BigVEncoder for Android

[Maurice_Randall]

I’ve been developing a big package for managing video streams with Wowza along with a new encoder that will take the place of FMLE and is called BigVEncoder. I’ve got versions for Linux and Windows in both 32 and 64 bit.

But the big news now is that tonight I ran my first live streaming test of BigVEncoder for the Android. It successfully sent a stream to Wowza. This is going to give millions of people around the world the ability to stream live video at a moments notice.

I’ll post more on this as development progresses or you can also keep an eye on everything at bigvstudio.com. There is no mention of the Android version on the web site yet, you heard it here first.

-Maurice

[Andrew_Jordan]

Hi,

Please keep me in the loop on this encoder sounds very interesting

Xstream Services

[Charlie_Good]

Very cool!

Charlie

[Charlie_Good]

Sounds awesome!

C

[alan_costello]

With a 3G connection, keep in mind how good your connection is. BigVEncoder is capable of outputting more than your connection can handle. You’ll know if you’re overdoing it because the camera imagery will appear to freeze while waiting for the network to catch up. If you see that happening, try a lower bitrate and/or lower resolution. Naturally, with a WiFi connection, you can do better.

-Maurice

Our streams are password protected - have you plans to have name/password on your broadcast software?

Thanks.

[Maurice_Randall]

Tonight’s testing was very good! BigVEncoder on the Android is coming along very nicely. We streamed live Flash video from the Android camera to the Wowza server and viewed it live on a website. This was H264 video and AAC audio from a phone that is over a year and a half old and running Android 2.2. The video broadcast was smooth and without a single hiccup.

The nice thing about streaming live Flash video is there is no special setup needed on the Wowza server, no sdp files, no mpegts, etc. Just fire up the encoder on the Android, turn on the camera, and go.

Now that we know this is working good, we’ll start posting some info on our website. I suspect this will be available for release in the Android Market within the next few weeks. We just need to do some polishing on the interface and some other detail work in the rest of the code and it will be ready for its first public release.

I’ll get some screenshots up on bigvstudio.com soon.

-Maurice

[Maurice_Randall]

So far with BigVEncoder running on the Android, we have tested streaming live video and audio from the camera and microphone to a Wowza server using RTMP and MPEGTS. H264 and MPEG4 video works as well as AAC and MP3 audio with these methods. RTP should work with an sdp file, however we haven’t actually test it yet, but it works on our desktop version of BigVEncoder. So, until I actually test it on the Android, I’m going to assume it works.

The Android can also pull a stream from Wowza and save it as a file on the device or send it back to Wowza or any other media server. It can pull a stream from a file on the device and send it to Wowza.

It can also stream live or recorded audio to an Icecast2 server.

It can also act as a remote control to control the desktop version of our encoder. Or vice-versa. Communication is done through the internet. So, now the camera crew at the onsite filming location can focus on the camera work and not have to know anything about setting up the encoder other than turning on the computer and clicking an icon to start the encoder.

At this point it looks like I’ve killed any bugs that I’ve been able to find. Testing currently isn’t finding any more bugs. No “Force Quit” boxes popping up.

Documentation is written and built into the app. You can access help from any screen in the app. The help will describe every function on that screen as well as provide some tips.

This app could open up many new possibilities for all the Wowza servers around the world. Anyone who gets this app will be able to stream live video on the spot.

The way it looks, I’ve got this new app just about ready to go. I expect to have a few little details finished by this weekend and after some rigorous testing, it should be on the Android Market before Christmas. Watch for “BigVEncoder”.

-Maurice

[Maurice_Randall]

BigVEncoder for the Android is now available. Stream live video to your Wowza server from your Android cell phone’s camera. You can find it on the Android Market here:

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.rotw.android.bigve

This is the first application of its kind.

Happy New Year everyone…

-Maurice

[Maurice_Randall]

I just uploaded a free trial version of BigVEncoder for the Android. It is a full version so that you can check out everything that it has to offer, but it will stop running after 5 days. Here is a link to the trial version:

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.trial.android.bigve

The free version will show up as “BigVEncoder Trial”. The paid version is only $7.99 if you would like to purchase it. You’ll find both at market.android.com.

Or if you have Gmail on your Android phone, send me an email to: maurice@cmdrkey.com

I’ll email you the free trial version. From within Gmail on your phone, you’ll find an install button, just click INSTALL and the new app will install to your phone.

Then try streaming a live Flash video from your Android camera to your Wowza server. It works great.

-Maurice

[Maurice_Randall]

It looks like you might be missing the stream name in the URL. Try something like this:

rtmp://32.24.154.45:1935/live/streamname

Replace “streamname” with whatever you are using for the stream name.

-Maurice

[Maurice_Randall]

This works! You are correct; I needed to add a stream name. I’m now successfully streaming video from my phone over a 3G connection to Wowza on AWS. Thanks!

With a 3G connection, keep in mind how good your connection is. BigVEncoder is capable of outputting more than your connection can handle. You’ll know if you’re overdoing it because the camera imagery will appear to freeze while waiting for the network to catch up. If you see that happening, try a lower bitrate and/or lower resolution. Naturally, with a WiFi connection, you can do better.

-Maurice

[Maurice_Randall]

Hi Maurice,

I’m trying this with the same hardware (HTC incredible2) and updated Android OS 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The app hangs during the video learn routine at the beginning. Any ideas? Thanks.

The main problem with the Android is Google programmers. They just can’t seem to keep things consistent and functional between versions. They claim that new versions of the OS are backwards compatible with previous versions. Obviously they don’t test much. They make too many changes and it breaks things. App programmers end up making too many compromises.

Plus there are many differences between phones. Manufacturers are free to make their own changes. Coding BigVEncoder has been a nightmare. For the devices it works on, it works very well. But for the devices it fails on, it fails for stupid reasons. This just shouldn’t happen.

Anyway, with that said, I’m working on releasing a new trial version sometime today that will hopefully address some of the problems I’ve discovered with various phones. The 5-day trial database will be erased for this new version so it will work for everyone. Plus it can co-exist on the same device with the paid version. Watch for it to show up, give it a try and let me know how it goes.

-Maurice

[Maurice_Randall]

Google has changed the name of the Android Market to Google Play so here is the new direct link to the free trial version of BigVEncoder for the Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trial.android.bigve

I just uploaded a new version that will hopefully fix some issues with some of the Android devices.

-Maurice

[Maurice_Randall]

It’s very difficult to debug the crash. I can do it if I have the device connected to my development computer. But I’ve found trying to debug different Android devices through email is next to impossible. The Android system is very difficult to program certain things such as BigVEncoder and to make it work with such a wide variety of devices. But I’m making some headway. The current trial version is more recent than the current paid version and has fixed some issues that some of the devices have had. With some devices the app works beautifully, while with others, it hiccups with the camera. My app has to do certain things to make it work the way it does and since there are so many variations on the hardware, it’s not an easy task.

I don’t have a list of the devices that it works with yet. I need to take some time and get the BigVEncoder section up and running on my website, then I can start compiling lists such as that. This app is still in its infancy and once I get through a few hurdles, I think it will take off quite well. It works very well streaming Flash video to a Wowza server, and also works well with Red5. I haven’t tested it with Adobe’s server software yet, but I see no reason for it not to work.

If I could afford to buy one of each phone and tablet model out there, it would be a piece of cake to get them all working. One of the problems I’ve had is there has been at least 4 people wanting to work with me to get their particular device working OK and after trying a few things to get their device to work, sending them a new apk file to try, within a week or so, I quite hearing from them. So, that has been a dead end.

My own phone is a Sanyo Zio and it works great. It’s not a powerful phone by any means, yet it can stream live video from the camera delivering H264 video and AAC audio to Wowza in realtime. It also works great to stream live MP3 audio to an Icecast server.

I will have some more changes incorporated into the app over the next month, so keep an eye out for a new version to try.

-Maurice

[Maurice_Randall]

Hi this is possible use Galaxy s3 Android 4.1.2?

I’m trying to streaming using rtmp:// but appears this error in ffmpeg Messages:

tcp://localhost:10250: Operation not permitted…

I need to root my phone to use this application?

Thank’s

You don’t need to root the phone. Just be sure to use the correct settings. BigVEncoder is quite flexible in allowing various settings to be tried rather than just having a couple of hard coded setups.

Start by going to the Setup tab and then select the Media Destination page. This is where you enter the address of the Wowza server. From this page you can click the menu button and select help and it will give you a description for the page. You can find help on any page for whatever that page is.

Anyway, simply enter the address for the Wowza server like this:

rtmp://serverip/appname/streamname

If you use a non-standard rtmp port which is normally 1935, than also enter the port number:

rtmp://serverip:port/appname/streamname

On the Monitor tab be sure to select the appropriate output format, “flv” works the best. If “auto” is selected, it doesn’t always guess the format correctly. So, always check this before you start the encoder.

-Maurice

[Maurice_Randall]

I’ve released a new version of BigVEncoder for the Android to Google Play. This fixes many issues that existed in the previous releases such as support for nearly all Androids from 2.2 and up. About the only requirement is that your device supports H264 video from the camera hardware. Most devices today support H264. Many crash issues with all the different devices appear to be fixed now.

The audio/video sync issues are a thing of the past.

BigVEncoder should now work with servers that require authentication. Just enter all the info in one single URL like this:

rtmp://username:password@serveraddress/app/streamname

Enjoy the new release… it’s been a long time coming.

-Maurice

[Maurice_Randall]

I can not get this thing to work, every time I hit start encoder it says "unfortunately BigVEncoder has stopped

Please give precise settings for streaming to Wowza, do we use flv or mp4 etc. I am not that happy with my purchase so far. The REMOTE tab is full of questions, poor design IMO. Save a profile and then when you go back to the output settings they have been changed from what the profie setting was.

PS. I am using HTC One XL

Ignore the Remote tab. That is for using another Android or Desktop PC to control one or the other remotely. It requires server software that I haven’t released yet.

The Wowza rtmp URL goes on the Media Destination page. Put the entire URL including the streamname all in one string.

Use H264, AAC, and FLV to stream to Wowza. Be sure to set FLV for the output format on the Monitor tab.

BigVEncoder has a new upgrade that I haven’t finished yet. It fixes a few issues that cropped up when certain devices upgraded to Android 4.3 and 4.4. I hate when that happens. This might be the cause of your crash. For anyone who sends me an email with this problem, I will reply with the new version attached to the email. Send an email to maurice@cmdrkey.com

-Maurice

[Maurice_Randall]

krzimmer, send me an email to maurice@cmdrkey.com and I’ll reply with a copy of the next version that hasn’t been released yet. Let me know in your email if you are using the trial version or the paid version.

Thanks…

-Maurice

[e_s]

Hi,

I’ve got BigVEncoder running on my phone (HTC Incredible2). The client application seems to run pretty well, but so far I cannot connect to Wowza 3.0.5 running on Amazon EC2. In the ffmpeg messages window on the phone is the following:

{rtmp @ 0xe631e0} Server error: Connection failed: Application folder ([install-location]/applications/) is missing.

rtmp://32.24.154.45:1935/live: I/O error

…however, my instance of Wowza is running fine and does indeed have the Application folder in the right spot. Any clues?

Thanks,

Steiny

(415)819-2009

I just uploaded a free trial version of BigVEncoder for the Android. It is a full version so that you can check out everything that it has to offer, but it will stop running after 5 days. Here is a link to the trial version:

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.trial.android.bigve

The free version will show up as “BigVEncoder Trial”. The paid version is only $7.99 if you would like to purchase it. You’ll find both at market.android.com.

Or if you have Gmail on your Android phone, send me an email to: maurice@cmdrkey.com

I’ll email you the free trial version. From within Gmail on your phone, you’ll find an install button, just click INSTALL and the new app will install to your phone.

Then try streaming a live Flash video from your Android camera to your Wowza server. It works great.

-Maurice

[e_s]

Hi Maurice,

This works! You are correct; I needed to add a stream name. I’m now successfully streaming video from my phone over a 3G connection to Wowza on AWS. Thanks!