Does iOS require certain dimensions?

Wowza Player
1

Hello,

I am trying to test our Wowza VOD player on iOS. Although the newest iPhone seems to be able to play any dimension of video, I have had less success with a couple of iPads that are just a couple of years old. It seems they will only play videos of 640x480 or smaller (ratio didn’t matter). The only difference I made in the encoding process was the dimensions.

Is this an expected behavior that I should account for by providing an alternate version of the video? Or is it possible I am getting something else wrong in the encoding process? I can provide more information, but I’m not sure what’s relevant. I appreciate any help.

2

Hi @Brennan McLoughlin can you confirm whether or not this is being streamed as HLS and through Streaming Engine? Also, what happens when you try to stream through our test players?

If it is for Engine, then can you please check these specifications for those iPads?

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-find-apple-ios-device-supported-profile-and-level-information

3

Yes, we are using the streaming engine and yes, it is being streamed by HLS. The test player does help, thank you.

It turns out that some of our videos do work and some do not. The results are the same across 4 different iOS devices with different specs; the results are the same regardless of the player used (test or our player); the results are the same regardless of the dimensions and even regardless of the encoding method. In other words, some videos with precisely the same dimensions and encoding presets work while others do not.

This has become quite the mystery, and I am currently testing a broader range of videos to see if I can figure it out. Currently my theory is that videos with a large file size (>500 Mb) are the culprits. Is there an upper limit on file size for VOD? I will post back here once I figure out more.

4

Hello @Brennan McLoughlin, I checked with tech support and they said that the file size should not be the issue since we test with 3GB files no problem. They suggest you submit a support ticket to save yourself some time since it could be one or several of the following areas causing the issue:

  • disk speed

  • network speed

  • CPU processing

  • RAM

or even the

  • How the VOD was recorded

  • HLS packetizer config

  • VOD config

We can help you quickly identify the issue and assist.

https://www.wowza.com/support/open-ticket

5

Be sure to let us know how it’s resolved if you can. Many people will view this post- thanks!

6

Thanks, I was able to resolve this issue by taking the mp4 produced by Adobe Media Encoder and running it through Handbrake on “Web Optimized.” This decreased the file size and presumably fixed something else, as other files of similar size worked without needing this step.

I have another question related to the Wowza Player’s behavior on iOS. We have certain features tied to the Wowza Player’s JS API (e.g. when onCompleted is triggered, it redirects you to a quiz). The video is playing now, but the JS triggers are not working and the controls seem to be the default HTML5 video tag controls. In other words, it seems that the Wowza player is not the player used for video on iOS. Instead, it seems to be the default HTML5 video tag player. This seems to be the case even for the test player.

Is it the case that Wowza’s player will not work on iOS, and instead defaults to the HTML5 video tag player? Or is there a way to force the Wowza player to work on iOS?

EDIT: I was able to find this thread where you state, “With iOS devices, playback of HLS (m3u8) streams are generally passed on to the native player.”

This seems to be confirmation that the Wowza “player”, by which I mean the actual player with its controls and API triggers, does not work for iOS-- is that right? Can this be disabled, or is the Wowza player just incompatible with iOS? I understand that the video will play in the native HTML5 player, but I’m trying to use other features of the Wowza player.