Multi bitrate streams

Wowza Developer Dojo
1

Hi there,

How can i create application with automatic (if it’s exist ) multi bitrate selection ?

i’m working with jw player and i created a playlist file with multiple bitrates but i always get that i have only 1 level of bitrate.

my playlist file looks like :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns:jwplayer="http://developer.longtailvideo.com/trac/wiki/FlashFormats">
  <channel>
    <item>
      <title>Bitrate Switching - Planet Earth</title>
      <description>Bitrate switching for RTMP streaming is done on startup and with every seek and fullscreen switch.</description>
      <media:group>
        <media:content    bitrate="6000" url="earth_hd.mp4"   	width="960" />
        <media:content    bitrate="3000" url="sd_cut.mp4"   	width="1280" />
      </media:group>
      <media:thumbnail url="planetearth.jpg" />
      <jwplayer:streamer>rtmp://my.wowza.server/vod</jwplayer:streamer>
      <jwplayer:type>rtmp</jwplayer:type>
      
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

according to some posts(http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/forum/Setup-Problems/20391/Bitrate-switching-always-selecting-same-level#msg136452) on longtailvideo (jwplayer web site) wowza does not support multi bitrate

(see one before the last post - by a guy called hobbs).

so, is there any way to make wowza support multi bitrate ?

thanks,

koby

2

Wowza Server 2 supports dynamic switching, as in the next example in that set from here:

http://developer.longtailvideo.com/trac/browser/testing/files/bitrates.xml

     <item>
	                        <title>RTMP streaming (dynamic)</title>
	                        <description>When an FMS 3.5 server is detected, bitrate switching is also continously done while watching the video.</description>
	                        <media:group>
	                                <media:content bitrate="1600" width="1080" url="videos/8Juv1MVa-67727.mp4" />
	                                <media:content bitrate="1200" width="720" url="videos/8Juv1MVa-485.mp4" />
	                                <media:content bitrate="800" width="480" url="videos/8Juv1MVa-484.mp4" />
	                                <media:content bitrate="400" width="320" url="videos/8Juv1MVa-483.mp4" />
	                                <media:thumbnail url="http://content.bitsontherun.com/thumbs/8Juv1MVa-480.jpg" />
	                        </media:group>
	                        <jwplayer:type>rtmp</jwplayer:type>
	                        <jwplayer:streamer>rtmpt://fms.12E5.edgecastcdn.net/0012E5</jwplayer:streamer>
	                </item>

Richard

3

It has to be implemented in the client. See the multi-bitrate section of this post on Video On Demand streaming:

http://community.wowza.com/t/-/64

I would look at the 4.7 version of JW Player for something that should work right now. Possibly the latest 5 version of JW Player, but not sure.

Richard

4

rrlanham, thank you for replying…

i saw this example and tried to use it but it doesn’t work (for me…)

you can try and watch it here : http://test.zixi.com/WowzaMultiBitrate/index.html.

as you can see (on the top of the video) there is only 1 level.

i guess that the levels refers to how many different bitrates (i saw it somewhere…).

any other suggestion?

5

When an FMS 3.5 server is detected, bitrate switching is also continously done while watching the video

how can i know when wowza switch streams ?

how can i know if wowza recognize that i’m asking for multi bitrate streams ?

is there anything special that i need to do to configure wowza or it is just client side ?

thanks,

koby

6

thanks,

i’ll check it soon.

koby