This post walks through a clean, reliable way to stream a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W CSI camera over RTSP on a headless setup. It uses MediaMTX with its built-in rpiCamera source, which avoids V4L2 loopback devices and avoids serving raw video over RTSP. Tested camera: OV5647.

The end goal is:

• A working RTSP stream at rtsp://IP:8554/cam
• Hardware accelerated H.264 encoding
• Reliable playback using RTSP over TCP
• MediaMTX running at startup via systemd

Raspberry-Pi Zero 2 with camera attached

Step 1: Download the Raspberry Pi OS image

We will use Raspberry Pi OS Lite. Download the 64-bit Lite (arm64) image file:

curl -L -o raspios-lite-arm64.img.xz \
  https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspios_lite_arm64_latest

Step 2: Write the image to the SD card with dd

Exercise caution as dd will overwrite the target disk. Triple check the device name before proceeding.

Find your SD card device:

lsblk -p

Look for something like /dev/sdX (USB card reader) or /dev/mmcblk0. Unmount any mounted partitions (replace X):

sudo umount /dev/sdX* 2>/dev/null || true

Write the image. Use the device, not a partition (use /dev/sdX, not /dev/sdX1).

xzcat raspios-lite-arm64.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync
sync

Eject the card safely, then insert it into the Pi Zero 2 W.

Step 3: First boot and headless login

How you do first login depends on your workflow. Common options:

• Plug in a keyboard and HDMI for one-time setup, then go headless.
• Setup a wifi connection
• Use Ethernet over USB if that is part of your workflow.
• Use your preferred method to get an IP and SSH in.

Most of that can be setup easily via:

sudo raspi-config

Once you can log in, update the system:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade -y
sudo reboot

Step 4: Verify the camera works (headless)

On current Raspberry Pi OS, the camera demo apps are named rpicam-*.

Install the tools:

sudo apt install -y rpicam-apps

List detected cameras:

rpicam-hello --list-cameras

Optional sanity captures, no display required:

rpicam-still -n -o /tmp/test.jpg
rpicam-vid -n -t 3000 --codec h264 -o /tmp/test.h264
ls -lh /tmp/test.jpg /tmp/test.h264

If the camera is listed and the files are non-zero, your camera pipeline is working.

Step 5: Install MediaMTX (tarball)

MediaMTX ships as a single binary plus a YAML config.

Install prerequisites:

sudo apt install -y curl tar

Download the correct tarball for your OS and CPU from the MediaMTX GitHub Releases page. Then extract it into a working directory. Example:

mkdir -p ~/mediamtx
tar -xzf mediamtx*.tar.gz -C ~/mediamtx
cd ~/mediamtx
ls

You should see:

• mediamtx
• mediamtx.yml

Step 6: Configure MediaMTX

Edit the config file mediamtx.yml. Add a path named cam that uses the Pi camera directly. Force RTSP over TCP for reliability and to avoid common H.264 decode errors caused by packet loss.

rtspTransports: [tcp]

paths:
  cam:
    source: rpiCamera
    sourceOnDemand: yes

    rpiCameraWidth: 1280
    rpiCameraHeight: 720
    rpiCameraFPS: 30
    rpiCameraBitrate: 2000000
    rpiCameraCodec: hardwareH264

    rpiCameraIDRPeriod: 30
    # optional compatibility tweak:
    # rpiCameraHardwareH264Profile: baseline

Step 7: Run MediaMTX and test playback

Start MediaMTX:

cd ~/mediamtx
./mediamtx

From another machine on the same network, test with TCP:

# Any modern media player will do.
# Here are two examples:
mpv --rtsp-transport=tcp rtsp://IP:8554/cam
ffplay -rtsp_transport tcp rtsp://IP:8554/cam

If you see video, RTSP is working.

Step 8: Run MediaMTX at startup with systemd

Move the binary and config to a stable location:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/mediamtx
sudo cp ~/mediamtx/mediamtx /opt/mediamtx/
sudo cp ~/mediamtx/mediamtx.yml /opt/mediamtx/
sudo chmod +x /opt/mediamtx/mediamtx

Create a dedicated service user:

sudo useradd --system --no-create-home --shell /usr/sbin/nologin mediamtx

Create the systemd unit:

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/mediamtx.service >/dev/null <<'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=MediaMTX
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=mediamtx
WorkingDirectory=/opt/mediamtx
ExecStart=/opt/mediamtx/mediamtx /opt/mediamtx/mediamtx.yml
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=2
SupplementaryGroups=video

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Enable and start:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now mediamtx

Check status and logs:

sudo systemctl status mediamtx --no-pager
sudo journalctl -u mediamtx -f

Step 9: Basic authentication (optional)

If you want to add basic authentication, append this to /opt/mediamtx/mediamtx.yml:

authMethod: internal
authInternalUsers:
  - user: user
    pass: password
    permissions:
      - action: read
        path: cam

Restart:

sudo systemctl restart mediamtx

Connect:

mpv --rtsp-transport=tcp rtsp://user:password@<PI_IP>:8554/cam

Troubleshooting

Here are some issues I came across while working on this and how to work around them.

RTSP connects but no video / H.264 errors

If you see errors like “non-existing PPS referenced” on the client, do this:

• Use TCP on the client: mpv –rtsp-transport=tcp
• Keep rtspTransports: [tcp] in the MediaMTX config
• Lower bitrate or resolution if WiFi is weak

Try a lighter profile:

rpiCameraWidth: 640
rpiCameraHeight: 480
rpiCameraFPS: 15
rpiCameraBitrate: 1000000
rpiCameraIDRPeriod: 15

Camera not detected

• Reseat the CSI ribbon cable and close the latch firmly.
• Re-run: rpicam-hello –list-cameras
• Check logs:

dmesg | grep -i -E "camera|unicam|csi|ov|imx" | tail -n 80