Teradek Cube -> Wowza Streaming Engine - RTMP Stalls, RTSP OK

Wowza Streaming Engine
1

Hello,

We’re encoding using a Teradek Cube, feeding RTMP into Wowza Streaming Engine and monitoring on JWPlayer, Strobe Media Playback and VLC.

Test players in the Teradek interface and Wowza reproduce the RTMP stream without issue. Monitoring via JW Player and Strobe Media Playback play smoothly as well.

When loading the RTMP feed in VLC, the stream stalls continuously; our recipient is seeing the same when pulling into Elemental Encoder.

If we load the RTSP feed into VLC, it plays smoothly. Bandwidth is not an issue on either end.

Any ideas as to what could be occurring and a solution? Much appreciated.

Jorge

2

Hi,

This does seem rather player specific, based on the description. The Test flash players are

capable of playing RTMP streams very well. But not sure about the reliability of VLC

player with RTMP. We know it to be a very capable around player though, but it’s possible

RTMP could be an issue.

You can try opening the Tools->Messages window in VLC and set verbosity to ‘debug’

then start playback and observe the messages displayed. You can post the message output

here.

Daren

3

Hi,

I’m seeing the same, even with the sample.mp4 vod playback.

It further suggests a player issue by this reported bug here.

though that seems to be closed and incomplete.

I did try playing back a smaller, lower bitrate stream/file and that came in and played just fine,

so you may want to try decreasing the bitrate, and Profile, try baseline for example.

Daren

4

Hi,

This issue is being handled via a support ticket (135456).

It appears to be a bug in the latest versions of VLC for Windows as this behavior seems to first appear in VLC v2.2.0, but not in the prior version, v2.1.5.

Regards,

Jason

5

Hi,

This does seem rather player specific, based on the description. The Test flash players are

capable of playing RTMP streams very well. But not sure about the reliability of VLC

player with RTMP. We know it to be a very capable around player though, but it’s possible

RTMP could be an issue.

You can try opening the Tools->Messages window in VLC and set verbosity to ‘debug’

then start playback and observe the messages displayed. You can post the message output

here.

Daren

Daren,

Thanks for getting back to me so promptly. I appreciate the help.

Here is the VLC log from 3 minutes of output. I’m checking the Performance within Task Manager and the resource usage is reasonable, the workstation has sufficient capacity to decode.

I’m concerned that we’re seeing this stalling on the VLC side, from several locations, but more importantly that our client is also seeing this as well using Elemental Encoder – despite the fact that the web-based flash players are handing the stream well.

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 807 ms)

core warning: playback way too early (-297084): playing silence

core debug: inserting 14260 zeroes

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 3881 ms)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 4772 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 1704 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 177 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 2609 ms)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 6076 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 3639 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 1171 ms)

core debug: picture might be displayed late (missing 13 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 909 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 3441 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 3907 ms)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 1473 ms)

core debug: picture might be displayed late (missing 14 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 703 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 672 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 53 ms)

core debug: picture might be displayed late (missing 20 ms)

core debug: picture might be displayed late (missing 6 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 1443 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 2975 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 2908 ms)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 3007 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 1040 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 444 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 2410 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 2905 ms)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 4973 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 3006 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 1039 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 46 ms)

core debug: picture might be displayed late (missing 13 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 1273 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 2911 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 3406 ms)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 3905 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 1437 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 56 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 23 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 941 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 2939 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 3108 ms)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 3306 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 1172 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 1869 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 2907 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 2904 ms)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 3008 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 1036 ms)

core debug: picture might be displayed late (missing 14 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 173 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 2144 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 2907 ms)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video → dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 5077 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 3105 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 1138 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 52 ms)

core debug: picture might be displayed late (missing 19 ms)

core debug: picture might be displayed late (missing 2 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 2037 ms)

core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 3105 ms)

core debug: incoming request - stopping current input

core debug: control: stopping input

core debug: incoming request - stopping current input

core debug: finished input

core debug: removing module “avcodec”

core warning: can’t get output picture

avcodec debug: ffmpeg codec (H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10)) stopped

core debug: killing decoder fourcc `h264’, 0 PES in FIFO

core debug: saving a free vout

core debug: reusing provided vout

qt4 debug: Qt: Fullscreen state changed

core debug: removing module “faad”

core debug: killing decoder fourcc `mp4a’, 0 PES in FIFO

core debug: removing module “samplerate”

core debug: removing module “scaletempo”

directsound debug: closing audio device

core debug: removing module “float_mixer”

core debug: keeping audio output

core debug: removing module “avcodec”

core debug: removing module “record”

core debug: removing module “avcodec”

core debug: Program doesn’t contain anymore ES

core debug: incoming request - stopping current input

core debug: dead input

core debug: destroying useless vout

core debug: removing module “direct3d”

direct3d debug: Direct3D scene released successfully

qt4 debug: IM: Deleting the input

direct3d debug: Win32 Vout EventThread terminating

direct3d debug: Win32VoutCloseWindow

direct3d debug: WinProc WM_DESTROY

qt4 debug: releasing video…

qt4 debug: Video is not needed anymore

core debug: removing module “freetype”

core debug: removing module “yuvp”

core debug: removing module “swscale”

Thanks again.

Jorge

6

Hi,

I’m seeing the same, even with the sample.mp4 vod playback.

It further suggests a player issue by this reported bug here.

though that seems to be closed and incomplete.

I did try playing back a smaller, lower bitrate stream/file and that came in and played just fine,

so you may want to try decreasing the bitrate, and Profile, try baseline for example.

Daren

Daren,

Thanks for the follow-up. I can’t decrease the bitrate any further as 3Mbps is our contribution required by the client. I attempted to tweak the profile but didn’t see any change.

I still see stalling on the RTMP through VLC and frames are consequently dropped.

Can you recommend another stand-alone, non-web player that I can test with? Ideally I want this not to occur on the client-side, but if I can ensure smooth playback on all players on my end, I can take that back to the client.

Jorge

7

Daren,

Thanks for the follow-up. I can’t decrease the bitrate any further as 3Mbps is our contribution required by the client. I attempted to tweak the profile but didn’t see any change.

I still see stalling on the RTMP through VLC and frames are consequently dropped.

Can you recommend another stand-alone, non-web player that I can test with? Ideally I want this not to occur on the client-side, but if I can ensure smooth playback on all players on my end, I can take that back to the client.

Jorge

8

Daren,

So far I’ve been testing across machines but I tested locally, VLC on the same machine Wowza resides on and I’m still seeing the stalling.

RTSP playback in VLC is smooth (edit: so is HLS playback), just seems to affect RTMP playback in VLC (and Elemental Encoder on the client-side). Still looking.

Jorge