Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.15 Release Notes

Important: A newer version of Wowza Streaming Engine is available. For more information, see Latest software updates for Wowza Streaming Engine.

Version: Wowza Streaming Engine™ 4.8.15+3 build 20211022114044 released on October 26, 2021.

Java support: Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.15 is built on Java 9 (OpenJDK Java SE JRE 9.0.4), but can be used with Java versions 9-12. For more information, see Manually install and troubleshoot Java on Wowza Streaming Engine.

New features and functionality in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.15


Wowza Streaming Engine is a robust, customizable, and scalable media server software that powers reliable streaming of high-quality video and audio to any device, anywhere. Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.15 contains several fixes that improve the functionality of the media server software.

We've also updated the SMIL file parameter that configures separate adaptation sets for MPEG-DASH streams to support live and nDVR streams in addition to VOD streams. The parameter was renamed from tracktype to mpegdashTag.adaptationSet. For more information about this SMIL file parameter, see the following article:

Installation and update considerations for Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.15


Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.5 and later installs a custom packaged version of OpenJDK Java SE JRE 9.0.4 that includes the java.scripting module. This module is required for Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.15 but is not added by the Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.15 updater. If you are updating to Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.15 from a base installation of Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.0 or earlier, before you update, you need to install a supported version of Java that contains the java.scripting module, such as Java 9-12 or the custom version of OpenJDK Java SE JRE 9.0.4 installed with Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.15 (available from the Downloads tab of My Account). Then instruct Wowza Streaming Engine to use that version of Java according to the instructions in Manually install and troubleshoot Java on Wowza Streaming Engine.

When using the Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.15 installer to install a new instance of Wowza Streaming Engine on Windows, you may need to install additional dependencies in order to ingest SRT MediaCaster streams or use the generic SRT stream targets destination to publish an SRT stream. To address this, install the latest version of the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio appropriate to your operating system.

For step-by-step instructions on how to install or update Wowza Streaming Engine, see the following articles:

Detailed list of changes in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.15


Changes since Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.14

  • Added support for configuring separate adaptation sets for live and nDVR MPEG-DASH streams using the mpegdashTag.adaptationSet SMIL file property.
  • Renamed the tracktype SMIL file property mpegdashTag.adaptationSet.
  • Fixed an issue with reporting the segment duration in HLS media playlists as a negative number.
  • Fixed an issue in which decoding H.264 video failed and returned an exception when CABAC 0-word bytes were in an H.264 RBSP.
  • Fixed an issue with visual artifacts, such as overlay images flickering or appearing transparent, when using graphic overlays and the CUDA scaling implementation.
  • Fixed an issue with onTextData captions producing non-compliant WebVTT manifests if a caption cue was both in progress and crossed a segment boundary.
  • Fixed an issue in which transcoding could get stuck in the ALLFRAMESOFF state and stall.
  • Disabled support for the following properties:
    • behindVideoSkip1Frame
    • behindVideoSkip2Frame
    • behindVideoSkip4Frame
    • behindVideoKeyOnly
    • behindVideoOff
    • resetDecoderOnTransitionToVideoBehindState
  • Fixed an issue in which WebRTC streams sent FIR messages when conditions to send them were not met.
  • Fixed an issue with MPEG-DASH manifests including incorrect frame rate values.
  • Fixed an issue with RTMP playback disconnecting after a few seconds.
  • Fixed an issue in which video playback would hang while audio started immediately with some players.
  • Fixed an issue with flickering during playback with some players due to an invalid frame rate calculation.
  • Fixed an issue with occasionally reporting negative timestamps upon playback.
  • Fixed an issue with reporting H.264 video and AAC audio as an invalid combination for HLS streams.
  • Fixed an issue with Startup Streams failing when an application does not exist.
  • Fixed an issue with not honoring setting the session timeout for Wowza Streaming Engine Manager to greater than 30 minutes.

Known issues with Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.15


For a detailed list of known issues that are still in effect, see Known issues with Wowza Streaming Engine.

Patch updates to Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.15


Between production releases, Wowza occasionally provides patches to fix bugs or regressions in the latest production release, which can be deployed in production environments and workflows for long-term stability.

There is no available patch release for Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.15 at this time.