Possible to buffer the live stream?

Wowza Streaming Engine
1

Is it possible to “buffer” the live stream in order to make it smoother?

Like… to hold a small buffer before it starts playing.

Then play from that buffer so it is smoother and better quality?

Is that something that can be done through a custom wowza module?

Thanks

2

Hi,

If this is a lack of bandwidth at the player end then you will need to lower he bitrate of the stream as adding a sortbuffer will only fix the stream for the duration of the buffer.

A buffer can be added on the player side specifically JW player and Flowplayer have a buffer which is configurable.

If it’s a problem from the source and the packets are out of order and this is effecting the stream then you can add a buffer in Wowza which will allow time to manage packets before the client plays them.

To do this, In the Application.xml file add the following Property blocks to the Streams/Properties section:

<Property> 
        <Name>sortPackets</Name> 
        <Value>true</Value> 
        <Type>Boolean</Type> 
</Property> 
<Property> 
        <Name>sortBufferSize</Name> 
        <Value>2000</Value> 
        <Type>Integer</Type> 
</Property>

The “sortBufferSize” value is in milliseconds.

Jason

3

Hi,

No, if the source stream is sending packets which are out of order adding a buffer will give Wowza time to sort the packets out before the client plays them.

This is not a necessarily a bandwidth issue from the source just packets are being sent out of order.

If you do have a bandwidth issue you will have to reduce the bitrate so that you are within the bandwidth limitation.

Jason

4

Thank you so much. So if the wowza server is a place with low bandwidth we can set this buffer… I will give it a shot.

thanks again