Re: Streaming live video over internet.

Hello Forum,

No, the IP "232.5.1.23" is not the server address as I already mentioned that server is receiving on multicast so this is multicast address and "192.169.15.144" is the server local machine address.

The result shown on sniffer tool when run on server is like this, actually it is showing two result,

Protocol    Local IP              Remote IP            Local Port       Remote port     bytes  

UDP         192.169.15.144   192.168.15.2          3270             2552                3,078 
UDP         192.169.15.101   232.5.5.23              4038             9056                1,313 

In this first  line of result shows server local ip client as remote ip.

In the second line it shows source local ip and multicast address as remote IP.

So for next request local port (3270 ) is different (3272) or else.

Please suggest which ports should we add in network firewall and machine firewall.

Thanks

Hello,

The source port should remain the same. The server machine is receiving the multicast stream and it is re-streaming it out to another machine on the network? What sniffer utility are you using? Do you see the same thing with WireShark?

Hello Forum,

Please give the necessary steps to stream live mpeg2 TS video  stream over internet using ltmm convert control  and ltmm player control. Also give which ports needs to be added in network firewall or any other settings. Parallely I will check wireshark also.

 

Thanks

Hello,

To stream a MPEG2 stream over the Internet you will need to use the ltmmConvertCtrl like this:

ltmmConvert.sourcefile = "udp://239.1.1.1:1234"
ltmmConvert.TargetFormat = ltmmConvert_TargetFormat_MPEG2_Transport
ltmmConvert.TargetFile = "udp://24.54.23.123:5467"
ltmmConvert.StartConvert()

On the client side you simply do:

ltmmPlay.sourcefile = "udp://24.54.23.123:5467"

The CLIENT will need to open port 5467. Most routers have a setting for what protocol you need the port open for, so it will have options for TCP, UDP, or Both. You should select UDP or Both. The server will not need to open any ports because the server is the one sending the data.

Hello Forum,

Thanks for your response. It works now.

But there are some questions,

1 ) As in above case client side have to open the port on his router, now suppose server has

 n number of stream in such client has to open n number of ports on his router. If there are n client at different location then this is not the correct way to serve the stream. Also this is an invitation to viruses on client side.

So is there any way that only server will open the single or n ports and no need to any port on client side?

2) Another question is when I connect client to server using VPN and if  server stream the video (unicast) of size 320x240 with frame rate of 30fps to the client then client is able to view the stream.

If server stream video (unicast)of size 480x360 with frame rate 10fps or even less then client is not able to receive the stream using VPN. I also tried the mpeg2 encoder settings on server such as bit rate = 3000, quality factor 25, I and P frames settings but not able to receive the stream.

Please guide me in this direction or necessary changes on server side.

Thanks

1. This is a network limitation, and there is no easy work around for it. Currently with UDP the server is sending to the client, so that requires the client to open the ports. If you use the LTSF protocol, then you can only open the ports on the server and the client initiates the connection. The changes you would have to make are:

ltmmConvert.TargetFormat = ltmmConvert_TargetFormat_NET
ltmmConvert.TargetFile = "ltsf://serverip:port"

The serverip is the server's IP address. And the client would do ltmmPlay.sourcefile = "ltsf://serverip:port"

2. If it works in one case, but not the other then it seems like a bandwidth issue. I'm not sure what the VPN is doing, but I will have to test it out here and see. I will let you know my test results.

Thank You

I did a test with a VPN and I saw the same results. This is a limitation of the VPN and/or the Windows operating system. Any application that sends data over the network is not aware how it is being sent. So the application does not know whether the packets are being sent/received through a VPN. You may want to check with your network admin to see if he/she may be aware of VPN settings/limitations regarding UDP streams, or video streams in general.

Hello Forum,

Thanks for your reply.

If you found any such settings for VPN please let us know.

Some questions regarding LTSF,

Can I stream MPEG2 TS video using LTSF protocol?

Is there any limitations to LTSF protocol like stream type, performance etc?

What exact DLL required for using this tool or protocol?

Do I need to purchase Video streaming module for this if  suppose I have mpeg2 transport module?

Thanks and Regards

> Can I stream MPEG2 TS video using LTSF protocol?

Technically, MPEG2 TS is its own protocol. Our LTSF protocol can stream all the video and audio streams supported by MPEG2 TS. So all you would need to do is change the TargetFormat and TargetFile as mentioned above.

> Is there any limitations to LTSF protocol like stream type, performance etc?

No limtations. LTSF supports more stream types, and the performance is identical.

> What exact DLL required for using this tool or protocol?

LMNetSnk.dll for the server and LMNetSrc.dll for the client.

> Do I need to purchase Video streaming module for this if suppose I have mpeg2 transport module?

Yes, Video Streaming module is separate from the MPEG2 TS module, so you will need to purchase it.

As for the VPN settings, we have never dealt with it before, so we aren't aware of any VPN settings that could help in this matter. But you can try out the LTSF protocol to see if there is an improvement over MPEG2 TS. You will already have all the DLLs required for LTSF on your machine, so you will be able to try it out before purchasing.

Hello Forum,

Regarding streaming issue over VPN,

Is there any settings on Leadtools to use smaller packet size for resolution above 320x240

so that it gets passed from VPN settings?

 

Thanks and Regards

There's one possible setting that I am aware of that could be affecting it. In the router and/or VPN settings there may be an option for changing the MTU value. MTU stands for Maximum Transmission Unit, and it basically means the maximum packet size. If you can, set the MTU value to be 1600 bytes. Our MPEG2 TS packets shouldn't be larger than 1600 bytes.

Hello Forum,

Thanks for you reply.

We changed the MTU value to 1600 bytes in the router. But still we are unable to receive unicast stream of resolution greater that 320x240 when connected using VPN.

What else is missing?

Is there any other settings?

Can we set something in leadtools for this?

Please suggest us some useful solution.

Thanks and Regards

 

 

 

Hello,

I have asked our network admins to see if they have any information regarding video streaming over VPN. I will let you know once I hear back from them.

Hello,

I received the following information:

1. Most important: check your log files from the VPN to see if it is blocking anything.
2. Windows OS and VPNs have MTU settings. You should check to see what they are set to. For a test set them to a high value like 2000 or 3000. You can use WireShark to see what the packet size is for the video stream. WireShark is a network analyzer utility. You can refer to the WireShark help file on how to use it. For changing the Windows OS MTU you should refer to MSDN or Google and search for the registry key that you need to change.

Checking the log files for the VPN should tell you what it is doing.

Thank You

Hello Forum,

Thanks for your reply.

But we shifted the protocol from UDP to TCP and we are getting the stream on client at resolution 480x320, 640x480 and more when connected using vpn.

Here is one more problem, we are getting very slow frame rate 2fps to 4fps when connected using VPN ( for size 640x480). Also when connected using LAN we are getting maximum 14 to 15fps. for TCP.

We have done one more test, using leadtools restreamer we restream the video of 640x480 resolution and tcp protocol. On leadtools player when we gave sever address we are getting very slow frame rate.

Now my question is how can we improve the performance ( when TCP) in terms of frames per second when connected using VPN, LAN and  internet?

Thanks and Regards

 

 

What is the fps on the file that you are loading into the restreamer?

Hello Forum,

The file has 29.98 fps that I have loaded into the restreamer.

 

Thnaks ans Regards

 

Hello,

I am getting the same thing here when going through VPN. But through LAN I am getting the full 29.97fps. Is your LAN 10mbps or 100mbps? Mine is 100mbps. Also make sure there is no other activity on the streaming machine and the receiving machine.

And for the Internet, I also got the same results. I will investigate some more and find out the cause.

Thanks

I am still waiting for some information from our IT team.  Will update you asap.

EDIT: VPN logs didn't show any errors.  So I will check with WireShark to see if all the packets are coming in properly.

Another edit:
I don't think it will be possible streaming video over VPN. Do you know of any software that currently does it? I checked WireShark, but the packets were encapsulated in a Point-to-Point protocol so I was not able to see if there were dropped packets.