Unreal Media Server FAQ


	Media Server

FAQ.

Is there a user forum for Unreal Media Server?
Post questions to our current forum
This is our older, read-only forum

Are there any Streaming Providers/CDNs offering hosting of Unreal Media Server?
For short-term (day or two) events we can provide hosting on our 100mbps dedicated server. For longer projects we have partnered with StreamGuys who offer hosting packages based on their premium Content Delivery Network infrastructure.

As a streaming service provider, why would I let my users play with your Streaming Media Player as opposed to Flash Player or Windows Media Player / Silverlight?

Consider playing with Unreal Player/Browser plugin if:

Your client audience is based on Windows OS.

You need low latency live streams. You need user authentication. You need to encrypt streaming channel. (use HTTPS delivery for that)

You do not allow users to save streams on their computers.

Consider playing with Flash Player if:

You don't want users to install anything ("everyone has Flash" popular assumption).

Users will play live and recorded content on a web page on Flash-enabled System.

Consider playing with Windows Media / Silverlight players:

Latency is not important for your application.

What are Unreal Live Server advantages for live streaming?

Near real-time streaming mode. You can use this mode for live conferencing applications.

Ability to stream hardware-compressed content, offloading computer CPU from encoding. If you have a capture card or device that does video encoding, the only live encoder that would stream its content without transcoding is Unreal Live Server.

Unmanned, automated operation. You configure the system and leave. No waste of bandwidth: streaming is only active while there are viewers.
Live encoders such as WME and FMLE, require a presence of the operator who opens the encoder and presses "Start Encoding" button. These encoders stream regardless of whether anyone watches the stream. This is good for broadcasting events but this is unacceptable for a system that needs to start broadcasting anytime when somebody wants to watch/listen, such as IPTV, radio, video surveillance, digital signage apps, etc. Unreal Live Server running as a Windows service will start encoding and streaming when a first viewer sends request for live video by opening a player. It will stop encoding and streaming when last viewer disconnects.

How can other streaming systems pull live streams from Unreal Media Server?
They can pull live streams via RTMP(Flash) and MPEG2-TS protocols. Software such as XSplit, VMix, Wowza streaming server, and many others are supported.

How do I let users play with Flash Player?
Download our Flash Player and host it on your website. Provide html page hosting the player. In this page, supply RTMP link that points to live broadcast created on the Media Server.
For example, if your Media Server is on 192.168.0.100, and you have a live broadcast with alias "webcam", the link looks like rtmp://192.168.0.100:5119/live/webcam.
Sample pages can be found in our SDK package and Demo pages.

How do I play with Windows Media Player?
Use menu item File->Open URL. Type mms link referring to live broadcast or file configured on Media Server. For example, right after the installation of Media Server you can type
mms://localhost:5119/mediaroot/test.avi
If you have a live broadcast with alias "webcam", you need to type mms://localhost:5119/webcam
When playing remotely, you need to specify IP address of server machine: mms://192.168.0.100:5119/webcam

How to play on MAC?
Play with Flash Player or VLC player. Or, download and install free Windows Media Components for QuickTime, recommended by Microsoft. Then use your QuickTime player exactly the same way described in the previous answer. You can also play via HLS using Safari browser: refer to next answer.

How to stream to iPAD and iPhone via Apple Live HHTP streaming?
You need a web server for this to work. Any web server is OK. Configure a web folder on your web server and make sure this folder is allowed to serve .m3u8 and .ts files (create mime types if needed). After this is done, open up a "Start HLS Streaming" dialog in Unreal Media Server configurator by right-clicking on a live broadcast. Specify path to configured web folder. Also specify the web URL of this web folder, i.e. the URL that outside users will type in their web browsers to navigate to this web folder. For lowest latency, specify 1 second-long .ts files and 3 .ts files to keep. Click OK. Notice that .ts files start to generate in your web folder and also .m3u8 file appears there. iOS users just need to navigate to this .m3u8 file with their browsers. For example, if your web folder is named "HLS", the public IP Address of your server computer is 123.123.123.123, and you are streaming live broadcast named "evildude", then iOS users need to navigate their Safari browsers to http://123.123.123.123/HLS/evildude.m3u8.

How can I stream my RTSP IP camera to multiple online Flash viewers?
If your IP camera provides H264/AAC encoding then Unreal Media Server can ingest the RTSP stream from it and output the original hardware-encoded content via RTMP/RTMPT protocol to multiple concurrent Flash viewers. With Media Server Configurator, create a live broadcast of type "Rebroadcast live RTMP/RTSP/MPEG2-TS/MMS stream", select rtsp:// protocol and specify RTSP URL of your IP camera, as well as username and password, if needed. Be sure to specify RTP transport protocol that camera supports.
Then create a web page with Flash player and host it in your web server. Sample pages can be found in our SDK package and Demo pages.

How to stream to Silverlight player via MS Smooth streaming protocol?
For this to work, you need to run IIS7 web server with Media Services extension installed. Using IIS manager tool, create Live Smooth streaming publishing point and give it the same name your live broadcast have. After this is done, open up a "Start MS Smooth Streaming" dialog in Unreal Media Server configurator by right-clicking on a live broadcast. Specify URL of publishing point and click OK. For optimal performance, make sure that live video encoding has a distance between video I-frames in the range of 1-2 seconds. Follow this tutorial on configuring a publishing point and providing a simple Silverlight player. This tutorial uses MS Expression Encoder to stream to publishing point; Unreal Media Server does the same.

How to stream to Amino Set-Top box via MPEG2-TS protocol?
Open up a "Start MPEG2-TS Broadcasting" dialog in Unreal Media Server configurator by right-clicking on a live broadcast. Specify IP address of your Set-Top box, and any port. Most STBs, like Amino, need raw MPEG2-TS, not wrapped in RTP. Then connect to the same IP address with your Set-Top controller. Follow STB instructions on how to do that. For example, for Amino STB that has IP address of 192.168.1.5, you need to start streaming to 192.168.1.5:1234. Using USB keyboard attached to Amino STB, open up Opera browser inside STB, and type udp://192.168.1.5:1234. To stream in multicast mode to multiple STBs, specify multicast address, for example 225.1.1.1:1234. Then type igmp://225.1.1.1:1234 in Amino Opera browser's address bar.

What live encoders can push a stream to Unreal Media Server and how should they be configured?

Supported live encoders capable to push streams to Unreal Media Server:

Unreal Live Server and UM series IP cameras and encoders. These encoders connect to Unreal Media Server over UMS-TCP protocol and stream via UMS-TCP or UMS-UDP. Create a dynamic live broadcast with Unreal Media Server configuration program.

RTMP Flash software and hardware encoders, such as Adobe FMLE, Telestream Wirecast, xSplit and others. These encoders connect and publish RTMP streams to Unreal Media Server. The default port for these connections is 5130; this port can be configured. Create a live broadcast of type "Rebroadcast live RTMP/RTSP/MPEG2-TS/MMS stream", select rtmp:// protocol. Specify a password for this broadcast, if authenticated publishing is needed. On the encoder panel, specify rtmp publishing address of this broadcast. For example, if your server machine's IP address is 192.168.1.8, the broadcast alias is "Camera8", then the rtmp publishing address is "rtmp://192.168.1.8:5130/live/Camera8". Refer to this screenshot. Note that you can only specify a single bitrate encoding, and the stream name should always be "livestream".

MPEG-TS software and hardware encoders. Any encoder capable of sending MPEG2-TS streams over UDP, can push a stream to Unreal Media Server. VLC and FFMpeg are open source encoders that can do it. Configure the encoder to stream to the IP address of a computer where Unreal Media Server runs; specify any arbitrary port which is unused on that computer. With Unreal Media Server configuration program, create a live broadcast of type "Rebroadcast live RTMP/RTSP/MPEG2-TS/MMS stream", select mpts:// protocol and specify the same IP address and port that you specified for the encoder.

Supported live encoders capable to serve streams to Unreal Media Server via pull mode, where Unreal Media Server connects to the encoder:

Unreal Live Server and UM series IP cameras and encoders. Create a static live broadcast with Unreal Media Server configuration program.

RTSP software and hardware servers, cameras and encoders. With Unreal Media Server configuration program, create a live broadcast of type "Rebroadcast live RTMP/RTSP/MPEG2-TS/MMS stream", select rtsp:// protocol and specify the RTSP URL. All major brand IP cameras, Orban Opticodec, VLC, Wowza server and any other RTSP-compliant servers are supported.

MS-WMSP (MMS) software and hardware encoders. With Unreal Media Server configuration program, create a live broadcast of type "Rebroadcast live RTMP/RTSP/MPEG2-TS/MMS stream", select mms:// protocol and specify IP Address and port of the encoder computer. Windows Media Encoder and VLC are supported. This method is intended to be used with Windows Media encoding and Windows Media / Silverlight / Unreal players.

I want my users to play with your player. Is it a must for them to download and install Unreal Streaming Media Player?
No, it's not a must, but our ActiveX control or Browser plugin still has to be installed on user's machine. As a media publisher, you can avoid having users install Streaming Media Player by providing a web page that hosts our ActiveX control or Browser plugin. The page should reference the CAB installation file that will be automatically downloaded by a browser. When the page is loaded it will prompt the user to install the control. Refer to the Demo pages hosting ActiveX control.

How to play live H264/AAC streams in Unreal Streaming Media Player?
You need H264/AAC decoders, obviously. Windows 7 comes with such decoders; pre-7 users are recommended to install a free ffdshow decoder package.

How do I view H264 streams in Windows Media Player?
WMP needs DMO H264 decoder when H264 is embedded in ASF container (live or recorded). This trial decoder from Lead Technologies does the job. Register it with regsvr32.exe.

How do I view MJPEG streams in Windows Media Player?
WMP needs DMO MJPEG decoder when MJPEG is embedded in ASF container (live or recorded). Installation of this free package from Axis provides such a decoder.

I can't stream ASF/WMV files; file streaming is not working via UMS-RTP or MPEG2-TS.
Your system misses Windows Media Format runtime which is required on the server machine for these streaming modes; you need to install latest Windows Media Player or Media Format Runtime. On Windows Server 2008/2012 you need to enable "Desktop Experience" feature.

Can I stream a file as a live source in a loop mode?
Yes, this is possible directly from Media Server, for files containing H264/MPEG4/AAC/MP3 content. With Media Server Configurator, create a virtual folder and map it to physical folder where your file is located. Then right-click on virtual folder and start MPEG2-TS broadcasting, specifying 127.0.0.1:6789 as an address (6789 is an arbitrary port and can be any unused port). Then create a live broadcast of type "Rebroadcast live RTMP/RTSP/MPEG2-TS/MMS stream", choose mpts:// as a protocol and specify the same address.

Audio-Video decoder not found when playing streaming video?
Upgrade to Windows 7. It comes with decoders for most compression types. Pre-7 users:
Install free ffdshow decoder package.

Is there any software for parsing/analyzing the Unreal Media Server log format?
Sawmill analytical platform supports our log format.

I am not able to view video with Firefox/Opera/Chrome etc. browsers.
Please install a plugin for those browsers.

Live Server Config doesn't recognize my card, or I am able to choose 320x240 size only.
The driver of your card must fully support DirectShow and provide a full list of supported video resolutions via appropriate DirectShow interface.

Is there a list of supported analog video capture cards?
List of analog video capture cards recommended for Live Server.

What IP cameras are supported?
Any RTSP IP camera can serve as a live source to Unreal Media Server.
Our own UM series IP cameras and encoders have some important advantages.
For older IP cameras that only support JPEG, use IPCamSourceVideo component available for download. It receives video from all major brands IP cameras but does not support audio.

While configuring the Archival Server, I am asked to enter a password for media server?
The Archival Server connects to the Media Server which uses this password for authentication. You have to setup the same password on the Properties page of Media Server Configurator.

I have problems resizing video and/or running in full-screen mode.
Streaming Media Player lets DirectX resize video window. DirectX uses hardware acceleration to perform scaling. You have to check two settings on your computer.

Display properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Troubleshoot -> Full hardware acceleration.

Run DxDiag -> Display tab -> DirectDraw acceleration enabled.
If this doesn't help, try to increase the memory buffer of your video card in BIOS settings.

UHttpProxy is not installed or configured properly.
The instructions for manual installation of UHttpProxy are as follows:

Download UHttpProxy.dll and put it under your Inetpub/Wwwroot/UHttpProxy folder. Then use Internet Services Manager to create new virtual directory and name it UHTTPProxy. Make sure that this virtual directory allows anonymous access, and has Execute permissions of "Scripts and Executables".
64-bit OS: note that UHttpProxy is a 32-bit dll, therefore, you need to configure your IIS hosting process to be able to run in 32-bit mode. This is done differently on different OS / IIS versions; refer to instructions below.

Additional steps for IIS6 on Windows 2003 Server:
Create and enable new server extension for UHttpProxy (or just enable all ISAPI extensions).
Make sure that the application pool under which UHttpProxy runs, is configured to have 1 process.
On 64-bit OS, you need to configure IIS to run in 32-bit mode.

Additional steps for IIS7 on Vista and Windows 7 / 2008 Server:
Verify that "IIS metabase and IIS 6 Configuration Compatibility" feature is installed with IIS.
Install ISAPI Extensions IIS feature.
Add UHTTPProxy ISAPI by using "ISAPI and CGI Restrictions" global property. Check "Allow extension path execution" check box.
For UHTTPProxy virtual folder enable ISAPI-dll Handler Mapping by setting "Read", "Script" and "Execute" Feature Permissions.
On 64-bit OS enable 32-bit applications for default application pool.

I have a player streaming files or Buffered live sources over HTTPS; when I lock my desktop and come back after 20 minutes, the player displays error message.
This happens due to IIS connection timeout setting which is 15 minutes by default on IIS 5.x. When you lock your desktop, the player stops playback in order not to waste bandwidth; the HTTP connection to the server is considered "idle" and IIS will close it after the idle time reaches connection timeout setting. Such behavior helps to prevent denial of service attacks; the connection timeout setting can be changed using IIS manager.

RTP Multicast packets are sent with TTL (time to live) of 128. How can I change the TTL?
Create DWORD registry value named TTL, under HKLM\SOFTWARE\UNREAL\SERVER, and set an appropriate TTL for you.

I can't change Multicast Group IP address configured with Media Server configuration tool.
You need to change both IP address and port and make sure no other configured resources use the same IP address/Port. When you install multiple Media Servers on your LAN, make sure all resources have different multicast group addresses.

I can't stream live video from computer that does not have interactive desktop open (no user is logged in).
This can happen if the video capture card that is used has a Video Port. The purpose of the port is to minimize CPU utilization for video capturing & rendering. The problem is that the Video Port requires interactive desktop to work correctly. Gainward GeForce-4 XP graphics cards are known to require the interactive desktop for video capturing.

Only 10 clients can simultaneously get video streams from the server via HTTPS. A bug?
Internet Information Server (IIS) running on Windows 2000 Professional or XP is limited to work with only 10 concurrent clients. This is hardcoded in IIS by Microsoft and cannot be changed. It's recommended to install Unreal Media Server on Windows 2000 / 2003 / 2008 Server platform.

I wrote an application that hosts more than two Active-X controls. When I connect all of them via HTTPS, only two work.
This is a known issue discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 183110. Use client registry setting HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ - DWORD value "MaxConnectionsPerServer" to increase number of simultaneous connections per server within one process.