Media Server
FAQ.

Is there a user forum for Unreal Media Server?
Post questions to our current forum
This is our older, read-only forum

Are there any Streaming Providers/CDN companies offering hosting of Unreal Media Server?
For short-term (day or two) events we can provide hosting on our 100mbps dedicated server. For longer projects we have partnered with StreamGuys who offer hosting packages based on their premium Content Delivery Network infrastructure.

Can I run Media Server and Live Server on the same machine? Absolutely.

Can I run versions 6.0 and 7.0 both on the same computer?
It's not possible for Media Server and Live Server. You need to completely uninstall the previous version and install the new one. However you can run all versions of client-side ActiveX control on the same machine.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of playing with your Streaming Media Player as opposed to Flash Player or Windows Media Player?

Consider playing with Unreal Player/Browser plugin if:

  • Your client audience is based on Windows OS.
  • You need low latency live streams. You need user authentication. You need to encrypt streaming channel. (use HTTPS delivery for that)
  • You don't want users to save streams on their computers.


    • Consider playing with Flash Player if:
  • You don't want users to install our ActiveX control or player.
  • Users will play live streams on a web page on any Operating System.


    • Consider playing with Windows Media Player or other MMS players if:
  • You don't want users to install our ActiveX control or player.
  • Users will play buffered live streams and files on any Operating System.

    • What are Unreal Live Server advantages for live streaming?

  • Near real-time streaming mode. You can use this mode for live conferencing applications.
  • Ability to stream hardware-compressed content, offloading computer CPU from encoding. If you have a capture card or device that does video encoding, the only live encoder that would stream its content without transcoding is Unreal Live Server.
  • Unmanned, automated operation. You configure the system and leave.
    All live encoders such as WME and FME, require a presence of the operator who opens the encoder and presses "Start Encoding" button. This is good for broadcasting events but this is unacceptable for a system that needs to start broadcasting anytime when somebody wants to watch/listen, such as IPTV, radio, video surveillance, digital signage apps, etc. Unreal Live Server running as a Windows service will start encoding and streaming when a first viewer sends request for live video by opening a player. It will stop encoding and streaming when last viewer disconnects.

    • How do I let users play with Flash Player?
    Download our Flash Player and host it on your website. Provide an html page hosting the player. In this page, supply an RTMP link that points to live broadcast created on the Media Server.
    For example, if your Media Server is on 192.168.0.100, and you have a live broadcast with alias "webcam", the link looks like rtmp://192.168.0.100:5119/live/webcam.
    Find sample pages in our SDK package and Demo pages

    How do I play with Windows Media Player?
    Use menu item File->Open URL. Type mms link referring to live broadcast or file configured on Media Server. For example, right after the installation of Media Server you can type
    mms://localhost:5119/mediaroot/test.avi
    If you have a live broadcast with alias "webcam", you need to type mms://localhost:5119/webcam
    When playing remotely, you need to specify IP address of server machine: mms://192.168.0.100:5119/webcam

    How to play on MAC?
    Play with Flash Player. Or, download and install free Windows Media Components for QuickTime, recommended by Microsoft. Then use your QuickTime player exactly the same way described in the previous answer. 

    What MMS players are supported on what OS?
    We have successfully tested Windows Media Player on Windows; QuickTime player on MAC; MPlayer and Kaffeine player on Linux. Many other open source players such as VLC may be able to play or need slight code change to be able to. 

    I want my users to play with your player. Is it a must for them to download and install Streaming Media Player?
    No, it's not a must, but our ActiveX control or Browser plugin still has to be installed on user's machine. As a media publisher, you can avoid having users install Streaming Media Player by providing a Web page that hosts our ActiveX control or Browser plugin. The page should reference the CAB installation file that will be automatically downloaded by a browser. When the page is loaded it will prompt the user to install the control. Refer to the Demo pages hosting ActiveX control. 

    How do I play live h.264 streams in Streaming Media Player?
    You need h.264 decoder, obviously. Windows 7 comes with such a decoder; other users are recommended to install a free h.264 decoder from DivX

    Why Unreal Media Server does not support RTSP?
    Because RTSP as a whole is not a codec-independent protocol, but Unreal Media Server sends live and recorded streams encoded with ANY codec.
    RTSP usually uses RTP as a data payload protocol. Unfortunately every codec requires its own custom RTP header. There is a family of RFCs defining how content encoded with MPEG-1, MP3, MPEG-4 and other codecs should be packaged for RTP payload. This invalidates the whole idea of unified, codec-independent delivery protocol, such as our proprietary protocols and powerful Microsoft MMS-ASF protocol.

    Is there any software for parsing/analyzing the Unreal Media Server log format?
    Sawmill analytical platform supports our log format.

    I can't play MPEG-2 videos and can't find decoder.
    Since there is no MPEG-2 decoder that comes with DirectX, users will need to install some 3-rd party DirectShow-friendly MPEG-2 decoder. We recommend version 2 of Moonlight Elecard decoder package.
    Official download site.

    How do I stream file formats such as 3gp, mp4, mkv, ................?   How do I stream files with codecs such as vp6, 3ivx, Vorbis, ....?
    The server side must have DirectShow-friendly splitters (demultiplexers)  for container formats such as mp4, mkv etc. Server does not need any decoders, as it does not decode/transcode file's content.
    The client side (player) needs DirectShow-friendly decoders for decoding actual content embedded in these files, such as vp6, Vorbis, etc. Normally, both decoder and splitter would come in a single package named "codec". 3gp, mp4, 3ivx, vp6, xvid, even rm files have been successfully streamed with Unreal Media Server, with additional installation of corresponding codecs.

    How do I view h.264 streams in Windows Media Player?
    How do I play ASF files with h.264 content in Windows Media Player?
    WMP needs DMO h.264 decoder when h.264 is embedded in ASF container (live or recorded). This trial decoder from Lead Technologies does the job. Register it with regsvr32.exe. You also need such a decoder to play ASF files with h.264-encoded video recorded by Unreal Live or Archival servers.

    How do I view MJPEG streams in Windows Media Player?
    WMP needs DMO MJPEG decoder when MJPEG is embedded in ASF container (live or recorded). Installation of this free package from Axis provides such a decoder.

    I am not able to view video with Firefox/Opera/Chrome etc. browsers.
    Please install a plugin for those browsers.

    Can I publish live streams to Unreal Media Server with any other encoder than Unreal Live Server?
    Yes, you can do it with any software/hardware encoder that sends streams in MMSH (MMS over HTTP) protocol. You can do it with Windows Media Encoder and VideoLan player, for example. Using Unreal Media Server configurator, you need to create a live broadcast of type "Rebroadcast stream from Microsoft Media Services" and supply mms link to pull stream from the encoder.

    Live Server Configurator doesn't recognize my card as an audio/video provider. Why?
    The driver of your card must support DirectX. Some older cards that only support VFW (Video for Windows), will not work with Live Server. The driver should expose DirectShow source filter of Audio/Video capture sources category.

    Is there a list of supported analog video capture cards?
    List of analog video capture cards recommended for Live Server.   

    What IP cameras are supported?
    Our IP cameras and encoders are ideal choice for true hardware compressed audio/video streaming with no software encoding process involved. Visit our hardware page.
    For other IP cameras, use IPCamSourceVideo component available for download. It receives video from all major brands IP cameras but does not support audio.    

    After I reboot my Live Server computer, I have to open Live Configurator again and connect my dynamic live source to Media Server again. Is there any automated way to do it?
    If you check "Reconnect automatically if connection breaks" checkbox, then Live Server will try to stay connected to Media Server as long as Live Server runs. (The Configurator program can be closed but ULiveServer.exe, running as a separate windows service, needs to run.) If you restart Live Server or restart the whole computer, you have to initiate a connection again. To help your Live Server always be connected with Media Server, use LiveReconnect standalone executable included in the SDK package . It accepts command line parameters and calls ULiveServer to initiate a connection. You can run this exe from batch file; run it on system startup; from Windows scheduled tasks etc.

    While configuring the Archival Server, I am asked to enter a password for media server. Why?
    The Archival Server connects to the Media Server which uses this password for authentication. You have to setup the same password on the Properties page of Media Server Configurator.

    I have problems resizing video and/or running in full-screen mode. Streaming Media Player lets DirectX resize video window. DirectX uses hardware acceleration to perform scaling. You have to check two settings on your computer.

  • Display properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Troubleshoot -> Full hardware acceleration.
  • Run DxDiag -> Display tab -> DirectDraw acceleration enabled.
    If this doesn't help, try to increase the memory buffer of your video card in BIOS settings.

    UHttpProxy does not install properly.
    The instructions for manual installation of UHttpProxy are as follows:

    Download UHttpProxy.dll and put it under your Inetpub/Wwwroot/UHttpProxy folder. Then use Internet Services Manager to create new virtual directory and name it UHTTPProxy. Make sure that this virtual directory allows anonymous access, and has Execute permissions of "Scripts and Executables".

  • Additional steps for IIS6 on Windows 2003 Server:
    Create and enable new server extension for UHttpProxy (or just enable all ISAPI extensions).
    Make sure that the application pool under which UHttpProxy runs, is configured to have 1 process.
  • Additional steps for IIS7 on Vista and Windows 2008 Server:
    Install ISAPI Extensions IIS feature.
    Add UHTTPProxy ISAPI by using "ISAPI and CGI Restrictions" global property. Check "Allow extension path execution" check box.
    For UHHTPProxy virtual folder enable ISAPI-dll Handler Mapping by setting "Read", "Script" and "Execute" Feature Permissions.
    On 64-bit OS enable 32-bit applications for default application pool.

    I have a player streaming files or Buffered live sources over HTTP(s); when I lock my desktop and come back after 20 minutes, the player displays message "Media Server dropped connection."
    This happens due to IIS connection timeout setting which is 15 minutes by default on IIS 5.x. When you lock your desktop, the player stops playback in order not to waste bandwidth; the HTTP connection to the server is considered "idle" and IIS will close it after the idle time reaches connection timeout setting. Such behavior helps to prevent denial of service attacks; the connection timeout setting can be changed using IIS manager.

    RTP Multicast packets are sent with TTL (time to live) of 128. How can I change the TTL?
    Create DWORD registry value named TTL, under HKLM\SOFTWARE\UNREAL\SERVER, and set an appropriate TTL for you.

    I can't change Multicast Group IP address configured with Media Server configuration tool.
    You need to change both IP address and port and make sure no other configured resources use the same IP address/Port. When you install multiple Media Servers on your LAN, make sure all resources have different multicast group addresses.

    I can't stream live video from computer that does not have  interactive desktop open (no user is logged in).
    This can happen if the video capture card that is used has a Video Port. The purpose of the port is to minimize CPU utilization for video capturing & rendering. The problem is that the Video Port requires interactive desktop to work correctly. Gainward GeForce-4 XP graphics cards are known to require the interactive desktop for video capturing.

    Only 10 clients can simultaneously get video streams from the server via HTTP. A bug?
    Internet Information Server (IIS) running on Windows 2000 Professional or XP is limited to work with only 10 concurrent clients. This is hardcoded in IIS by Microsoft and cannot be changed. If there will be many clients connected via HTTP, then it's recommended to install Unreal Media Server on Windows 2000 or 2003 server platform.

    I wrote an application that hosts more than two Active-X controls. When I connect all of them via HTTP, only two work.
    This is a known issue discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 183110. Use client registry setting HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ - DWORD value "MaxConnectionsPerServer" to increase number of simultaneous connections per server within one process.












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