Streaming to QuickTime (PC) or VLC

[KoastalCams]

Wowza version: Wowza Media Server 2 for Amazon EC2 2.2.3.11 build27285

We have a partner who wishes to view our live stream in a media player on Windows. Our live stream can be viewed in QuickTime on a Mac by clicking on Open URL... and entering: http://koastalcams.com:1935/live/mp4:Pismo+Beach.stream/playlist.m3u8

However, QuickTime on Windows displays the following error after entering the same URL: "Error 47: Invalid URL. ()". If I replace the '+' in the URL with '' or '%20', QuickTime displays the error: "Error -43: a file could not be found (playlist.m3u8)".

Further, QuickTime on a Mac repeatedly shows artifacts and glitches to still shots of prior frames; whereas this doesn't happen when viewing the live stream through the Flash player at http://koastalcams.com/Pismo_Beach

I have two questions:

1. How can I view the above stream in either QuickTime or VLC on Windows?

2. Is there a way to prevent the artifacts and glitches that are happening when streaming the video through the MP4 URL?

[randall]

How are you doing your encoding? I assume it's an IP camera encoded with H.264 and AAC or MP3 audio? You can try to play with your encoder settings and see if it helps with the artifacts. Try Baseline profile, level 3.0, 15fps. Stereo audio (or no audio).

As far as playback in a player, it seems you are having trouble with the '+' symbol. You should remove it. If you are using this method: RTSP re-streaming, then you just have to rename the "Pismo+Beach.stream" file in your content folder to "PismoBeach.stream".

Also this link may be of some help: http://www.wowza.com/forums/content.php?63

[KoastalCams]

Your assumptions are correct. Thanks, I'll try what you recommended!

[jschatz27]

Apple does not support playing .m3u8 files with QuickTime on PC. There is an Anevia version of VLC that used to play but it does not support version 2 of the HLS header/tag. http://demo.anevia.com:8080/ott/vlc.php

[randall]

Thanks for the info, jschatz27.