limiting duration of stream on server side

[vlad312]

Hi,

i'm interested in a way to limit duration of stream of static (on demand) files on server side.

i found some pages on this forum which touch this problem, but not sure if there's a working solution:

http://www.wowzamedia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5710
http://www.wowzamedia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5545
http://www.wowzamedia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1864
http://www.wowzamedia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1194
http://www.wowzamedia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=349

features i need are:

* this applies to streaming static files on demand

* media may have long duration, but i need to enforce streaming to the specified portion of the file (start, duration)

* i cannot rely on client side player to select the start and duration, but need to enforce this on server side

* seeking should be allowed only within the allowed portion of the file (but again this check should be enforced on server side)

i.e., suppose that I have some 10-minute static media file. i'd like to make it so that when client requests playback, it gets to see only a 1-minute portion of this file, starting from 3rd minute from the beginning of the file. client should not be able to listen any portion of the file outside of this range.

is this possible? thanks in advance for your help!

maybe it is possible to achieve using the server-side SMIL playlists?

[rrlanham]

Part of this is easy, but if you don't have control of the client you are going to have some issues with the seek bar. Most clients use the duration returned in the metadata to set the length of the seek bar length.

package com.wowza.wms.example.module;

import com.wowza.wms.module.*;
import com.wowza.wms.amf.*;
import com.wowza.wms.client.*;
import com.wowza.wms.request.*;

public class ModuleOverridePlayExample extends ModuleBase {
	
	public void play(IClient client, RequestFunction function,
	    AMFDataList params) {
		
		AMFDataList customDataList = new AMFDataList();
        customDataList.add("play");
        customDataList.add(0.0);
        customDataList.add("null");
        customDataList.add(params.getString(PARAM1));
        customDataList.add(new AMFDataItem(5000)); //start 5 seconds from the beginning
        customDataList.add(new AMFDataItem(10000)); // play for 10 seconds
        customDataList.add(new AMFDataItem(true));

        ModuleCore.play(client, function, customDataList);		
		}
}

Richard

[vlad312]

Richard, thank you very much for reply.

i found similar solution which you recommended to others, e.g. here:
http://www.wowzamedia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6015

i'll try it. will it prevent from seeking on client side outside the allowed range?

also, is it possible to override the metadata sent to client so that client will see proper duration?

[rrlanham]

What should happen, what does happen with the SimpleVideoStreaming Flex example that I tested with, is the scrubber will be scaled for the full duration of the video, but the user won't be able to seek outside your parameters. However it is highly imperfect because much of the seek bar will just do nothing.

If you have control of the client there are ways to fix it. Basically you can setup a server-side function to return the correct length to the client and scale the seek bar to that value instead of the duration value in the metadata object.

Richard

[Yuri!!]

Hello Richard.

I'm doing a module to authenticate via Mysql and I need for not authorized users stream only 20 seconds of the video,
and for authorized - the full video.

        customDataList.add(new AMFDataItem(5000)); //start 5 seconds from the beginning
        customDataList.add(new AMFDataItem(10000)); // play for 10 seconds

What I need to write in a 'Play' method to play the full video?
I apologize for the noob questions :)

Thank you

[rrlanham]

Make the start value "0" and the length "-1"

customDataList.add(new AMFDataItem(0)); //start at the beginning
customDataList.add(new AMFDataItem(-1)); // play to the end

Richard

[Yuri!!]

Great thanks !