Currently to get the stream from ffmpeg into nginx you have to do the following: ffmpeg -re -i input_file -c copy -f flv rtmp://nginx_server_url:1935/app

It would be nice to have the ability to set up an app block that looked kind of like this

application source1 { exec fffmpeg -f decklink -i 'DeckLink Quad (1)@8' -f flv rtmp://localhost/app/$name }

ffmpeg is still pushing the stream to nginx, but nginx is in charge of starting that process.

I think you might be looking for the exec_pull (or exex_static) directive

https://github.com/arut/nginx-rtmp-module/wiki/Directives#ex...

I've tried, and it doesn't work so well. I don't think it works for every OS either.

Is there an advantage that an nginx process like that has over streaming servers like liquidsoap?

liquidsoap is audio only right?

Most streaming servers are bloated and slow. If nginx can do for video streaming what they've done for web servers it would be great.

Nope, liquidsoap does video. http://liquidsoap.fm/doc-svn/video.html