Problem with new Flash AudioPlayer - Audio drops after some minutes

[alphanova]

Hello Remotes,

i updated to new RCF v2.1.97 and activate the new function Unreal Server 7 for using the new audio FlashPlayer. I noticed that the audiostream drops after a while and must be restarted  :'(. (its not the automatically timeout you can set in MediaServer! This is set to 120minutes on my site).

Then i using the native Unreal Player the audio dont drops! Any other see this issue also? Please check your streaming!

regards André

PS: for now i switched back to stream without using unreal flashclient

[kg6ypi]

I will look into seeing if i can increase the buffer in the flash client a little to help out. I will also be testing this with my own custom flash audio player soon. Right now i am using the one provided by Unreal Media Server, here
http://umediaserver.net/bin/FlashPlayer.zip

[alphanova]

Hi Brandon,

thx, the buffer can be a potential source of this, hope it helps!

PS: Since you need only the audio streamed by this Flasclient its possible to use the code "quickSkin_AudioPlayer.html" from the package you posted above. This is little smaller then the skin you use at the moment (also you can set a backgroundimage, but as we wrote already thats only cosmetics) 

regards André

[kg6ypi]

I was working on letting radio owners pick a image of there own to show there, i have already tested the background image and other features of there flash player.  got it working wiht my images,  now working on making it dynamic.

And yes if you change the stream from "Real-Time" to "Buffered"  in Unreal Media Server.  That may fix your problem.

*Dont pick WMA 8Kbps format (its not good),  choose MP3 (20Kbps, 11K Mono or Stereo)  this will only use about 2KB/sec bandwidth when streaming

[kg6ypi]

Response from Unreal Media Team

You probably have network issues, otherwise there is no reason it will drop connection.

You can not control live buffer size in Flash player in general, and in our Flash player too.
Our Flash player plays in two modes, for "buffered" and "real-time" live sources:
1. "dynamic" buffer, which is employed when you have a "buffered" live source.
In this case the player will maintain a buffer of 5-10 seconds.
2. near-real-time (zero) buffer, which is employed when you have a "real-time" live source.
In this case the latency is close to zero, and player maintains no buffer.
In this case you must have at least 10-15 video fps in order to acheive good audio-video synrchonization.

Use real-time mode only if you have to, i.e. conferencing.
For radio/TV broadcasts, buffered mode is the way to go.

[alphanova]

thx for reply,

A little bit confusing is the fact, that audiodrops are not seen while using the "Native Unreal Player" on streaming the identical audiosource. I hear this drops only while using the new Unreal FlashPlugin.

Maybe the Unreal FlashPlugin using antoher Method as the Unreal native Player. I set now the suggested "buffered" settings in unreal MediaServer and will monitor the audio.

regards André

[g7npw]

I have just upgraded to Version 7 streaming myself and find the audio from the Flash Player sounds kind of tinny and metalic sounding and rather crap. Playing with WMP and the old unreal player sounds 100% better sounding.

Anyone else find this?

[alphanova]

I have just upgraded to Version 7 streaming myself and find the audio from the Flash Player sounds kind of tinny and metalic sounding and rather crap. Playing with WMP and the old unreal player sounds 100% better sounding.

Anyone else find this?

Hi Dominic,

on my site also... via unreal flashplayer the stream sounds not so smoothly like the native player, also sometimes the stream is broken and need to restarted.

I already set buffered streaming in MediaServer to aktiv. For now i switched back to WMP and UMP-streaming.

regards André

[kg6ypi]

I'm going to work on allowing users to choose which plugin to use,  the Flash plugin or the UMS plugin...if i can find my old code, it is possible to get the native unreal player embedded into the web browser.

[alphanova]

Hi Brandon,

umediaplayer5x.js from the Unreal 7.0 SDK + HTML-Code taken from (AutoLoad_FixedSize_Playlist_MultiBrowser.htm)

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Fixed Size Playlist Unreal Player</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="umediaplayer5x.js"></script>
<script language="javascript">

//Global player object
var po;

function Play(player)
{
   try
   {
      InitPlayer(player);
      
      var o = document.getElementById(player);
      
      o.UseTCP();
      o.UseMediaServer("localhost:5119");
      o.UseFilePlayList("mediaroot");

      //Uncomment the following line to prohibit context menu
      //o.EnableContextMenu(false);

      //Show flow bar from the beginning and disable hiding it using context menu
      o.EnableFlowControl(false, true);

      //since we want to keep the same size, disable size submenu in context menu
      o.EnableSizeInContextMenu(false);

      o.Play();
      window.status = "Connecting...";
   }
   catch (e)
   {
      var code = "Play(\"" + player + "\")";
        setTimeout(code, 1000);
   }
}

//Specify which events we want to subscribe to
function InitPlayer(player)
{
    var pobj = new PlayerObject(player);
    pobj.object = document.getElementById(player);

    pobj.eventHandler.OnStart = OnStart;
    pobj.eventHandler.OnStop = OnStop;
    pobj.eventHandler.OnPause = OnPause;
    pobj.eventHandler.OnResize = OnResize;
    pobj.initPlayer();
}

function OnLoad()
{
   Play("player");
}


function OnStart()
{
   window.status = "Playing";
}

function OnStop(toBeContinued)
{
   window.status = "Stopped";
   if(!toBeContinued)
      {
           var o = document.getElementById("player");
           o.width  = 320;
           o.height = 240;
      }
}

function OnPause(state)
{
   if (state == 0)
      window.status = "Paused";
   else if (state == 1)
      window.status = "Buffering...";
   else if (state == 2)
      window.status = "Seeking...";
}

function OnResize(width, height)
{
   //Do nothing here; we don't want to change size
}
</script>
</head>

<body bgcolor="Gainsboro" onload="OnLoad()">
   <script language="javascript">
   
    // Create player with width=320, height=240, and id="player".
    po = new PlayerObject("player");
    po.createPlayer(320, 240);


   </script>
</body>

</html>


regards André

[alphanova]

I have just upgraded to Version 7 streaming myself and find the audio from the Flash Player sounds kind of tinny and metalic sounding and rather crap. Playing with WMP and the old unreal player sounds 100% better sounding.

Anyone else find this?

i found some information about unreal streaming.

RTMP protocol can be used for streaming to Flash player; MMS-H protocol serves for streaming to Silverlight, Windows Media Player and other MMS-capable players. Our own proprietary, codec-independent streaming protocol is used for streaming to Unreal Streaming Media Player. Our protocol can be realized via TCP-unicast streams, RTP Multicast streams and HTTP(S) unicast streams via IIS web server.

Conclusion: the streaming type used by flashplugin (use RTMP-protocol) and the Unreal
Player (proprietary) uses different protocolls, so its possible to get some different effects which cant be seen on the player vica versa.

@Brandon (it will be usefull to change the description in RCF-Wizard from unreal Server 7 to "Unreal Server 7 - RTMP FlashPlayer" or something for better understanding what meaned with this dropdown).

regards from Germany, André