Configure B-frame generation in Wowza Streaming Engine

The Transcoder in Wowza Streaming Engine™ media server software supports bi-directional frames (B-frames) when using the default MainConcept encoder implementation and the Main or High Profile. However, B-frame generation is turned off by default.

You can change the number of B-frames generated or disable B-frames for a given <Encode> block using the mainconcept.reordering_delay parameter. This parameter only works with AVC/H.264 encoding. In your Transcoder template, add the parameter to the Video/Parameters container in the <Encode> block.

<Parameter>
    <Name>mainconcept.reordering_delay</Name>
    <Value>3</Value>
    <Type>Integer</Type>
</Parameter>

The Value property specifies the maximum distance between predicted frames (P-frames) and controls the insertion of B-frames between each P-frame.

The default value is 1, meaning no B-frames will be generated. A value of instructs the Transcoder to generate and insert up to two B-frames between each P-frame.