Wowza 3 + nDVR + OSMF Strobe Player + Android

Wowza Streaming Engine
1

Hello to all,

I am playing with the Strobe Media Playback, and was wondering why when I try to open it in Android, it doesn’t play.

I am streaming H264 (Main or Baseline) to rtmp://server/dvr/streamname.

The stream works on Desktop + iOS, but if I try to open the Strobe player from the Android device, it is buffering forever. It shows in the beginning how long is the stream in the bottombar, but never starts playing.

Strobe used to work like a charm with FMS, so I guess it has something to do with the encoding of my stream when using Wowza.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you,

Anton

2

Anton,

It could be a bandwidth issue. That’s what it sounds like. Do you see log output in Wowza when you start the stream in the device, is it connecting? Run Wowza in stand-alone (/bin/startup.bat) mode instead of the service so you can see log output in the console.

Richard

3

I’m able to play live and dvr streams using the LiveDvrStreaming example on my Android Galaxy Tablet (3.1).

Hello to all,

I am playing with the Strobe Media Playback, and was wondering why when I try to open it in Android, it doesn’t play.

I am streaming H264 (Main or Baseline) to rtmp://server/dvr/streamname.

The stream works on Desktop + iOS, but if I try to open the Strobe player from the Android device, it is buffering forever. It shows in the beginning how long is the stream in the bottombar, but never starts playing.

Strobe used to work like a charm with FMS, so I guess it has something to do with the encoding of my stream when using Wowza.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you,

Anton

4

Does it all work outside of Android? Can you playback with this combination on PC or Mac using strobe? I assume you have updated to latest Flash player on your Android device? Have you tried playing with different encoding settings (bitrate, sample frequency, stereo/mono). I might try 48KHz, stereo at 92Kbps. That is a pretty common setting.

Charlie

5

I guess I would play around with Wirecast to see if there is some encoding that works. Like I suggested I would try different samples rates and bitrates. I might also try different protocols for the connection between encoder and Wowza Server such as RTMP (Flash), RTSP/RTP (QuickTime Announce) and native RTP. Maybe there is some combination that works.

Charlie

6

It sure sounds like a Android/Flash bug to me. The fact that it works on PC and OSX but not on device. The fact that it is encoding related. The fact that behavoir changes between OS versions. It sure seems like a decoding issue.

Charlie

7

I am a bit lost in all of this take ndvr out of this and tell me this. Which of these combinations work:

Wirecast to Wowza Server to Strobe using Flash HDS (sanjose) on Android 4.0.3

FMLE to Wowza Server to Strobe using Flash HDS (sanjose) on Android 4.0.3

Wirecast to FMS to Strobe using Flash HDS on Android 4.0.3

Again, this is without ndvr involved.

Charlie

8

Not sure how to help. I get that in one setup it does work but the findings sure report to some sort of instability with Flash on Android 4. Have you reported this to Google and Adobe?

Charlie

9

Try JW Player instead of Strobe. It handles RTMP very well. If you want to do Sanjose (Flash HTTP) streaming, you will need Strobe or Flash Media Playback (hosted version of Strobe).

Richard

10

Anton,

You do need to use Sanjose (Flash HTTP) streaming in that case, rtmp does not work with DVR. Have you tested with the Wowza DVR example players?

Richard

11

I’m not sure if we have any test results for DVR/Strobe/Android. I’ll bring it up tomorrow.

Android is often difficult for simple things right now.

Richard

12

Can you zip up your conf and the latest access and error logs from your testing, and send them to support@wowza.com

Include a link to this thread.

If you can, restart Wowza and run through some tests with the device

Richard

13

These errors are probably just from a malformed Application.xml. Try getting a new copy from the /conf folder and re-configuring.

Richard

14

Nicolas,

Are you doing RTSP streaming to this device? That is what we recommend for Android at present, support for other stream types has been inconsistent. The usual problem reaching these devices is UDP ports, either blocked by a firewall or not mapped in a router, “port forwarding”. You want all UDP ports 0-65335 open. For RTSP streaming, review the following guide carefully (and note the jump in step 3 and the mobile testing page):

https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-troubleshoot-rtsp-rtp-playback

If that doesn’t help, stop Wowza, then delete or rename your access log, we want to get a clean test. Then:

1: Start Wowza

2: Start the encoder

3: Playback in Flash [wowza-install-dir]/examples/LiveVideoStreaming/client/live.html

4: Playback on device that is a problem

Then zip up and send conf and current access and error logs to support@wowza.com

Include info about the encoder, encoding details. Include screen shot(s) as necessary to show all if you want.

Include a link to this thread for reference.

Richard

15

I don’t think it is a bandwidth issue. I’ve been using the same connection for a long time and never had problems, and now i’m testing with much lower bitrate. I also tested on local LAN, using Developer edition of Wowza… testing also on Amazon EC2 with lickey edition.

Even the LiveVideoStreaming example with rtmp://server/app ; and then streamname, doesn’t work.

I noticed that if I change a bit the buffering values, or remove them all together, I get sound, but no picture on Android. My version of flash on AND is 11,1,112,61 (Flash-AS3) (according to LiveVideoStreaming example).

There are only a few parameters to be changed at Application.xml so I’m feeling a bit lost.

I test both LIVE app and DVR app…

smoothstreamingpacketizer,cupertinostreamingpacketizer,sanjosestreamingpacketizer

sanjosestreamingpacketizer is always present in the LiveStreamPacketizers,

cupertinostreaming,smoothstreaming,sanjosestreaming

it is present in the HTTPStreamers as well.

I’m starting to fell that the problem is in my device, but as I said - it is working with FMS streams, so I feel like it is a config issue.

In the log files on local, everything seems fine… I see the following lines when I start broadcasting:

INFO server comment - LiveStreamPacketizerSanJose.init[dvr/definst/tonyy]: chunkDurationTarget: 10000

INFO server comment - LiveStreamPacketizerSanJose.init[dvr/definst/tonyy]: chunkDurationTolerance: 500

INFO server comment - LiveStreamPacketizerSanJose.init[dvr/definst/tonyy]: playlistChunkCount:4

INFO server comment - MediaStreamMap.getLiveStreamPacketizer: Create live stream packetizer: sanjosestreamingpacketizer:tonyy

When I connect via the Android device, I see:

INFO sanjose connect 1973510429 -

INFO stream create tonyy -

INFO stream play tonyy -

no Errors whatsoever.

I tried both with those params:

expandedBufferTime: 5,

liveBufferTime: 12,

liveDynamicStreamingBufferTime: 14,

dvrBufferTime: 12,

dvrDynamicStreamingBufferTime: 14,

dynamicStreamBufferTime: 14,

and without them.

RTSP url does work on Android. Adobe Flash Player 11 installed… Strobe on other pages (for example FMS VOD) working.

Any ideas?

Best,

Anton

16

Even RTMP url works if added to a Video player, but does not show at all in Strobe :confused:

best,

Anton

17

JWPlayer doesnt’t support DVR. Also I am pretty sure it is a config issue not to be able to load Strobe on Android, so I will continue to test, in order to nail why is it happening.

I use Wowza 3.0.4 on EC2. Will try sample.mp4 now, but I wanted to test LIVE and DVR… VOD is not of particular interest for me right now.

Best,

Anton

18

Sorry for misleading you.

I know DVR works only with Sanjose. I publish the stream via the rtmp://server/app ; streamname, but in Strobe, I use the Sanjose URL: http://server:1935/app/streamname/manifest.f4m?DVR

As I said - it is working on a browser, it is working for iPhone and iPad (of course, not Strobe, but the iOS url’s that open the native player), but on Android, Strobe is not working… only RTSP url with a native video player. On Android I manage to get only sound. The picture is black - I tried H264 Baseline, H264 Main.

I want to get Strobe inside an Android browser if possible.

I checked a few Android devices, and a few different ROMs (Gingerbread + Android 4.0) - it is not working anywhere… just manage to hear the sound.

Best,

Anton

19

Just tried StrobeMediaPlayback_1.6.328 , debug-mobile.html

Doing a Sanjose DVR - which again works on browser. On Android I get:

Build 1.6.328 for Flash Player 10.1

Flash Player version: AND 11,1,102,69

Hardware Video Decoding: Yes

Hardware Video Rendering: No

Frame rate: 0.00 fps Dropped frames: 0

Buffer length / time: 7.32s / 4.00s

Memory usage: 10.05mb

Stream state: buffering

20

I’m having a hard time finding ANY video streamed by WOWZA to work on STROBE PLAYBACK 1.6 (OSMF 1.6) on ANDROID. Even the videos on Wowza website don’t work… they show only on desktops.

On the other hand, I have no problems displaying live/dvr/vod streams via Flash Media Server or Amazon Cloudfront (which I believe delivers using FMS).

I am starting to think that WOWZA and STROBE don’t work on Android at all…