IPTV & vBrick 4300 encoder

[blairs]

Hello:

I have a vBrick 4300 dual MPEG4 encoder. It

support unicast & multicast delivery. Unicast

works fine with QT, Real & Windows Media players.

Multicast doesn't work at all and I'm hoping this

group will have some useful feedback.

The 4300 and my 3417 IPTV starter system are on

the same layer 2 network and subnet. This is a

multicast aware network.

If I use sdr & Ethereal to examine this network

I see SAP announcements and audio & video streams

from the 4300. The interesting this is that none

of my mbone tools can play the content.

I assumed that the IPTV viewer with the "Use

SDP listener" check box checked would hear the

SAP announcements from the 4300. This is not

happening. I never hear the announcements and since

IPTV doesn't allow me to specify the audio & video

group and port addresses I cannot manually play

the content.

Does anyone have experience with this type of

arrangement or can anyone shed some light on why

IPTV doesn't at least hear the announcements?

Thanks,

Steve

[scottmac]

Could it be that the IPTV client is looking for Microsoft MPEG4, and the VBrick is putting out "Standard" MPEG4?

I haven't played with that model of VBrick (yet), but if there's a selection for the flavor of MPEG4, try the MS variety.

Have you talked to VBrick?

I was using IPTV clients to catch VBrick (and MBone)multicasts at Interop, it worked fine (version 3.2, might have been 3.4).

Have you tried the VBrick client? It should also work for the IPTV multicasts (and MBone).

You CAN define the multicast groups on the IPTV server (per stream), maybe adjust the range into the same range that the VBrick is using.

That's it for me. I'll poke around as I get time and see if I can come up with something.

Good Luck

Scott

[blairs]

I've tried the vBrick legacy verse ISMA SAP format

switch but that had no affect.

Yes I talked to vBrick. They are usually helpful

but they have no additional info to help with this

problem.

Interop eh. Was that MPEG1? I know MPEG1 and IPTV

works fine.

The StreamPlayer client is not an option because

it is only a Windows player. We have Windows clients

but also a large Mac & Linux client base.

Defining the content in the Content Manager is

an interesting exercise. I'll try it and see what

happens. Thanks.

Thanks,Steve

[rmavro]

The VBrick follows the ISMA standard for the delivery of SDP information along with the SAP via multicast.

Unless cisco can parse this (I've not found that it can), you will have to create a SDP file manually. The VBrick let's you do this quite easily. You can simply place the SDP file on any web server to provide clients with the required knowledge to play the multicast audio/video stream. I don't know you will have success getting the cisco ip/tv servers to display the program however.

You can also simply place a rtsp call directly to your VBrick and view the video via unicast too.

VBrick StreamPlayer automatically picks up the multicast program guide for MPEG-4, so you can view your MPEG1,2, & 4 video this way. You can also view multicast via the SDP file directly (default behavior may launch the Real player, but you can change this on Windows with http://www.videoalive.com/rtspselect/rtspplayerselect.htm. You can also view all multicast with the EtherneTV system.

Hope this helps & good luck!

[blairs]

Thanks for the note. I don't believe IPTV or many

other mBone tools can parse ISMA standard SAP

announcements.

I was always able to save the vBrick SDP file to

a web server and launch from there and I was always

able to get a unicast rtsp stream. The vBrick isn't

powerful enough to deliver unicast streams to many

(> 50) users simultaneously in my experience.

I really wanted the SAP announcement that originates

from the vBrick to be heard by other multicast

session directory tools. This isn't happening

and from your message seems like it won't either.

Thanks for the information.

_Steve

[rmavro]

Actually, the VBrick will support 120 unicasts and up to about 38 Mbps.

You can also cause your VBrick to send announcements to a web server where it will automatically build a list for you, for example http://www.tvstorage.com/live.asp. The VBrick lets you send "rtsp" SAP announcements as a work-around for less capable listeners.

Good luck.

[blairs]

At 352x240, each rate control method, Target Bit Rate

of 2Mbps, Target Frame Rate of either 20 or 30fps

more than five clients has a noticeable impact on

video quality. We see delays updating the image, audio

out of sync and no video only audio. I've tried

combinations of settings. If there is something

I am missing please provide details on what to change.

Thanks,Steve

[rimon.vallavanatt]

Hopefully you have already resolved this issue but if not this may be of some help. I had a similar issue a few years ago trying to get a VBrick to advertise it's streams to the IP/TV client. I got it to work by checking a parameter on the options page of the IP/TV content manager.

The text from the Admin guide on how to set up sdp announcements follows:

Follow these steps if you want IP/TV Content Manager to send or receive session announcements using sdp:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Step 1 To send session announcements, check the Announce Local Programs check box in the Scheduled Program Management section of the Preferences page.

Step 2 To configure IP/TV Content Manager to receive session announcements, choose one of the options under Listen for Program Announcements on the Preferences page.

Step 3 Stop and restart the Cisco IP/TV Content Manager service to ensure that IP/TV Content Manager begins sending and receiving session announcements immediately.

If you do not stop and restart, up to 5 minutes may elapse before incoming announcements are displayed on the Programs page of IP/TV Content Manager or outgoing IP/TV program announcements are sent to other servers.

[rraze]

Hi Steve,

Were you ever able to resolve this issue. I have a similar situation.

Thanks,

Randy