No cameras. No hardware. No excuses. Spin up a fleet of fake RTSP camera streams in seconds — perfect for NVRs, VMS, computer vision pipelines, and any RTSP-based app.
rtsp://localhost:8554/stream ← your video, looping forever, live in 30 seconds
You're building something that needs RTSP cameras — an NVR, a detection pipeline, a VMS, a reconnection test suite. You don't have physical cameras. You don't want to buy them. Setting up a real stream server is a rabbit hole.
fake-rtsp solves this in one docker run.
It takes any .mp4 file and re-streams it as a live, looping RTSP feed using mediamtx + ffmpeg — zero config, zero hardware, zero headaches.
docker run --rm \
-p 8554:8554 \
-v /path/to/your/videos:/videos:ro \
-e VIDEO_PATH=/videos/my_clip.mp4 \
ghcr.io/Tlaloc-Es/fake-rtspYour stream is live:
rtsp://localhost:8554/stream
ffplay rtsp://localhost:8554/stream # or open in VLCThat's it. No YAML. No config files. No reading docs for 45 minutes.
Need 10 cameras? Run 10 containers. Each is completely independent — different port, different video, different stream name.
# docker-compose.yml
services:
camera-parking:
build: .
ports: ["8554:8554"]
volumes: ["./videos:/videos:ro"]
environment:
VIDEO_PATH: /videos/parking.mp4
STREAM_NAME: parking
restart: unless-stopped
camera-lobby:
image: fake-rtsp
ports: ["8555:8554"]
volumes: ["./videos:/videos:ro"]
environment:
VIDEO_PATH: /videos/lobby.mp4
STREAM_NAME: lobby
restart: unless-stopped
camera-entrance:
image: fake-rtsp
ports: ["8556:8554"]
volumes: ["./videos:/videos:ro"]
environment:
VIDEO_PATH: /videos/entrance.mp4
STREAM_NAME: entrance
restart: unless-stoppeddocker compose up --build| Camera | URL |
|---|---|
| Parking | rtsp://localhost:8554/parking |
| Lobby | rtsp://localhost:8555/lobby |
| Entrance | rtsp://localhost:8556/entrance |
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Docker host │
│ │
│ ./videos/parking.mp4 ──► ffmpeg ──► mediamtx :8554 │
│ ./videos/lobby.mp4 ──► ffmpeg ──► mediamtx :8555 │
│ ./videos/entrance.mp4 ──► ffmpeg ──► mediamtx :8556 │
│ │
└───────────────┬──────────────────┬──────────────┬────────┘
▼ ▼ ▼
VLC / ffplay NVR client Your app
- ffmpeg reads the video file and loops it indefinitely with
-stream_loop -1 - mediamtx acts as a lightweight RTSP server, no config needed
-c copypasses through the original codec — no re-encoding, no quality loss, minimal CPU
All options via environment variables — no files to edit.
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
VIDEO_PATH |
/videos/video.mp4 |
Path to the video inside the container |
STREAM_NAME |
stream |
RTSP path: rtsp://host:port/<name> |
RTSP_PORT |
8554 |
Port mediamtx listens on |
NVR & VMS development — feed deterministic footage into your recorder without owning a single camera. Test recording schedules, motion detection triggers, and retention policies.
Computer vision pipelines — replay the same clip on loop to get reproducible results while iterating on your detection or tracking model. No flaky hardware, no lighting changes.
CI/CD integration tests — use fake-rtsp as a service in GitHub Actions or GitLab CI to provide a real RTSP source for end-to-end tests. Reproducible and containerised.
RTSP client development — test reconnection logic, timeout handling, codec compatibility, and authentication flows against a predictable stream.
Load testing — spin up dozens of streams on a single machine to benchmark your ingest pipeline under load.
Codec compatibility — use H.264/AAC sources for maximum client compatibility. The container streams whatever codec is in the source file with -c copy, so pre-encode if needed.
Health checks — add this to any service to detect stream failures:
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD", "ffprobe", "rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/stream"]
interval: 30s
timeout: 10s
retries: 3Authentication — mediamtx supports per-path credentials. Extend mediamtx.yml with username/password to test authenticated RTSP flows.
Keep videos out of the image — always mount via volume. Never bake video files into the Docker image — they'll bloat it and slow down every docker pull.
Free test footage — grab royalty-free .mp4 clips from Pexels or Pixabay. No attribution required for most clips.
git clone https://github.com/Tlaloc-Es/fake-rtsp.git
cd fake_rtsp
docker build -t fake-rtsp .
docker run --rm \
-p 8554:8554 \
-v "$PWD/videos:/videos:ro" \
-e VIDEO_PATH=/videos/parking.mp4 \
fake-rtspPRs welcome. For large changes, open an issue first.
If fake-rtsp saved you from buying a camera or wiring up a real RTSP server, consider leaving a ⭐ — it helps others find the project.