Wowza and Flowplayer - mp4 plays well, flv stops before end

[janusz_jezowicz]

Hello,

I have a strange problem with Wowza playback. I have sets of files - .flv and .mp4 all in the same directory. Both files are played by simplevideostreaming app. The mp4 play correctly using Flowplayer. The flv are playing but are cut off before the end of streaming.

You can see the good streaming here:

http://www.usabilitytest.com/video.php?id=66b3d925-225b-48b7-a244-797762e754f9&KeepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=405&width=605

and bad here>

http://www.usabilitytest.com/juvtest.htm

Is it a Wowza problem or Flowplayer? And any suggestions how to fix it? I am sure that flv file is fine as when I download it and play in e.g. VLC media player - I can view the whole file.

Thanks!

[Richard_Lanham]

I can’t tell because there is no frame of reference. If the mp4 and flv were the same video it would help to compare.

It plays the same in SimpleVideoStreaming example player.

There is no audio.

How much of the video is truncated?

What duration is returned in the metadata?

Richard

[Charlie_Good]

First, I would be sure you are using the most recent version of FlowPlayer. I believe your current version is out of date. Then I would check the metadata in the .mp4 and .flv to see if the duration is correct in both cases. It is important that the player uses onPlayStatus to determine the end of the stream and on onStatus. This is a question you can ask of FlowPlayer (but I am pretty sure that by now FlowPlayer has this correct).

Charlie

[Charlie_Good]

The x-duration is actually something different and is most likely shorter than the actual duration do to buffering. What happens when you play the stream using our example player (examples/SimpleVideoStreaming). Does it play to the end?

Charlie

[Guillaume_Malartre]

Seem to be the netStream.buffferTime = 3; that made the difference for me

[Richard_Lanham]

That’s still Flowplayer. You can find the example player here:

[wowza-install-dir]/examples/SimpleVideoStreaming/client/

Richard

[janusz_jezowicz]

Thanks Richard.

As for audio - I don’t record audio in both cases - so its fine.

I can’t have the same videos because they are recorded in a different way. mp4 via conversion with FFMPEG and second one as a recorded live stream via RTMP and videorecording WOWZA sample project.

The duration in metadata is correct - i.e. the same duration when I open FLV in VLC player.

The video is truncated always at the end - between 10-30 seconds depending on the file length and some other random factors (every flv file is truncated)

Someone else suggested this could be a problem>

Possible explanation is that Wowza uses buffered file output, as a result “last couple of seconds of the stream” are not flushed yet when you get the stream file.

I think you need to invoke NetStream#close() to let server flush the content.

but I am not sure if it is or how to fix it

[janusz_jezowicz]

First, I would be sure you are using the most recent version of FlowPlayer. I believe your current version is out of date. Then I would check the metadata in the .mp4 and .flv to see if the duration is correct in both cases. It is important that the player uses onPlayStatus to determine the end of the stream and on onStatus. This is a question you can ask of FlowPlayer (but I am pretty sure that by now FlowPlayer has this correct).

Charlie

Thanks Charlie. I have upgraded the flowplayer to latest version also I have checked the metadata using FLVMDI utility. In case of a video published on http://www.usabilitytest.com/juvtest.htm , metadata shows 25.5 seconds, but streaming is cut off at around 20 seconds.

Do you think its not really a Wowza issue and I should pick this up with Flowplayer guys? Thanks for your help.

I have analyzed WOWZA log file. maybe this will help>

#Version: 1.0
#Start-Date: 2010-01-13 09:17:37 GMT
#Software: Wowza Media Server Pro 1.7.2 build12107
#Date: 2010-01-13
#Fields: x-severity	x-category	x-event	date	time	c-client-id	c-ip	c-port	cs-bytes	sc-bytes	x-duration	x-sname	x-stream-id	sc-stream-bytes	cs-stream-bytes	x-file-size	x-file-length	x-ctx	x-comment
INFO	session	connect-pending	2010-01-13	12:15:59	1186423478	82.18.251.124	-	3494	3073	0.047	-	-	-	-	-	-	82.18.251.124	-
INFO	session	connect	2010-01-13	12:15:59	1186423478	82.18.251.124	-	3494	3073	0.047	-	-	-	-	-	-	82.18.251.124	-
INFO	stream	create	2010-01-13	12:15:59	1186423478	82.18.251.124	-	3566	3361	0.0	-	1	0	0	0	0.0	-	-
INFO	stream	play	2010-01-13	12:15:59	1186423478	82.18.251.124	-	3650	3403	0.031	71c95261-84ec-4d45-8949-5c268ba120c3.flv	1	0	0	1490826	25.5	71c95261-84ec-4d45-8949-5c268ba120c3.flv	-
INFO	stream	stop	2010-01-13	12:16:20	1186423478	82.18.251.124	-	3703	1535243	20.469	71c95261-84ec-4d45-8949-5c268ba120c3.flv	1	1531340	0	1490826	25.5	71c95261-84ec-4d45-8949-5c268ba120c3.flv	-

It seems Wowza recognizes its 25.5 length (see ctx or comment column)…but if I am reading it well…the x-duration is 20.469 which I don’t understand why

[janusz_jezowicz]

The x-duration is actually something different and is most likely shorter than the actual duration do to buffering. What happens when you play the stream using our example player (examples/SimpleVideoStreaming). Does it play to the end?

Charlie

This page - http://www.usabilitytest.com/juvtest.htm - uses your example player simplevideostreaming. So no - its cut of at 20 seconds (feel free to test it)

[janusz_jezowicz]

That’s still Flowplayer. You can find the example player here:

[wowza-install-dir]/examples/SimpleVideoStreaming/client/

Richard

Oh. I didn’t get it. I have just tested it using your streaming client and pleased to say its working! So it seems its a Flowplayer issue.

Well done guys, sorry I bothered you when I should have picked it up with Flowplayer