Need of prefix ":mp4"

Wowza Streaming Engine
1

Dear forum members,

in most of the tutorials for the Wowza Server it is recommended to use the prefix “:mp4” directly before the video file. E.g: rtmp://[wowza-server]:1935/vod/mp4:sample.mp4. In the test player of our installation (4.*) I leave out the prefix “:mp4” and the video will also be played.

Maybe it is important:

  • I set the Default Stream Prefix in the Server Setup to “mp4”

  • most of our video files are mp4 (h.264)

  • we have a few m4v and mov-files

  • we do not have flv-videos

  • we also have a few audio files (only mp3)

  • we do on-demand and live-streaming

My question is: Is there any (other) reason why I have to use the “:mp4”-prefix? E.g problems with some mobile devices, media player, etc.?

thank you & best regards,

Anton

2

Starting with Wowza 4.0 the new default container is MP4, this used to be FLV, so to playback the streams you needed to specify the mp4 container. Also, prior to Wowza 4.0, you needed to use the mp4: prefix to record to mp4:

rtmp://[wowza-ip-address]:1935/live/mp4:myStream

One other usage is with sub-directories. If a file is in /content/subfolder you would need to use this URL:

rtmp://[wowza-ip-address]:1935/vod/_definst_/mp4:subfolder/sample.mp4

For some players (JWPlayer for example) to stream on demand files from a Wowza media server, you must specify the container format for the video asset. This is typically accomplished by adding a stream prefix to the VOD asset to create the stream name in playback URLs. The stream prefix specifies the container format for RTMP streaming. For example, in the following playback URL:

rtmp://[wowza-ip-address]:1935/vod/mp4:sample.mp4

The mp4: stream name prefix specifies that the QuickTime container format is used for the sample.mp4 video.

In Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, you can specify a default container format so that the corresponding stream prefix isn’t required in playback URLs. The Streaming Engine has two settings:

  • MP4

  • FLV

I hope this helps.

Salvadore

3

Hi,

I’ve made a correction to the post above, removing the second “mp4:” from the URL as that’s not required.

Was:

rtmp://[wowza-ip-address]:1935/vod/_definst_/mp4:subfolder/mp4:sample.mp4

Should be:

rtmp://[wowza-ip-address]:1935/vod/_definst_/mp4:subfolder/sample.mp4

Regards,

Jason

4

Additionally, in order to play an FLV in Wowza 4.x, you will nee to use the flv: prefix. Unless you set the default back to FLV:

rtmp://[wowza-ip-address]:1935/vod/flv:sample.flv

Regards,

Salvadore

5

Anton, you only need to use the prefix once in this case. Your example URL would be correct.

Regards,

Salvadore

6

Dear Salvadore,

thank you for your prompt and detailed answer.

best regards, Anton

7

Dear Jason,

thank you for this information. Just one question: if I have a subsubfolder, do I also need just one prefix “:mp4”? Eg:

rtmp://[wowza-ip-address]:1935/vod/_definst_/mp4:subfolder/subsubfolder/sample.mp4

thanks,

best regards, Anton