Live Streaming: Encode raw video in H264?

Wowza Streaming Engine
1

Hi there,

I have a powerful CUDA enabled machine that I would like to use to encode video in H264. I want to transport this H264-encoded video stream to the Wowza 3 server (in real time), instead of using Wowza’s Transcoding add-on (This is for a variety of reasons).

I looked at the link:

https://www.wowza.com/docs/specific-encoding-technologies

But most of the encoding is in MPEG-TS that is then transmitted to Wowza using RTP (I believe I would then need to transcode on the server - which is something I don’t want to do)

Can anyone tell me which software I can use to enable this. I want something robust and I can pay a bit for this software (does not have to be free or open source). My CUDA machine runs Windows.

The reasons for me not wanting to use Wowza transcoding are as follows:

  1. No CUDA enabled machines in non-US locations on Amazon EC2.

  2. Preference for Linux varients.

Finally, while I may not want to transcode using Wowza, I may want to transrate. Is that computationally intensive as well? Based on your answer, I might decide to transcrate on the client.

Thanks!

2

Hi cnfcnf,

Wowza supports MPEG-TS transport stream with H.264 encoding natively. You do not need to transcode this. Look here: How to publish and play a live stream (MPEG-TS based encoder). Does that answer your question?

As far as transrate, I think that keeping the same resolution and changing the bitrate will require more processing than lowering the resolution and then having the client scale in flash.

3

Hi randall,

I apologize for my ignorance. However, I thought that a stream could either be MPEG2-TS or H264 and not both. From your message it seems that I can encode in H264 and then use an MPEG2-TS wrapper? I am getting an A/V input that goes into a viewcast card. Can you tell me what software encoders I can use on a CUDA enabled Windows machine? I could also encode in multiple bit rates on my encoding machine even before it reaches wowza.

I am not sure I want client scaling in flash, because the quality might be too poor. I am thinking of using 3 bit rates as everyone seems to use.

Thanks a lot!