Route absolute timestamps

Some streaming protocols allow to route absolute timestamps, associated with each frame, that are useful for synchronizing several video or data streams together. In particular, MediaMTX supports receiving absolute timestamps with the following protocols and devices:

  • HLS (through the EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME tag in playlists)
  • RTSP (through RTCP reports, when useAbsoluteTimestamp is true in settings)
  • WebRTC (through RTCP reports, when useAbsoluteTimestamp is true in settings)
  • Raspberry Pi Camera

and supports sending absolute timestamps with the following protocols:

  • HLS (through the EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME tag in playlists)
  • RTSP (through RTCP reports)
  • WebRTC (through RTCP reports)

A library that can read absolute timestamps with HLS is gohlslib.

A library that can read absolute timestamps with RTSP is gortsplib.

A browser can read absolute timestamps with WebRTC if it exposes the estimatedPlayoutTimestamp statistic.