Video on demand for IOS

Wowza Streaming Engine
1

Hi,

The default configuration for Wowza Server video on demand link for IOS is the following format: http://server:1935/vod/mp4:sample.mp4/playlist.m3u8

We need to have this link ending in “.mp4”, something like this : http://server:1935/vod/mp4:sample.mp4, because we have a player for IOS that doesnt accept “.m3u8 playlist” file extension, and for now we dont have an option for another player

Is this video on demand configuration possible using Wowza server?

This is urgent.

TIA

Filipe

2

What player is it you are trying playback on?

Salvadore

3

Filipe,

I’m not sure where it says that. Are you sure this player does not support cupertino (HLS) streams? The .m3u8 extension is their standard.

Richard

4

Filipe,

The table describes the file encoding for HLS streaming. Files and live streams are streamed to HLS devices in chunks of audio and video. The device downloads these chunks following a chunklist that is delivered to the player, which is the .m3u8 file, which is just a text file. Try streaming the Wowza sample mp4:

http://[wowza-address]:1935/vod/sample.mp4/playlist.m3u8

Richard

5

Hi Salvadore,

Thanks for your answer.

We are using the Blackboard Mosaic platform do deploy Apps to IOS devices. The video apps developed for the Apple Store by this platform, plays video using the media player available in the IOS framework.

Here is the link:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/miscellaneous/conceptual/iphoneostechoverview/MediaLayer/MediaLayer.html

As u can see in Table 2-3 using the Media player, the “.m3u8” extension isnt supported.

The Wowza Streaming Engine 4.0 doesnt support this?

Thanks.

Filipe

6

Richard,

Bellow the Table 2-3 they say:

iOS supports many industry-standard video formats and compression standards, including the following:

H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

H.264 video, up to 768 Kbps, 320 by 240 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

When we configure the url pointing to our wowza server containing the “.m3u8” extension, the app crashes on IOS. Do you think its a problem with the app and not a limitation of the “media player” available from the IOS framework?

Thanks.

Filipe

7

Richard,

We already tried the mp4 wowza sample but the problem remains the same.

If we upgrade to wowza streaming engine 4.0 we dont have any more options for IOS devices?

We can’t have an http video streaming for IOS right?

Thanks for your answer,

Filipe

8

Hi Jason,

Yes we are able to play the streams connecting directly to wowza.

Ok, i tought wowza 4 could have more options for iOS.

Thanks.

Filipe

9

Hi Salvadore,

What i mean is if we can have an http vídeo streaming for iOS that is to say an address of this kind: http://[wowza-address]:1935/vod/sample.mp4

If we try the HTML 5 tag what is the URL we should use for Wowza?

When we use the HTML 5 tag on the iOS players what kind of streaming we must use? Its the same Apple HLS Cupertino streaming?

Thanks.

Filipe

10

Hi,

I assume you have been able to play the streams using an iOS device connecting directly to Wowza without this custom app/player.

If not you can test this using an Apple iOS device or VLC player which also supports Apple HLS (Cupertino) streaming.

The stream URL reference above will then be added to either the player or browser window.

http://[wowza-address]:1935/vod/mp4:sample.mp4/playlist.m3u8

I don’t think Wowza Streaming Engine 4 has any extra options for Apple HLS streaming that Wowza 3 doesn’t have.

Jason

11

This is not supported, but we’re curious what player requires this?

Salvadore

12

Filipe, your iOS player may support an HTML 5 video tag to play back the stream.

The HTML 5 is supported on iOS devices and Mac OS X in the Safari browser. Although it sounds like your player is not standard, testing is in order.

Salvadore

13

Filipe, The HTML5 video tag can be directly embedded in an HTML page for delivery with code like this:

<html>
<head> 
 <title>HTML 5 Test</title> 
</head> 
<body> 
<video width="100%" height="100%" controls="controls" src="http://[wowza-address]:1935/vod/sample.mp4/playlist.m3u8">
</video> 
</body> 
</html>

Then you would access the web page through the iOS browser.

Salvadore