SDP / RTP Analyzer

Generate valid SDP for H.264 and H.265 camera streams

Building an SDP (Session Description Protocol) block by hand is tedious and error-prone. You need to encode SPS and PPS parameter sets, compute the correct profile-level-id, pick the right packetization mode, and assemble the session and media lines in the exact format receivers expect. Get any of it wrong and the stream silently fails.

This generator from wink.co handles it for you. Select a resolution, profile, and level and the tool synthesizes valid SPS/PPS NAL units, derives the profile-level-id, and outputs a complete SDP block with line-by-line annotations explaining every field. If you already have raw base64 parameter sets from your camera's RTSP DESCRIBE, paste those instead.

Supports H.264 Baseline, Main, and High profiles at levels 3.0 through 5.2. Generates SDP for H.265/HEVC, AAC audio, Opus, and generic RTP payloads. Output is compatible with VLC, FFmpeg, GStreamer, and professional video management systems like Genetec Security Center.

What is SDP and why does it matter for IP cameras?

SDP (Session Description Protocol) is the standard format for describing multimedia sessions in RTP and RTSP streams. Every IP camera, video encoder, and video management system uses SDP to negotiate codec parameters, transport details, and stream configuration during RTSP DESCRIBE and SETUP exchanges.

In practice, many cameras produce incomplete or malformed SDP. Missing sprop-parameter-sets, wrong clock rates, incorrect profile-level-id values, and broken base64 encoding are common problems that cause streams to fail silently or produce corrupted video. Tools like VLC may tolerate these issues while stricter decoders and video management systems reject them entirely.

WINK Streaming builds professional video transport and distribution systems for government, enterprise, and public safety. Our WINK Forge transcoding platform and Media Router distribution system handle real-world camera interoperability challenges every day. This tool exists because debugging SDP issues shouldn't require reading RFC 8866 and hex-editing NAL units by hand. Paste your SDP, and this tool tells you exactly what's in it, what's broken, and what the codec parameters mean.

Parses SPS/PPS/VPS parameter sets, profile-level-id, packetization modes, and RTSP DESCRIBE responses. Compatible with Axis, Hikvision, Dahua, Hanwha, Bosch, Pelco, FLIR, and ONVIF-compliant cameras.

How to debug RTSP DESCRIBE responses from IP cameras

When an RTSP client connects to a camera, the first meaningful exchange is DESCRIBE. The camera returns an SDP body describing every available media track — video codec, audio format, payload types, and parameter sets the decoder needs to initialize. If that SDP is malformed, the stream either fails to start or produces garbled video that is difficult to diagnose from the player side alone.

The wink.co RTSP analyzer strips the HTTP-style response headers automatically, parses each media track, decodes H.264 and H.265 parameter sets, and flags common problems: missing a=rtpmap, broken base64, wrong clock rates, or ONVIF metadata tracks masquerading as video.

At WINK Streaming we integrate hundreds of camera models across government and enterprise networks through our Forge transcoding platform and Camera Studio management tool. Every vendor has quirks. This tool captures the checks our own engineers run so you can run them too — without needing Wireshark or manual hex inspection.

Paste a full RTSP/1.0 200 OK response or just the SDP portion. Supports multi-track SDP with video, audio, and application (ONVIF metadata) streams.

H.264 SPS decoder, profile-level-id lookup, and RTP reference

Troubleshooting a camera stream often comes down to one specific value: a profile-level-id that doesn't match, an SPS that encodes an unexpected resolution, or a payload type that conflicts with another track. These quick tools from wink.co let you decode individual values without pasting an entire SDP.

The SPS decoder parses the base64 Sequence Parameter Set from any H.264 fmtp line and extracts the profile, level, resolution, chroma format, and bit depth. The profile-level-id decoder breaks the 6-character hex value into its three components. The reference tables cover the RTP payload types and packetization modes you'll encounter in real-world camera deployments.

WINK Streaming provides these tools free because better interoperability benefits the entire video surveillance ecosystem. If you need help at scale — integrating hundreds of cameras with WINK Forge, normalizing inconsistent SDP across vendors, or building reliable transport infrastructure with Media Router — talk to our engineering team. You can also use WINK RTSP Stats for protocol-level stream analysis or LAN Camera Finder to discover cameras on your network.

Supports H.264 (AVC) profiles: Baseline, Main, Extended, High, High 10, High 4:2:2, High 4:4:4 Predictive. Levels 1.0 through 5.2. Static payload types 0-34 and dynamic range 96-127.