VLC IE Plug-in that auto-invokes the VLC client Player

Wowza Streaming Engine
1

Hello - We are deploying WOWZA for a Financial services client and their highly restrictive IT environment is making the player selection pretty complex. The environment/requirement consists of an end-user clicking on a single weblink that delivers Live Streams to Silverlight player on Multicast. Below are restrictions we have faced at the client’s place:

A. Adobe Flash - Installation of the OSMF plug-in is NOT permissible being an open source code.

B. Silverlight - Does NOT support RTSP and hence cannot stream LiveStreams on Multicast

C. Apple Quick Time - Per WOWZA User Guide, support for QuickTime is available only from v10 and v10 runs on MAC OSx 10.6. The client runs Apple QuickTime v7.7.2 on Windows environment which perhaps is NOT supported per WOWZA guide. In version7.7.2 we are receiving only audio and no video.

D. VLC - At this time, this is the only working option that seems to be workable. The client runs a custom-build version of VLC that does NOT install ActiveX components. We are unable to therefore play the Live Stream video directly from the Web Browser.

Are there any inputs/suggestions in getting a VLC player invoked from within the Browser without installing the VLC IE plug-in on the client machine? If there are anyother options that can be explored, please let me know.

Thanks in advance

SG

2

SG,

Take a look at this player

Richard

3

SG,

I would suspect A. I think VLC will play the stream as unicast stream if it has to, so that is not a valid test

Also make sure UDP ports are wide open.

Richard

4

good morning SG,

Sounds right, actually. As I understand it multicast only works in a LAN that supports it, not on the internet and probably not between LANs as you describe. Otherwise, I am not sure how to help. It’s a player/network issue that is out of my reach (and a bit over my head) to help debug.

Richard

5

I think what the problem is (we discussed this here) multicast validation, which is a Silverlight constraint: for it to work it must ping the server and get a response. If that is blocked then the player might receive packets but not display.

Richard

6

I don’t think it can, but here it is if you want to try:

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-get-silverlight-multicast-player-addon

Haven’t you used this before? If so, it is the same; same capabilities and limitations. Multicast only works on a LAN that supports it, and there is a required hand-shake between the player and Wowza.

Richard

7

Hi sgopalkr,

You said,

C. Is it true that I need to edit the multicastmap.txt script based on the client player being used (OR) can i have both the entries listed to be able to test both player-types at the same time?

Example entry: For VLC Player

myStream={name:myStream,video:239.1.1.1:10000,audi o:239.1.1.1:10002}

Example entry: For Silverlight Player

myStream={name:myStream,stream:239.1.1.1:10000,is RTPWrapped:false}

You can try it. You can probably take the same input stream and generate two different types of output streams, but they will probably have to differ in identification somehow. For example, a different streamname and/or IP/port combination.

-Please report back what Wireshark is showing for the TTL for a working Silverlight stream (played back on a different computer than the streaming server), versus a non-working Silverlight stream played back on a different VLAN. In Wireshark you’re looking for: Internet Protocol → Time to live: X.

8

Richard - Thanks a bunch for the response. I had been searching high & low for this package for the last couple of days!

I followed the weblink and also hosted the MulticastPlayerSilverlight on IIS and I’m able to play the Siliverlight Multicast stream directly on the WOWZA Server as well as on the Cisco Telepresence Content Server (my Encoder platform); both of which are Windows 2003 SP2 platforms.

However, I’m unable to play them from any other client computer (XP, Windows 7 etc). The behviour goes this way: When loading the player.html file on the client computer, the page loads initially displaying Connecting to stream :10000 and after a few seconds displays Error: Error Connecting to multicast stream :10000 andkeeps looping thereon.

A. I’m not suspecting the Multicast Network as RTSP streams to VLC player works just fine for the same Multicast IP Address.

B. Wireshark trace on the Client computer shows successful IGMP Join messages to the Multicast Group.

C. I’m NOT suspecting the Silverlight Player versions as all Client Computer players are running above the minimum recommended version.

D. From a WOWZA Server version comptability with MulticastPlayerSilverlight standpoint, we are running WOWZA version 3.1.2.

E. I have tried playing with the isRTPWrapped field but no effect eitherways (true or false).

F. I don’t see anything unusal on the WOWZA logs.

Not sure, what else to look for. Any inputs would be much appreciated.

Thanks

SG

9

Richard - Thanks for the response again.

Your suspicion is right! However, I have also verified, from router command outputs, that VLC client players are able to Live-Stream over Multicast using the link rtsp://:1935/live/myStream?Multicastplay. FYI, MulticastPublishAddon Module has been installed & configured appropriately to get this working.

After some amount of network troubleshooting, we find that Silverlight players are able LiveStream ONLY from the same VLAN as the WOWZA server and not from any other VLAN! However, with VLC Players we are able to LiveStream from all VLAN’s. FYI, we don’t run any Firewalls internally within our LAN/WAN environment.

Below are my queries:

A. Cisco TAC is suspecting a TTL issue for some reason. Do you think that could be a possibility and if yes, how could i edit the TTL value? Any other thoughts/inputs on the aforementioned behavior, would be apprecaited?

B. I have analyzed the Wireshark traces for Silverlight streams played from the same VLAN as well from a different VLAN and I essentially dont find any difference between the two? Below is for your reference.

60 6.668113000 10.165.243.8 10.165.243.138 HTTP 671 GET /TVMulticast/client/player.html HTTP/1.1

61 6.668726000 10.165.243.138 10.165.243.8 HTTP 266 HTTP/1.1 304 Not Modified

64 6.705013000 10.165.243.8 10.165.243.138 HTTP 553 GET /TVMulticast/client/header.gif HTTP/1.1

65 6.705590000 10.165.243.138 10.165.243.8 HTTP 266 HTTP/1.1 304 Not Modified

124 6.837770000 10.165.243.8 10.165.243.138 HTTP 466 GET /TVMulticast/client/MediaStreamSrc.xap HTTP/1.1

125 6.838347000 10.165.243.138 10.165.243.8 HTTP 266 HTTP/1.1 304 Not Modified

128 7.033468000 10.165.243.8 239.1.1.1 IGMPv2 46 Membership Report group 239.1.1.1

129 7.034445000 10.165.243.8 239.1.1.1 UDP 127 Source port: 9430 Destination port: 9430

130 7.043978000 10.165.243.8 10.165.243.138 TCP 54 54752 > http [ACK] Seq=1529 Ack=637 Win=65064 Len=0

131 7.140144000 10.165.243.138 PTS 44511.776088888 MPEG TS 1358 video-stream

132 7.140147000 10.165.243.138 239.1.1.1 MPEG TS 1358 Source port: lnvmailmon Destination port: ndmp

133 7.140148000 10.165.243.138 239.1.1.1 MPEG TS 1358 Source port: lnvmailmon Destination port: ndmp

134 7.141177000 10.165.243.138 PTS 44511.789088888 MPEG TS 1358

135 7.141179000 10.165.243.138 239.1.1.1 MPEG TS 1358 Source port: lnvmailmon Destination port: ndmp

136 7.174277000 10.165.243.8 239.1.1.1 IGMPv2 46 Membership Report group 239.1.1.1

137 7.189858000 10.165.243.138 PTS 44511.845088888 MPEG PES 1358 video-stream

138 7.190433000 10.165.243.138 239.1.1.1 MPEG TS 1358 Program Map Table (PMT)

139 7.190435000 10.165.243.138 239.1.1.1 MPEG TS 1358 Source port: lnvmailmon Destination port: ndmp

140 7.190436000 10.165.243.138 PTS 44511.853088888 MPEG TS 1358

141 7.190439000 10.165.243.138 239.1.1.1 MPEG TS 1358 Source port: lnvmailmon Destination port: ndmp

142 7.291464000 10.165.243.138 PTS 44511.925088888 MPEG PES 1358 video-stream

394 10.050643000 10.165.243.8 239.1.1.1 UDP 127 Source port: 9430 Destination port: 9430

C. Is it true that I need to edit the multicastmap.txt script based on the client player being used (OR) can i have both the entries listed to be able to test both player-types at the same time?

Example entry: For VLC Player

myStream={name:myStream,video:239.1.1.1:10000,audio:239.1.1.1:10002}

Example entry: For Silverlight Player

#myStream={name:myStream,stream:239.1.1.1:10000,isRTPWrapped:false}

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks

SG

10

Richard - I have a few more updates that I thought I will share with you.

A. We are observing that the Silverlight player, sitting outside of the WOWZA Server VLAN, being able to receive Multicast traffic but for some reason unable to play it. Also since the

player works fine on the same vlan as the WOWZA server, we do not suspect the media packets to be bad/corrupted in anyway.

B. The Silverlight player throws error 25-30 seconds after receipt of IGMP & UDP packets.

Looking forward to our response.

Thanks

SG

11

Thanks for the response again!

We were so close towards nailing this one and its a little disappointing to learn we have hit a moot point!

Nevertheless, many many thanks for the prompt response and support. Sincerely appreciate all that you did for us.

Thanks

SG

12

Richard - Just read-up that WOWZA Media Server 3.5 has been released and features Silverlight Multicast Player. Could you let me know if this version of the Silverlight Multicast Player can work across VLAN’s.

Thanks

SG

13

Oh okay.

Yes…i did use this before. Any idea if this capability will be available in the future as part of a roadmap?

Thanks

SG