Using nginx-rtmp-module to save rtmp stream to mp4 instead of flv

Question

I am trying to save an incoming rtmp stream on my server as an mp4 file. I am using the nginx-rtmp module and changing the container from flv to mp4 on the exec_record_done directive. This is done using ffmpeg as follows

ffmpeg -i input.flv output.mp4

I am sending h264 video streams and aac audio streams (in an flv container), so as to keep it compatible even with mp4

I would like to know if it is possible to directly save the incoming stream as an mp4 and avoid the transcoding at the end of each session

I am guessing this will help avoid the abrupt CPU spikes that I see when a recording is done

nginx.conf

user www-data;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;
include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;

events {
    worker_connections 1024;
}

rtmp {
    server {
        listen 1935;
        chunk_size 4096;
        allow publish all;
        allow play all;

        application live {
            live on;

            record all;
            record_suffix .flv;
            record_path /tmp/videos/;
            record_unique on;

            exec_record_done ffmpeg -y -i $path  /home/ubuntu/videos/$basename.mp4;
        }
    }
}

I thought this would be simple enough because the underlying streams remain the same. Any help is appreciated :)

Answer 1

It's because your FFmpeg command is incorrect, try this:

exec_record_done ffmpeg -i $path -c copy /home/ubuntu/videos/$basename.mp4;

Remember to add the -c copy to tell FFmpeg convert FLV to MP4 without transcoding.

Another solution is copying the HLS files and covert HLS to MP4 by yourself.