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mrwizzer2
mrwizzer2
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Suggested Bit Rates for Multi-Bitrate Streaming?

Apr 9, 2012 12:03 PM

Tags: #flash_media_server #encoding_bitrates

A couple of years back, when we started using Flash Media Server, we established a company policy of exporting all videos at 75, 150 and 400 kbps in the hopes of making sure our Flash videos were broadly accessible to users connecting at varying connection speeds. 

 

Now that Broadband has become more commonplace in the years since, I'm wondering if anyone has a tried and true suggestion for which bit rates to make available these days to make sure users get the best experience they can.

 

Is topping out at 400kbps too low by today's standards?  (I'm guessing it may be a bit conservative these days).

 

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

Mike

987 Views   19 Replies   Latest reply: dsummers13, Apr 10, 2013 8:12 AM
 
Replies
  • mrwizzer2
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    1. mrwizzer2,
    Apr 12, 2012 11:38 AM   in reply to mrwizzer2
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    *Bump*  Anyone?

     

    Bueller, Bueller?

     
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  • Shiraz Anwar
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    2. Shiraz Anwar,
    Apr 12, 2012 10:40 PM   in reply to mrwizzer2
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    Hello MrWizzer

     

    I am not sure what FMS version you are currently using.

    Well, if you look at the sampe vod folder that ships with FMS4.5, it has files encoded @ 150kbps, 500 kbps, 700 kbps, 1000 kbps, 1500 kbps.

    I am sure that all of these files stream perfectly fine given the correct bandwidth environment.

    Its totally depend upon the FMS hosting service provider depending upon the user base of a particular provider.

    You need to judge what kind of BW is available to your viewers and put the files encoded at appropriate bitrates.

    You may also look at http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashmediaserver/articles/beginning-fms45- pt06.html for refrences.

     

    Regards,

    Shiraz Anwar

     
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  • mrwizzer2
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    3. mrwizzer2,
    Apr 16, 2012 10:08 AM   in reply to Shiraz Anwar
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    I appreciate you response, Zarihs.  It looks like we've been undestimating people's bandwidth capabilities. 

     

    From your experience, do these bitrates (starting at a low of 150kbps and going way on up to 1500kbps), seem to be good ballparks in the real world?

     

    Thanks for your help.

     

    Mike

     
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  • Shiraz Anwar
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    4. Shiraz Anwar,
    Apr 16, 2012 10:42 PM   in reply to mrwizzer2
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    I am not sure about your location and the type of regular BW available there, but if you see at various stremaing websites they are streaming full HD quality streams, so it should work, but again you need to survey your user base location.

     
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  • Kapil From Fullestop
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    5. Kapil From Fullestop,
    Feb 15, 2013 4:56 AM   in reply to Shiraz Anwar
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    Hi,

     

    In every blog I can find the multi bitrate streaming but not find any multi bitrate publishing by using the AS3 & FMS.

     

    Is there any solution on this ? by using any other supporting technology or by durect in FMS etc ?

     

    Any suggestions are highly appreciated.

     

    Thanks

     

    Kapil

     
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  • Shiraz Anwar
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    6. Shiraz Anwar,
    Feb 15, 2013 5:14 AM   in reply to Kapil From Fullestop
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    Use FMLE

     

    Sent from my iPhone

     
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  • Kapil From Fullestop
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    7. Kapil From Fullestop,
    Feb 15, 2013 5:18 AM   in reply to Shiraz Anwar
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    Thanks for your quick reply.

     

    But how to use FMLE in actionscript ?

     

    I need this solution in web based application with adobe FMS for publish the muti bitrate video.

     

    Thanks,

     

    Kapil

     
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  • Kapil From Fullestop
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    8. Kapil From Fullestop,
    Feb 15, 2013 5:18 AM   in reply to Shiraz Anwar
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    I am developing that application in flex.

     

    Thanks,

     

    Kapil

     
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  • Adrian_NA
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    9. Adrian_NA,
    Feb 15, 2013 5:36 AM   in reply to Kapil From Fullestop
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    Hi,

     

    As Shiraz correctly stated, survay your user base. You need to fully understand the market you are targeting and what bandwidth is available to your end users. Mobile users will have different requirements as opposed to wired users. However some mobile users are now able to get speeds up to 50mbps in some countries, but this is not the norm. If you wish to reach your maximum audience you will need to do the above first.

     

    Remember not all devices these days can play back flash content

     
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  • Kapil From Fullestop
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    10. Kapil From Fullestop,
    Feb 15, 2013 6:15 AM   in reply to Adrian_NA
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    Yes, Thats is fine but as I explain in my previous post that, We need this in actionscript because of web application requirement.

     

    I need to develope an application like SKYPE in which video quality auto change as per bandwidth available for that end user. Also as in youtube we have the option to change the video quality as per requirement.

    I need to developed this in real time video chat application with auto bandiwdth video quality change (like skype) as well as user can change the video quality as per requirment ( like youtube ).

     

    Because of this we need some solution over the coding not in the application. Can you show any solution on this ?

     

    Thanks

     

    Kapil

     
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  • Shiraz Anwar
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    11. Shiraz Anwar,
    Feb 15, 2013 6:23 AM   in reply to Adrian_NA
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    Kapil , have you tried the command-line version of FMLE or Wirecast. I suppose that must be your way to go ahead. Also do explore transcoding servicec like  zencoder etc

     

    Sent from my iPhone

     
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  • Shiraz Anwar
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    12. Shiraz Anwar,
    Feb 15, 2013 6:41 AM   in reply to Kapil From Fullestop
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    At youtube files are transcoded into multiple butrates and player side has its logic to ask for the approp. bitrate. In your case, you alsowant that logic at the publisher side to autodetect the bandwidth fluctuation and publish video with suitable bitrate. Please let me know if i got your problem correctly.

     

    Sent from my iPhone

     
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  • Kapil From Fullestop
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    13. Kapil From Fullestop,
    Feb 15, 2013 6:49 AM   in reply to Shiraz Anwar
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    yes, we both are on same track.

     

    Infact I already write the code for detect the bandwidth in every 20 seconds. But now I need to encode my live stream in multiple bit rate so I can play that according to bandwidth (or user selection).

     

    I will also work on your FMLE on command line. Hope this will work in linux based system and this will not effect the live stream speed.... ?

     

    Thanks

     

    Kapil

     
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  • seblbuk
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    14. seblbuk,
    Feb 15, 2013 8:55 AM   in reply to mrwizzer2
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    Hi - in answer to the original question we have a global netwrok and that team gaev us a limit of 360Kbps so we transocode to 104, 240 and 360 currently at a resolution of 640x360 and that seems to be fine for the current use case. We are moving to http streaming away from rtmpe so we may up the limit as the global cache servers will help out.

     

    Externally if we start using an external CDN we will create renditions up to 1000Kbps

     
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  • Kapil From Fullestop
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    15. Kapil From Fullestop,
    Feb 20, 2013 2:18 AM   in reply to Shiraz Anwar
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    You have any example for live stream real time multi bitrate publishing ?

     

    I try so many ways for this same in Flash Media Server, and nothing working fine.

     

    Infact adobe not provide any detail information about this same. But wowza have this same by using the trancoder.

     

    Please let me know if you have any suggestion or example for this same, or I need to find some other solution on this.......

     

    Thanks

     

    Kapil

     
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  • Shiraz Anwar
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    16. Shiraz Anwar,
    Feb 20, 2013 6:07 AM   in reply to Kapil From Fullestop
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    So there is a solution for you and I suppose Wowza is also using the same

    way.

    You need to fit a transcoding server between Flash publisher and FMS

    server. This transcoding server is commonly a ffmpeg running at a port

    where it gets a single rtmp stream and publishes three different rtmp

    streams with varying bitrate. Hope this should solve your issue.

     

     

    On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 3:48 PM, Kapil From Fullestop <

     
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  • Kapil From Fullestop
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    17. Kapil From Fullestop,
    Feb 20, 2013 6:31 AM   in reply to Shiraz Anwar
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    This is nice to hear that we can do this in FMS.

     

    But same question again how can we add that FFMPEG in between FMS & Flash application ?

     
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  • Shiraz Anwar
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    18. Shiraz Anwar,
    Feb 20, 2013 7:03 AM   in reply to Kapil From Fullestop
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    I was just thinking about your problem, and it came to me whether FMS with

    ffmpeg or Wowza with its own transcoding support, for both of the options

    client-side upload speed must be very good so that further transcoding to a

    lower bit-rate could be supported. What I feel, if you are able to detect

    the bandwidth at the publisher side using the flash app, and you feel that

    bandwidth has gone down or up to a certain level where publishing bit-rate

    need to be scaled-up or scaled-down, then in your netstream connection you

    can republish the stream to the server, in that case your end-user may

    observe a small flicker but it can be an option to solve your problem.

     

     

    On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 8:01 PM, Kapil From Fullestop <

     
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  • dsummers13
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    19. dsummers13,
    Apr 10, 2013 8:12 AM   in reply to Shiraz Anwar
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    I need the exact same thing and it's incredible to me that it's not built in to AMS ... IS FFMPEG really the only solution ??

     
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