Flash rtmpe:// problems

Wowza Streaming Engine
1

I have two problems with my flash rtmpe:// streams running via jwplayer.

  1. We used handbrake to transcode some videos stored on disk. iPads play them fine but the same video files are slightly choppy when viewing from various laptop browsers. The video files are roughly 1Mbps, h264, mp3 or m4a (i forget), 2 channel audio 80kbps. I think the Galaxy Tab 10.1 starts them reliably but is I think it’s also slightly choppy. note: I don’t think I’m using h264 baseline 3.0 for my videos.

  2. have VLC transcoding live video feed transcoding options:

#transcode{ vcodec=h264,vfilter=croppadd{croptop=20},vb=600,scale=1,fps=29,venc=x264{aud,profile=baseline,level=30,keyint=30,bframes=0,ref=1,nocabac},acodec=mp3,ab=64,audio-sync,deinterlace,channels=2 }

iPads play them fine, but this time the rtmpe:// is smooth on laptops and flakey on several Galaxy Tab 10.1’s (android 3.1 and 3.2). The Galaxy Tab if it does start, plays great, but getting them to just start is the trick. Normally it displays 1 image then stalls and sometimes after about a minute might begin playing fine. Smooth and clear.

Any suggestions on which options to chose such that the flash streams are smooth and start more reliably?

Tnks,

Jay

===

Vitals:

Wowza 3.0.3

java version “1.6.0_22”

OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea6 1.10.3) (ArchLinux-6.b22_1.10.3-1-x86_64)

OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 19.0-b09, mixed mode)

2

Any difference when you use RTMP? I take it the sample.mp4 via the VOD application works just fine on all the devices?

In my experience AAC seems to work better than MP3 on Android. You could try using main profile for better quality. Here’s what we have for VLC suggestions: https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-use-vlc-as-a-live-stream-encoder-with-wowza-media-server-mpeg-ts

3

Charlie,

This won’t work with the FLVPlayback component. In fact, the server-side smil doesn’t work with any Flash RTMP player. It does work with Flash HDS.

JW Player and Flowplayer both have implementations of Flash Dynamic Streaming,

http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/jw-player/jw-player-for-flash-v5/16012/setting-up-rtmp-dynamic-streaming

and there is a way to leverage a Wowza server-side smil with the JW Player method:

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-use-jw-player-with-adaptive-bitrate-streaming-from-wowza-streaming-engine

Richard

4

Hi

RTMPE guide here,

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-require-a-secure-rtmp-connection-modulerequiresecureconnection

Another guide about android here,

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-troubleshoot-rtsp-rtp-playback

Profile should be baseline 3.0, Audio AAC, you should use a constant bitrate.

I would start your baseline low and work up to 3.0 to see what works and when you start to have trouble

Jason

5

I disabled the module that disables rtmp, adjusted the html to deliver rtmp://, flushed browser cache… and it didn’t notice an improvement.

I tried sample.mp4 and it actually played pretty good. I’m guessing it’s the way I transcoded the VOD files. Is “main profile” equiv to baseline 3.0? I can try retranscoding a VOD. Which converter do you like/suggest. ffmpeg? Any howto/command line options.

Do you guy see any difference with streams w/ constant or variable bit rate. Any suggestions there? We doing variable and iPads appear happy but wondering if android devices (flash) were more sensitive.

== update ==

just grabbed the latest jwplayer 5.8 and it helps a little. the picture for “live” is more likely to be present and get audio reliably. previously would be a black screen w/ audio.

6

I’m trying to use our Wowza server to play either mp3 or m4a files. What I am trying is to use the VOD setup using RTMPE along with the SMIL files the same as we are using for mp4 video on demand in conjunction with FLVPlayback, but am not having much luck. Firstly, do I need a different application and application.xml? If so, what needs to be different for audio on demand vs video on demand in the application.xml? Lastly, how should the SMIL files look for an audio only m4a or mp3? Although I see that m4a and mp3 show up as supported by Wowza, the documentation for setting up applications to support audio-only, seems scant. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Charlie Hill