# How do I play a saved stream from a live application? **URL:** \ **Category:** Wowza Streaming Engine\ **Created:** [October 2, 2014, 1:01pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/how-do-i-play-a-saved-stream-from-a-live-application/43922 "2014-10-02T13:01:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_Houseman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cc9497/32.png) [@Jim\_Houseman](https://community.wowza.com/u/Jim_Houseman)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 1:01pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/how-do-i-play-a-saved-stream-from-a-live-application/43922/1 "2014-10-02T13:01:54Z")
I have an application called “recorder” set to record all incoming streams. It’s meant to accept streams, and store them. The Streaming File Directory is set to ${com.wowza.wms.context.VHostConfigHome}/content/recorder How do I playback these saved streams by using the same application? I’ve tried going to rtmp://[server-ip]/recorder/[streamname], and that doesn’t work. I’ve only gotten it to work by creating a video-on-demand application, setting the Streaming File Directory to the location that the recorder’s Streaming File Directory is set to, and playing the file by accessing that application instead of the recorder. Can you playback saved streams from a live application, or can you only playback using vod applications? I’ve tried following this tutorial [https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-set-up-video-on-demand-streaming#playback](https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-set-up-video-on-demand-streaming#playback) but I always get a “Stream not found” when I try to play my streams using the built-in test players through the recorder application ---
**Author:** ![sal\_jefferson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sal\_jefferson](https://community.wowza.com/u/sal_jefferson)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/how-do-i-play-a-saved-stream-from-a-live-application/43922/2 "2014-10-02T14:22:53Z")
Hi there, I am not sure this is exactly what you want but you could use the Stream Class to play the VOD file as the source of a live stream: [How to do basic server-side publishing with Stream class streams](https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-do-basic-server-side-publishing-with-stream-class-streams) Thank you, Salvadore ---
**Author:** ![sal\_jefferson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sal\_jefferson](https://community.wowza.com/u/sal_jefferson)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 2:26pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/how-do-i-play-a-saved-stream-from-a-live-application/43922/3 "2014-10-02T14:26:50Z")
To play VOD files located in a sub-folder you will need to add _definst_ to the stream name: ```auto rtmp://[server-ip]:1935/[app-name]/_definst_/recorder/[streamname] ``` Salvadore ---
**Author:** ![sal\_jefferson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sal\_jefferson](https://community.wowza.com/u/sal_jefferson)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 2:56pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/how-do-i-play-a-saved-stream-from-a-live-application/43922/4 "2014-10-02T14:56:36Z")
Sorry, I thought you said the VOD files were in a sub-folder called “recorder” If this is the case, and the application name is “recorder” and the file is located in a sub-folder inside of /content called “recorder”, then yes. Otherwise this is the URL format for playing content in a sub-folder: ```auto rtmp://[server-ip]:1935/[app-name]/_definst_/[sub-dir]/[streamname] ``` Salvadore ---
**Author:** ![sal\_jefferson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sal\_jefferson](https://community.wowza.com/u/sal_jefferson)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 3:09pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/how-do-i-play-a-saved-stream-from-a-live-application/43922/5 "2014-10-02T15:09:59Z")
I am sorry. No, you can not play back a recorded stream in the same live application. But you can use the Stream class to use the recorded file as the source of a live stream, which will allow you to play a recorded stream (file) as a live stream: [How to do basic server-side publishing with Stream class streams](https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-do-basic-server-side-publishing-with-stream-class-streams) And the last post about using _definst_ was because I thought you were having trouble playing the recorded file in a VOD application, which looking back sounds like that was not the case. I don’t think you would want to play the recorded file in an app that is set to record all incoming streams. Sorry for all this confusion. I hope I cleared it up here. Salvadore ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_Houseman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cc9497/32.png) [@Jim\_Houseman](https://community.wowza.com/u/Jim_Houseman)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/how-do-i-play-a-saved-stream-from-a-live-application/43922/6 "2014-10-02T13:43:47Z")
The application’s name is recorder Are you saying I should do recorder/_definst_/recorder ? rtmp://54.188.88.9:1935/recorder/_definst_/recorder/[streamname].mp4 didn’t work. rtmp://54.188.88.9:1935/_definst_/recorder/[streamname].mp4 didn’t work either. Is it even possible to playback recorded streams from a LIVE application? ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_Houseman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cc9497/32.png) [@Jim\_Houseman](https://community.wowza.com/u/Jim_Houseman)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 1:58pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/how-do-i-play-a-saved-stream-from-a-live-application/43922/7 "2014-10-02T13:58:55Z")
And what do you mean by a VOD file? I’m using a LIVE application with the “Record all incoming streams” option in order to enable my flash client to publish a stream to Wowza and have it stored there when the client is finished publishing. So, after the client is finished publishing and the stream is stored on the server, would the resulting file be considered a VOD file? ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_Houseman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cc9497/32.png) [@Jim\_Houseman](https://community.wowza.com/u/Jim_Houseman)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 2:01pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/how-do-i-play-a-saved-stream-from-a-live-application/43922/8 "2014-10-02T14:01:54Z")
I tried ```auto rtmp://[server-ip]:1935/recorder/_definst_/content/[streamname].mp4 ``` And that didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_Houseman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cc9497/32.png) [@Jim\_Houseman](https://community.wowza.com/u/Jim_Houseman)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 2:16pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/how-do-i-play-a-saved-stream-from-a-live-application/43922/9 "2014-10-02T14:16:27Z")
Okay, thanks. This works differently than in Adobe Media Sever, where you can stream to and from using the same live application. I was used to this architecture, rather than having two different applications, one for “uploading” and another for “downloading”.