diff --git a/libavformat/http.c b/libavformat/http.c
index a867a03885..a3edd816a7 100644
--- a/libavformat/http.c
+++ b/libavformat/http.c
@@ -48,7 +48,6 @@ typedef struct {
     int64_t off, filesize;
     char location[URL_SIZE];
     HTTPAuthState auth_state;
-    int init;
     unsigned char headers[BUFFER_SIZE];
 } HTTPContext;
 
@@ -99,7 +98,6 @@ static int http_open_cnx(URLContext *h)
     HTTPContext *s = h->priv_data;
     URLContext *hd = NULL;
 
-    s->init = 1;
     proxy_path = getenv("http_proxy");
     use_proxy = (proxy_path != NULL) && !getenv("no_proxy") &&
         av_strstart(proxy_path, "http://", NULL);
@@ -165,7 +163,7 @@ static int http_open(URLContext *h, const char *uri, int flags)
     s->filesize = -1;
     av_strlcpy(s->location, uri, URL_SIZE);
 
-    return 0;
+    return http_open_cnx(h);
 }
 static int http_getc(HTTPContext *s)
 {
@@ -368,19 +366,6 @@ static int http_read(URLContext *h, uint8_t *buf, int size)
     HTTPContext *s = h->priv_data;
     int len;
 
-    if (!s->init) {
-        int ret = http_open_cnx(h);
-        if (ret != 0)
-            return ret;
-    }
-    if (!s->hd)
-        return AVERROR(EIO);
-
-    /* A size of zero can be used to force
-     * initializaton of the connection. */
-    if (!size)
-        return 0;
-
     if (s->chunksize >= 0) {
         if (!s->chunksize) {
             char line[32];
@@ -428,14 +413,6 @@ static int http_write(URLContext *h, const uint8_t *buf, int size)
     char crlf[] = "\r\n";
     HTTPContext *s = h->priv_data;
 
-    if (!s->init) {
-        int ret = http_open_cnx(h);
-        if (ret != 0)
-            return ret;
-    }
-    if (!s->hd)
-        return AVERROR(EIO);
-
     if (s->chunksize == -1) {
         /* non-chunked data is sent without any special encoding */
         return url_write(s->hd, buf, size);
@@ -480,14 +457,6 @@ static int64_t http_seek(URLContext *h, int64_t off, int whence)
     uint8_t old_buf[BUFFER_SIZE];
     int old_buf_size;
 
-    if (!s->init) {
-        int ret = http_open_cnx(h);
-        if (ret != 0)
-            return ret;
-    }
-    if (!s->hd)
-        return AVERROR(EIO);
-
     if (whence == AVSEEK_SIZE)
         return s->filesize;
     else if ((s->filesize == -1 && whence == SEEK_END) || h->is_streamed)
diff --git a/libavformat/rtsp.c b/libavformat/rtsp.c
index fe64a5dd70..be63523836 100644
--- a/libavformat/rtsp.c
+++ b/libavformat/rtsp.c
@@ -1578,7 +1578,7 @@ redirect:
                  av_get_random_seed(), av_get_random_seed());
 
         /* GET requests */
-        if (url_open(&rt->rtsp_hd, httpname, URL_RDONLY) < 0) {
+        if (url_alloc(&rt->rtsp_hd, httpname, URL_RDONLY) < 0) {
             err = AVERROR(EIO);
             goto fail;
         }
@@ -1593,13 +1593,13 @@ redirect:
         ff_http_set_headers(rt->rtsp_hd, headers);
 
         /* complete the connection */
-        if (url_read(rt->rtsp_hd, NULL, 0)) {
+        if (url_connect(rt->rtsp_hd)) {
             err = AVERROR(EIO);
             goto fail;
         }
 
         /* POST requests */
-        if (url_open(&rt->rtsp_hd_out, httpname, URL_WRONLY) < 0 ) {
+        if (url_alloc(&rt->rtsp_hd_out, httpname, URL_WRONLY) < 0 ) {
             err = AVERROR(EIO);
             goto fail;
         }
@@ -1634,6 +1634,11 @@ redirect:
          */
         ff_http_init_auth_state(rt->rtsp_hd_out, rt->rtsp_hd);
 
+        /* complete the connection */
+        if (url_connect(rt->rtsp_hd_out)) {
+            err = AVERROR(EIO);
+            goto fail;
+        }
     } else {
         /* open the tcp connection */
         ff_url_join(tcpname, sizeof(tcpname), "tcp", NULL, host, port, NULL);