with "ws://")
• Try refreshing the streams

Browser Support

This player works best in modern browsers with WebSocket and Media Source Extensions support:

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Edge
• Safari (limited support)

License

[Add your license information here]