# live-lowlatency vs chat stream type

**URL:** <https://community.wowza.com/t/live-lowlatency-vs-chat-stream-type/38442>\
**Category:** Wowza Streaming Engine\
**Created:** [May 8, 2012, 11:00pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/live-lowlatency-vs-chat-stream-type/38442 "2012-05-08T23:00:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Gili\_Tzabari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecccb3/32.png) [@Gili\_Tzabari](https://community.wowza.com/u/Gili_Tzabari)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 11:00pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/live-lowlatency-vs-chat-stream-type/38442/1 "2012-05-08T23:00:54Z")

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[https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-set-up-live-video-chat](https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-set-up-live-video-chat) recommends using the “live-lowlatency” stream type for live video chat applications but I noticed that streams.xml contains an undocumented “chat” stream type. What’s the difference? Why isn’t the latter documented?

Thanks,

Gili

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**Author:** ![Richard\_Lanham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Richard\_Lanham](https://community.wowza.com/u/Richard_Lanham)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 12:58pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/live-lowlatency-vs-chat-stream-type/38442/2 "2012-05-09T12:58:26Z")

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Gili,

You can see the actual difference in the Streams.xml file. They are similar. You can create StreamTypes in this file if you want.

Richard

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**Author:** ![Richard\_Lanham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Richard\_Lanham](https://community.wowza.com/u/Richard_Lanham)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 1:52pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/live-lowlatency-vs-chat-stream-type/38442/3 "2012-05-09T13:52:49Z")

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You can create a new StreamType in that file if you want, and try different values.

Here is some info from Charlie

[https://www.wowza.com/forums/showthread.php?405-Prioritization-of-stream-data#2](https://www.wowza.com/forums/showthread.php?405-Prioritization-of-stream-data#2)

Info in FlushInterval and onFlushNotifyClients here:

[https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-set-up-low-latency-applications-in-wowza-streaming-engine-for-rtmp-streaming](https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-set-up-low-latency-applications-in-wowza-streaming-engine-for-rtmp-streaming)

Richard

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**Author:** ![Gili\_Tzabari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecccb3/32.png) [@Gili\_Tzabari](https://community.wowza.com/u/Gili_Tzabari)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 8:12am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/live-lowlatency-vs-chat-stream-type/38442/4 "2012-05-09T08:12:38Z")

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Richard,

Sure I can see they’re different, but the properties they differ by are not defined in the documentation (e.g. behindDropDFrames) so how am I supposed to know what the difference means? 🙂

My guess is that the “chat” profile allows for greater latency before dropping frames than does the “live-lowlatency” profile. But that’s just a guess. Also, what would “live-lowlatency” be used for if not for chat applications?

Thanks,

Gili

> Gili,
> 
> You can see the actual difference in the Streams.xml file. They are similar. You can create StreamTypes in this file if you want.
> 
> Richard

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Gili\_Tzabari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecccb3/32.png) [@Gili\_Tzabari](https://community.wowza.com/u/Gili_Tzabari)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 10:02am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/live-lowlatency-vs-chat-stream-type/38442/5 "2012-05-09T10:02:08Z")

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Thanks! I also found some brief information about the different frame types here: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video\_compression\_picture\_types#Predicted\_frames.2Fslices\_.28P-frames.2Fslices.29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_compression_picture_types#Predicted_frames.2Fslices_.28P-frames.2Fslices.29)

Gili

> You can create a new StreamType in that file if you want, and try different values.
> 
> Here is some info from Charlie
> 
> [https://www.wowza.com/forums/showthread.php?405-Prioritization-of-stream-data#2](https://www.wowza.com/forums/showthread.php?405-Prioritization-of-stream-data#2)
> 
> Info in FlushInterval and onFlushNotifyClients here:
> 
> [Low latency RTMP streaming with Wowza Streaming Engine](https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-set-up-low-latency-applications-in-wowza-streaming-engine-for-rtmp-streaming)
> 
> Richard