The MediaMTX ACAP

This ACAP packages the MediaMTX real-time media server so it can be installed and run directly on Axis cameras, with a built-in web interface for editing its configuration.

Current version: 1.19.2 (MediaMTX v1.19.2)

Disclaimer

This is an independent, community-developed ACAP package and is not an official Axis Communications product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Axis Communications AB. Use it at your own risk. For official Axis software, visit axis.com

Purpose

MediaMTX (formerly rtsp-simple-server) is a ready-to-use and zero-dependency real-time media server and media proxy that allows you to publish, read, proxy, record and play back video and audio streams. It has been conceived as a "media router" that routes media streams from one end to the other.

Features

• Runs MediaMTX as a non-root ACAP (no root filesystem changes required).
• Built-in web configuration editor — edit mediamtx.yml directly from the browser with YAML syntax highlighting (enabled yes/true values shown in green, disabled no/false in red, dimmed comments, line numbers), then save and restart the server to apply changes. No SSH or SFTP needed.
• Live view page — lists the stream paths in your configuration with one-click links to MediaMTX's built-in HLS and WebRTC players and copyable RTSP URLs, at https://<device ip>/local/MediaMTX/live.html.
• Recordings browser — list recorded segments with a date/time filter, play or download them in the browser, delete individual segments, and see the storage card's disk usage, served at https://<device ip>/local/MediaMTX/recordings.html.
• Upgrade-safe configuration — your mediamtx.yml is stored in the app's persistent localdata directory, so it is preserved when you update the ACAP to a newer version.
• Config backup and crash-loop protection — every save keeps a backup of the previous configuration (restorable from the editor with Load backup), and after a restart the editor watches the server and warns if the new configuration makes MediaMTX crash-loop. The supervisor backs off instead of restarting a broken config every second.
• A working default configuration is installed automatically on first run.
• SD card recording — the default recordPath points to the camera SD card (/var/spool/storage/areas/SD_DISK/MediaMTX/...); recording is disabled by default and can be enabled per path from the config editor.
• Supervised process: MediaMTX is automatically relaunched if it exits.

Links

• MediaMTX: https://github.com/bluenviron/mediamtx
• MediaMTX configuration reference: https://github.com/bluenviron/mediamtx?tab=readme-ov-file#configuration
• Axis: https://www.axis.com/

Compatibility

Compatible with Axis cameras with arm (armv7hf) and aarch64 based SoCs. The packages are built with the ACAP Native SDK 12.9.0 and require a compatible AXIS OS version.

To check your device architecture:

curl --anyauth "*" -u <username>:<password> <device ip>/axis-cgi/basicdeviceinfo.cgi --data "{\"apiVersion\":\"1.0\",\"context\":\"Client defined request ID\",\"method\":\"getAllProperties\"}"

where <device ip> is the IP address of the Axis device, <username> is the root username and <password> is the root password. Please note that you need to enclose your password in quotes (') if it contains special characters.

Installing

The recommended way to install is to use the pre-built .eap file from the Releases page:

1. Download the .eap matching your architecture (aarch64 or armv7hf).
2. On the camera, go to Apps and click Add app.
3. Select the downloaded .eap and install.
4. Start the application.

Configuring MediaMTX

A working default configuration is installed automatically the first time the app runs, so the server is usable immediately.

To change the configuration, open the app's settings page (click Open on the Apps page, or browse to https://<device ip>/local/MediaMTX/index.html). The page provides a full editor for mediamtx.yml:

• Reload — reload the current configuration from the device.
• Save — write your changes to mediamtx.yml (the previous version is kept as a backup).
• Save & Restart — save and restart MediaMTX to apply the changes. The page then watches the server for a few seconds and warns if the new configuration makes it crash-loop.
• Load defaults — load the bundled default configuration into the editor (not saved until you click Save).
• Load backup — load the configuration as it was before the last save (not saved until you click Save), for recovering from a bad edit.
• Show log — view the application system log.

The editor is admin-access only and authenticates against the device user pool, the same as VAPIX.

Viewing live streams

The Live page (https://<device ip>/local/MediaMTX/live.html) lists every path in the configuration with links to MediaMTX's built-in HLS and WebRTC players and a copyable RTSP URL. The players are served by MediaMTX itself on their own ports (8888 for HLS, 8889 for WebRTC by default), so they open in a new tab; make sure those ports are reachable from your browser.

Example: allow anonymous viewing of an RTSP stream

Adding the following to mediamtx.yml:

paths:
  proxied:
    source: rtsp://user:password@IPAddress/axis-media/media.amp?videocodec=h264&resolution=640x480

makes the stream available at rtsp://IPAddress:8554/proxied with no authentication.

Viewing recordings

When recording is enabled for a path, segments are written to the storage location set by recordPath (the SD card by default; some recorder devices use an internal disk such as HDD_DISK). The Recordings page lists the recorded .mp4 segments and lets you filter by stream and date/time, then play them inline, download them, or delete them. It also shows how full the recording storage is. Open it from the Recordings link in the settings page header, or browse to https://<device ip>/local/MediaMTX/recordings.html. Like the config editor, it is admin-access only.

Your configuration is stored in the app's persistent localdata directory and is kept across application upgrades. Uninstalling the ACAP removes all files, including the configuration and any recordings stored under the app's recordings path.

Build from source

The MediaMTX binary is not stored in this repository. It is downloaded from the official bluenviron/mediamtx release and verified against its published checksums.sha256 during the Docker build.

Both architectures build from the single Dockerfile in the repository root; select one with the ARCH build argument (aarch64 or armv7hf):

docker build --build-arg ARCH=aarch64 --tag <package name> .

To build a specific MediaMTX version, pass the version build argument as well (without the leading v):

docker build --build-arg ARCH=aarch64 --build-arg MEDIAMTX_VERSION=1.19.2 --tag <package name> .

Then copy the resulting .eap out of the image, e.g.:

docker cp $(docker create <package name>):/opt/app ./build

The .eap package is created under /opt/app inside the image.

Tests

Host-side unit tests cover the MP4 box parsing used by the recordings player and the request helpers in config.c. They build against a stub FastCGI header, so no dependencies are needed:

cc -Wall -Wextra -Werror -fsanitize=address,undefined -Itests/fcgi_stub tests/test_mp4.c -o tests/test_mp4
./tests/test_mp4

They also run in CI (.github/workflows/ci.yml) on every push and pull request, together with a full Docker build of both architectures.

Automated releases

A GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/build-on-mediamtx-release.yml) runs daily, detects new upstream MediaMTX releases, bumps the packaged version, builds both architectures, and publishes a matching release with the .eap files attached. It can also be run manually from the Actions tab, optionally targeting a specific version or, with the force option, rebuilding and republishing the current version after a packaging change.