HTML5 Support for video playback

Wowza Streaming Engine
1

I see that youtube is now offering HTML5 support (http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/01/introducing-youtube-html5-supported.html), and this got me wondering if Wowza Server 2 also support it.

I see in the documentation that it supports live streaming

<html>
<head>
  <title>Wowza Media Server Streaming</title>
</head>
<body>
  <video src="http://[server-ip-address]:1935/live/[stream-name]/playlist.m3u8"></video>
</body>
</html>

But was wondering if it’s possible to use HTML5 to do simple streaming, e.g. the Extremists file that’s including in the SimpleVideoStreaming example code.

I made an attempt at it using the above as a template, but it didn’t even connect with the server

<html>
<body>
  <video src="rtmp://localhost/vod/Extremists.mp4"></video>
</body>
</html>

If this does work, either now or in the future, can you add it to the Examples directory? This would be a pretty cool feature.

Tac

2

You can use HTML5 in Safari/IPhone browser.

<html>
<head> 
  <title>test</title> 
</head> 
<body> 
<video src="http://[wowza-ip]:1935/vod/_definst_/Extremists.m4v/playlist.m3u8">
</video> 
</body> 
</html>

Richard

3

By MP4 and Ogg, the w3c actually refers to the file containers. The clarification of what encoder formats are expected to be in these containers is provided in the Video Formats and Browser Support section at http://www.w3schools.com/html5/html5_video.asp

MP4 = MPEG 4 files with H264 video codec and AAC audio codec

WebM = WebM files with VP8 video codec and Vorbis audio codec

Ogg = Ogg files with Theora video codec and Vorbis audio codec

These files can be played back in HTML5 as progressive download from a web server.

I recently ran across an excellent article by Robert Reinehart, one of the industry experts, describing the current state of HTML5. It is a good read..

Alex

4

I think the big problem is on the browser side. I don’t think they support H.264/AAC. I also think at this point HTML5 support is progressive download only.

Charlie

5

I don’t know for sure.

Charlie

6

At this time Wowza Media Server does not support outbound streaming of MPEG4 Part2. We also do not support progressive download or any kind of throttled progressive download streaming. The Wowza Transcoder does support ingestion of MPEG4 Part2 so that we can transcode it to H.264. These are all technologies that we continue to evaluate for inclusion into the product but are not currently supported.

Charlie

7

Thanks, not playing for me, but appears to be getting closer. With this line:

  <video src="http://localhost:1935/vod/_definst_/Extremists.m4v/playlist.m3u8"></video>

I’m getting this is the console:

INFO application app-start _definst_ vod/_definst_
INFO cupertino connect 1307777212 -
INFO stream create Extremists.m4v -
INFO cupertino connect 1121865013 -
INFO stream create Extremists.m4v -

When I run the example script (using Flash), the console shows ‘PLAY’ rather than ‘CREATE’:

INFO session connect 127.0.0.1 -
INFO stream create - -
INFO stream play Extremists.m4v -
INFO stream stop Extremists.m4v -
INFO stream destroy Extremists.m4v -
INFO session disconnect 318006991 -

What is playlist.m3u8? Should that be a file that has something in it?

Thanks!

Tac

8

Thanks, but I’m not developing this for an iPhone, but rather an HTML5 web browser (Safari, Chrome). I’m guessing that I’m just missing something in the syntax.

I’ve read the long (24-page) thread on iPhone streaming at

https://www.wowza.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5374

but didn’t find a simple example that I could get to work.

Tac

9

Oh! When I read “You can use HTML5 in Safari/IPhone browser.” I thought that meant Safari OR an iPhone browser (which is also Safari).

So, any change support for HTML5 could be supported from other browsers? No idea how complicated that is, but I’m jazzed to see that youtube offers it now.

Tac

10

Chrome will play a video if you navigate directly to it:

http://localhost/Extremists.m4v

But don’t think the video tag works at present in any desktop browser

The

But the more I read, the less possible I think this is. What a mess video is! Some interesting articles her:

Youtube and Video support HTML5: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2358335,00.asp

h264 v OGG: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/06/html-5-ogg-theora-vs-h264-in-the-battle-for-a-web-video-standard/

and finally, a history of how we got into this mess, due to Apple and Microsoft fighting for control of video. Fascinating history. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/07/06/ogg_theora_h_264_and_the_html_5_browser_squabble.html

Tac

11

This html5 with video tag and playlist.m3u8 url is just for IPhone, it won’t work on any desktop browser.

Richard

12

Chrome will play a video if you navigate directly to it:

http://localhost/Extremists.m4v

But don’t think the video tag works at present in any desktop browser

Richard

13

I just heard that possibly iPhone HTTP streams will play on Safari for Snow Leopard (4.0 or later)… if you want to check that out. Try it with HTML5 video tag and playlist.m3u8 url.

Richard

14

That was one of an earlier series of articles on using Wowza 2 that was abandoned. The current tutorials have a use case focus instead of technology focus, for example Video on Demand Streaming. Each tutorial shows the configuration and playback URLs for all supported technologies

https://www.wowza.com/docs/

Richard

15

You can use HTML5 video tag to playback a Cupertino stream from Wowza on iOS devices and Safari on Mac OSX. HTML5 video tag doesn’t work in any other case with Wowza.

Richard

16

You should read this …

17

Thanks, but I’m not developing this for an iPhone, but rather an HTML5 web browser (Safari, Chrome). I’m guessing that I’m just missing something in the syntax.

Oups, sorry. FYI, I’m using this exact syntax on iPhone …

18

I also think at this point HTML5 support is progressive download only.

Does this mean it’s not possible to embed a live stream in a video tag for now ?

19

I got the

If wowza supported streaming to the

20

This works perfectly on Safari 4 on Mac with both VOD or live broadcast:

VOD code:

Live broadcast code: