How to acquire image stream from RTSP camera through HTTP?

Question

I was wondering if I can use an HTTP protocol to acquire an image stream from an RTSP camera? I am currently using VLC Media ActiveX Plugin to connect to and view the RTSP stream, but I would like to eliminate the ActiveX control and move to a more raw level of image acquisition. I recall seeing somewhere that it's possible to get these images using HTTP. I'd like to use Indy TIdHTTP component to connect to the camera and acquire the image. I'm also assuming this would need some sort of speed control, such as a delay in-between requests. However, it's also my understanding that these RTSP cameras have pre-defined frame rates, which using the standard RTSP protocol are supposed to follow.

Answer 1

many cameras will allow you to grab screenshots with a URL that might look like:

http://user:password@camera/snapshot.jpg

for a proper stream, you would need to use RTSP (there are Delphi RTSP clients), tunnelling over HTTP if your device supports the application/x-rtsp-tunnelled content type, or another stream your device supports.