I’ll try to keep this simple.
Currently we are using the following wordpress theme, which includes jwplayer, to host our company videos in test not production.
https://www.inkthemes.com/market/videocraft-wordpress-theme/
The wordpress theme works beautifully, however, it does not offer, (sorry I’m not sure on the proper terminology) any adaptive quality options for slower internet connections. This is why we are looking into wowza.
I followed the instructions on setting up VOD. I get to the preview player and it offers me a bunch of links for varying players. I need to somehow generate a link to plug into the videocraft themed wordpress, and I have no idea how to accomplish this. Video isn’t exactly my thing haha. Thanks in advance!
Hello Leonard,
What protocol are you using for playback? ABR streaming from Wowza will require different playback URLs depending on the protocol - HLS, MPEG-DASH, RTMP etc.
I would recommend following our tutorial on how to create an ABR VOD stream first, just to ensure that the Wowza side of things is set up correctly. The tutorial also has example playback URLs that you would use - for example an Apple HLS playback of the VOD ABR example would be
http://[wowza-ip-address]:1935/vod/smil:bigbuckbunny.smil/playlist.m3u8
Note that ABR playback for RTMP can be quite problematic. JW Player is probably the simplest method if RTMP is required. This article explains how to set things up.
If possible 'd recommend using an HTTP based protocol such as HLS if your player will accept that protocol, but as you mention you are using JW Player then try the example in the last link I provided and see if that helps.
Regards,
Paul
@Paul Shields
Hello Paul,
As of right now, i’m using mp4. So to clarify, I would need to use an outside tool such as handbrake to create the different versions of the mp4. I would then setup using links 1 and 2 that you provided. Also, do you know of a tool that creates all of these formats in batch, as well as batch for multiple videos. Thanks!
Leonard
Hi Leonard,
OK thanks for the clarification. So you are basically looking at creating your own files in different bitrates to then provide that as an ABR playlist? There are third-party services that can do this for you. Please see our article on using encoding.com as an example of creating ABR sets of your video assets.
It should also be possible to automate this using tools such as ffmpeg. I don’t have any working examples to hand (perhaps others will chime in - I found this example on a quick Google, but I can’t vouch for it).
Alternatively, you could use Wowza Streaming Engine to create the ABR files for you by “publishing” your MP4 source as a stream to Wowza using our Stream Publisher with the Transcoder and “record all streams” or Live Stream Record enabled (or just use something like ffmpeg to publish the file to Wowza as a “live” stream).
If you make a call to the medialist HTTP Provider while the stream is being published and transcoded then you can also automatically create the smil file that could then be used to play back the recorded assets as an ABR stream, e.g. for a stream called myStream in an app called live
curl --digest -u username:password "http://[WOWZA-IP]:8086/medialist?streamname=ngrp:myStream_all&application=live&format=smil" > myStream.smil
So it is possible to automate a lot of this yourself if you’re handy with scripts, or alternatively just engage an encoding service.
The key thing is to ensure that each file is keyframe-aligned, otherwise the switching between renditions may fail.
Regards,
Paul
WOWZA ANNOUNCES SUPPORT OF MPEG-DASH nDVR FOR LIVE STREAMING
**New playback options available with update of Wowza Streaming Engine version 4.7.6
The Wowza nDVR feature enables you to record a live stream with Wowza Streaming Engine while simultaneously allowing users to play or pause the live stream, rewind it to a previously recorded point, or resume viewing at the current live point. Wowza Streaming Engine 4.7.6 adds support to record MPEG-DASH live streams with the nDVR feature.
See our quick start guide here:
https://www.wowza.com/docs/wowza-ndvr-quick-start-guide