feat(VideoManager): add HTTP MJPEG video source

[alireza787b]

Description

QGroundControl supports RTP, RTSP, and MPEG transports, but not the multipart MJPEG feeds exposed by many cameras and small video servers.

This adds a generic HTTP MJPEG Video Stream source:

• accepts full http:// and https:// URLs in Video settings;
• builds souphttpsrc ! multipartdemux ! jpegparse into QGC's existing decode/display receiver;
• packages the required Soup, multipart, JPEG parser, and JPEG decoder plugins;
• keeps TLS verification strict, disables redirects, rejects URL user information, strips fragments, and avoids logging invalid URL values; and
• uses the existing network-video watchdog and reconnect policy.

The endpoint must return multipart/x-mixed-replace with JPEG parts. Web pages, single-image URLs, arbitrary HTTP video files, request-header authentication, and recording-policy changes are out of scope.

The branch is rebased directly onto current master. The deterministic local HTTP fixture from #14729 is already in master; #14727 is independent and is no longer carried by this branch. The HTTP feature diff is 15 files with 416 additions and 18 deletions.

Type of Change

• Bug fix
• New feature
• Breaking change
• Documentation update
• Refactoring
• CI/Build changes
• Other

Testing

• Tested locally
• Added/updated unit tests
• Tested with simulator (not applicable)
• Tested with camera hardware

An integrated candidate containing this transport was manually exercised on Linux, Windows, and Android. The camera-free GStreamer test starts a local HTTP server, sends a real multipart JPEG response, and requires frame delivery through appsink. Additional tests cover source properties, plugin packaging, malformed or unsafe URLs, TLS policy, and diagnostic handling.

Current head: d5ab4fbd5980522a788cb186c17c424d51b2ca8c. Fresh exact-head CI is running after the rebase. The previous integrated head completed the QGC Linux x64/arm64, unit/integration, sanitizer, coverage, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Docker, custom-plugin, and CodeQL checks.

Platforms Tested

• Linux
• Windows
• macOS (QGC CI build)
• Android
• iOS (QGC CI build)

Flight Stacks Tested

Not applicable; this change is confined to video reception.

Screenshots

Not applicable; the UI addition uses the existing Video settings layout.

Checklist

• I have read the Contribution Guidelines
• I have read the Code of Conduct
• My code follows the project coding standards
• I have added tests that prove the feature works
• New and existing unit and integration tests pass at the current exact head (running)

Related Issues

• test(UnitTest): handle early local HTTP requests #14729, now merged, provides deterministic local HTTP fixture delivery.
• fix(VideoManager): redact stream URLs in diagnostics #14727 is a complementary diagnostics hardening PR, not a prerequisite.
• fix(VideoManager): preserve Windows software frames #14728, now merged, fixes Windows rendering of software-decoded frames.
• feat(VideoManager): add WebSocket JPEG video source #14731 adds WebSocket JPEG as the next stacked transport.
• Supersedes the HTTP portion of closed draft feat(VideoManager): add HTTP MJPEG and WebSocket JPEG sources #13594.

---

By submitting this pull request, I confirm that my contribution is made under the terms of the project's dual license (Apache 2.0 and GPL v3).

[github-actions]

Build Results

Platform Status

Platform	Status	Details
Linux	Passed	View
Windows	Passed	View
MacOS	Passed	View
Android	Passed	View

All builds passed.

Pre-commit

Check	Status	Details
pre-commit	Failed (non-blocking)	View

Pre-commit hooks: 2 passed, 76 failed, 7 skipped.

Test Results

linux-coverage-integration: 52 passed, 0 skipped
linux-coverage-unit: 185 passed, 0 skipped
linux-sanitizers-integration: 31 passed, 0 skipped
linux-sanitizers-unit: 185 passed, 0 skipped
Total: 453 passed, 0 skipped

Code Coverage

Coverage: 70.6%

No baseline available for comparison

Artifact Sizes

Artifact	Size
QGroundControl	253.30 MB
QGroundControl-aarch64	177.37 MB
QGroundControl-installer-AMD64	128.50 MB
QGroundControl-installer-AMD64-ARM64	70.82 MB
QGroundControl-installer-ARM64	99.61 MB
QGroundControl-linux	85.19 MB
QGroundControl-mac	85.19 MB
QGroundControl-x86_64	189.65 MB
No baseline available for comparison

---

_{Updated: 2026-09-03 04:43:24 UTC • Commit: d5ab4fb • Triggered by: Linux}

[codecov]

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 23.95833% with 73 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 34.48%. Comparing base (f29efd3) to head (d5ab4fb).
⚠️ Report is 354 commits behind head on master.

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
...anager/VideoReceiver/GStreamer/GstSourceFactory.cc	23.75%	16 Missing and 45 partials ⚠️
src/Settings/VideoSettings.cc	33.33%	3 Missing and 3 partials ⚠️
src/VideoManager/VideoManager.cc	0.00%	5 Missing ⚠️
...anager/VideoReceiver/GStreamer/GstVideoReceiver.cc	0.00%	1 Missing ⚠️

❌ Your patch check has failed because the patch coverage (23.95%) is below the target coverage (30.00%). You can increase the patch coverage or adjust the target coverage.

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##           master   #14730      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   25.47%   34.48%   +9.01%     
==========================================
  Files         769      945     +176     
  Lines       65912    85719   +19807     
  Branches    30495    39531    +9036     
==========================================
+ Hits        16788    29561   +12773     
+ Misses      37285    36474     -811     
- Partials    11839    19684    +7845     

Flag	Coverage Δ
unittests	34.48% <23.95%> (+9.01%)	⬆️

Flags with carried forward coverage won't be shown. Click here to find out more.

Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
src/Settings/VideoSettings.h	100.00% <100.00%> (+85.71%)	⬆️
...anager/VideoReceiver/GStreamer/GstVideoReceiver.cc	5.33% <0.00%> (+2.43%)	⬆️
src/VideoManager/VideoManager.cc	7.96% <0.00%> (+6.06%)	⬆️
src/Settings/VideoSettings.cc	30.85% <33.33%> (+15.06%)	⬆️
...anager/VideoReceiver/GStreamer/GstSourceFactory.cc	30.13% <23.75%> (ø)

... and 658 files with indirect coverage changes

---

Continue to review full report in Codecov by Harness.

Legend - Click here to learn more
Δ = absolute <relative> (impact), ø = not affected, ? = missing data
Powered by Codecov. Last update a8150b0...d5ab4fb. Read the comment docs.

🚀 New features to boost your workflow:

• 📦 JS Bundle Analysis: Save yourself from yourself by tracking and limiting bundle sizes in JS merges.

[alireza787b]

@HTRamsey, this focused HTTP MJPEG source is ready for review. Exact head e9303ae571c41fdc1b4d78dba088042e21769212 passed QGC Linux release, unit, integration, coverage and sanitizer jobs; all Windows, Android, macOS, iOS, Docker, pre-commit and CodeQL checks are green as well. After #14727 and #14729, the transport itself is 15 files (+423/-27). The test uses a local multipart server and requires a real JPEG sample through appsink, so no camera or external service is needed. The endpoint contract is deliberately anonymous multipart MJPEG only; authentication remains outside this PR.

[alireza787b]

Restacked this branch onto current master (cf80b98d1) at b482159230f4941135ec298310e94e11fa70930c.

• Removed the fix(VideoManager): redact stream URLs in diagnostics #14727 commits; diagnostics hardening is independent of this transport.
• Removed the local HTTP fixture commits now present in master through test(UnitTest): handle early local HTTP requests #14729.
• The review diff is now the HTTP feature only: 15 files, +416/-18.
• Kept invalid-URL warnings value-free so this branch has no dependency on the unmerged redaction API.

Local checks passed: JSON parsing, git diff --check, whitespace/EOF hooks, and cmake -P cmake/GStreamer/tests/test_plugin_policy.cmake. Fresh exact-head CI is running. The current link-check failure is an unrelated HTTP 500 from an existing URL in docs/en/qgc-user-guide/troubleshooting/qgc_setup.md; this branch does not touch that file.