diff --git a/libavformat/rtsp.c b/libavformat/rtsp.c
index 689ad2959597bb27eeaace3f55695aae0dd8f91e..2b244d8679ae58ec868ac487186cbcd0e65f1642 100644
--- a/libavformat/rtsp.c
+++ b/libavformat/rtsp.c
@@ -824,6 +824,7 @@ int ff_rtsp_read_reply(AVFormatContext *s, RTSPMessageHeader *reply,
             get_word(buf1, sizeof(buf1), &p);
             get_word(buf1, sizeof(buf1), &p);
             reply->status_code = atoi(buf1);
+            av_strlcpy(reply->reason, p, sizeof(reply->reason));
         } else {
             ff_rtsp_parse_line(reply, p, &rt->auth_state);
             av_strlcat(rt->last_reply, p,    sizeof(rt->last_reply));
@@ -961,9 +962,10 @@ retry:
         goto retry;
 
     if (reply->status_code > 400){
-        av_log(s, AV_LOG_ERROR, "method %s failed, %d\n",
+        av_log(s, AV_LOG_ERROR, "method %s failed: %d%s\n",
                method,
-               reply->status_code);
+               reply->status_code,
+               reply->reason);
         av_log(s, AV_LOG_DEBUG, "%s\n", rt->last_reply);
     }
 
diff --git a/libavformat/rtsp.h b/libavformat/rtsp.h
index 2853253e4b573a33ad0d5842417f78b6fcca81c2..1dba9961c3b33bb8df2235ad468e871f1880b719 100644
--- a/libavformat/rtsp.h
+++ b/libavformat/rtsp.h
@@ -159,6 +159,11 @@ typedef struct RTSPMessageHeader {
      * http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-stiemerling-rtsp-announce-00
      * for a complete list of supported values. */
     int notice;
+
+    /** The "reason" is meant to specify better the meaning of the error code
+     * returned
+     */
+    char reason[256];
 } RTSPMessageHeader;
 
 /**