Microsoft Smooth Streaming

Microsoft Smooth Streaming for SelenioFlex Ingest August 2015

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Contents Contents Microsoft PlayReady using SelenioFlex Ingest... 4 Delivering Media at the Highest Quality... 4 PlayReady Overview... 4 Components in a PlayReady Deployment... 5 Encoder... 5 Server... 5 Player... 6... 7 On-Demand File Encoding... 7 Live PlayReady Encoding... 12 Microsoft PlayReady DRM... 19 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 3

Microsoft PlayReady using SelenioFlex Ingest Microsoft PlayReady using SelenioFlex Ingest Delivering Media at the Highest Quality When providing media to a player higher data rates provide higher quality video and audio by providing more data per frame. Higher data rates can also allow larger frame sizes and more frames per second. When choosing the data rate to use for the encoded media an important consideration is the available bandwidth from the server to the player. To ensure that the playback is smooth, with no skipped frames or buffering pauses, there must be enough bandwidth available so that an entire frame s worth of data can be delivered in time to display it at the selected frame rate. Normally the player buffers a small amount of data, to allow for minor fluctuations in the available bandwidth. However, when the media is being delivered at a fixed data rate, and that data rate exceeds the available bandwidth often enough to empty the player s buffer, then the player will not have the frames available in time for playback, resulting in a choppy playback experience. Various methods have been used to overcome the problem of adapting to available bandwidth. The simplest is to provide the media at several data rates, and to allow the viewer to pick the option that matches their bandwidth. The disadvantage of this method is that the user may not know their available bandwidth, or their bandwidth may fluctuate over the duration of the media playback, especially if the media is being accessed over the public internet. Another method used to overcome the problem is to create a multiple bit rate (MBR) data stream, and to allow the media server to interact with the media player to determine the highest data rate that can be played back smoothly, such as Microsoft s Intelligent Streaming or RealNetworks SureStream encoding. These methods had issues detecting changes in bandwidth before the player s buffer emptied, and they also had problems switching to the new data rate without glitches. These methods were also only intended for live streaming from a media server, not for on-demand file playback. PlayReady Overview The most recent methods used to provide media to a player at the highest available data rate have been called adaptive streaming. Microsoft s implementation of adaptive streaming is called PlayReady. PlayReady encoding produces multiple streams (called "layers") where each layer uses a different bit rate. All of the video layers use the same length, closed GOPs, which means that all of the data streams are exactly frame aligned at each GOP boundary. This allows switching between different video layers at GOP boundaries to be seamless. 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 4

Microsoft PlayReady using SelenioFlex Ingest PlayReady stores the data for each layer in its own file or container (where each layer uses its own encoded bit rate). That container is based on the MPEG-4 file format. Within each file, each "GOP chunk" is stored as an MPEG-4 Movie Fragment in the file. When a player requests media playback at a specific time, the server opens the PlayReady file that uses the bit rate that matches the player s available bandwidth, finds the GOP that includes that playback time, and sends the data for that GOP to the player. Microsoft PlayReady delivers the "GOP chunks" using HTTP delivery, rather than using a streaming media protocol. When using HTTP each chunk will be delivered as fast as the network bandwidth allows. The player can detect how quickly a data chuck was delivered, and use that information to estimate the current available bandwidth. When the next chunk is requested the player can request larger (higher quality) or smaller (lower quality) chunks, where chunk size will vary based on the data rate used to encode that chunk. Since this is done at each chunk boundary, just after the player has received enough data to continue playing smoothly for the chunk duration (typically 2 4 seconds), the player can normally adapt to changing network conditions before there is a playback problem. Components in a PlayReady Deployment The three basic components in a PlayReady deployment are an encoder that can produce the PlayReady files, a server that can deliver the appropriate GOP chunks via HTTP, and a player that can interact with the server, receive the chunks and decode the video and audio. Encoder The currently supported codecs are VC-1 and H.264/AAC for video and WMA or AAC for audio. As well as encoding to those formats, the encoder must be able to store the media in the appropriate container, and to create the required manifest files. The encoder creates the following files: *.ismv Contains the encoded video (or video plus audio); 1 ismv file per encoded video bit rate *.isma Contains the encoded audio only *.ism Server manifest file; the information the server needs for the presentation: a list of all of the files, with information about each file (the media tracks, the timescale, the bit rate, etc.).ismc Client manifest file; this is the first file delivered to the player. It contains information about the media: the codecs used, bit rates encoded, video resolutions, captions, markers, etc. Server PlayReady is supported on an IIS 7 server running on Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 or Windows Vista with Service Pack 1. The IIS Management Console for IIS must be installed ASP.NET for IIS must be installed The IIS Media Services must be installed You must be an administrator on the computer 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 5

Microsoft PlayReady using SelenioFlex Ingest Please see http://www.iis.net/downloads/files/media/smoothstream_readme.htm for more information on IIS 7 server requirements for PlayReady. Player For playback of PlayReady presentations, Silverlight and the templates created with Microsoft Expression 3 (or newer) are recommended. Note that the manifests created by the encoder are slightly different for older templates created with Expression 2, so you will need to set your encoder to create the correct manifest files for compatibility with your template. Playback of AVC/AAC codecs requires Silverlight 3 or newer. For an example of a PlayReady player, with tools that allow you to vary the available bandwidth to see the adaptive streaming in action, please see http://www.iis.net/media/experiencesmoothstreaming. 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 6

Using SelenioFlex Ingest to Encode for Smooth Streaming SelenioFlex Ingest version 3.1 (or higher) can be used to encode for PlayReady. PlayReady projects in Imagine Communications SelenioFlex Ingest use the group codec profile. The group codec profile is used when more than one elementary stream codec (video only, audio only) needs to be processed into a single file (by a muxer or wrapper) or related files (by a container). For PlayReady you will be using the group codec to make files that contain video only (ismv), audio only (isma) and two manifest files (ism and ismc) that contain the information needed by the server and player. In the group codec the video codec (or codecs) and audio codec will be processed by the PlayReady Container. On-Demand File Encoding Start by loading one of the on-demand PlayReady projects that was installed with SelenioFlex Ingest. 1. Select File > Open Project and open one of the Smooth_Streaming_VOD projects. The group codec is shown in the panel in the lower left-hand corner. In this case the group codec contains one processor, the "PlayReady Container" with two codecs being combined by that processor, a video codec and an audio codec. 2. Right click on the root of the group codec and select Adjust Profile Settings. 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 7

The Group Codec Profile window will open. This window has a panel on the right-hand side for the codec profiles (video elementary stream and audio elementary stream codecs), and a panel on the left-hand side for the processors (in this case, the PlayReady Container). 3. In the right-hand panel select the video elementary stream codec (the SSE_VBR codec) and then click the Edit button (the button with the pencil icon) under the panel. 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 8

This will open the video codec profile, in this case the Microsoft Smooth Streaming codec profile. This is a 2-pass VBR codec that can be used to create all of the video layers used by the Smooth Streaming ismv files. In this example there are 4 video layers. For a tool that will help you to select appropriate video layer bitrates and frame sizes please see http://alexzambelli.com/wmv/mbrcalc.html 4. Return to the Group Codec profile window and select the WMA codec, and click the Edit button. This will open the Windows Media Profile window. Note that this profile is only being used to create the audio, so in the Media Types section the Audio check box is enabled and the Video check box is disabled. 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 9

5. Return to the Group Codec profile window. In the left hand panel select the Smooth Streaming Container and click the Edit button under that panel. This will open the PlayReady Container window. 6. On the PlayReady Container window in the tree in the left-hand panel select the Program item. The settings for the program are shown in the right-hand panel. Output Format: Set to File. This is required for a on-demand file creation for smooth streaming. (The options below this setting which are grayed out only apply to live encoding.) Chunking duration: This is used by the audio only. The video "GOP chunks" size is determined by the GOP settings in the video codec. Timed text: This option can be used to add a timed text media track to the files, based on a DFXP caption file. Each Video and Audio track can be selected and assigned a 3 character ISO language code if desired. 7. Return to the Group Codec Profile window. 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 10

Note that when you click on the Video or Audio nodes in the Processors panel the codecs that can be used by the processor are shown at the bottom of the window. For on-demand files, the video codec can also be AVC/H.264, and the audio codec can be AAC, MPEG audio, or Dolby Digital AC-3, however these codecs can only be played back by Silverlight 3 or newer. 8. Return to the main software interface, and click on the PlayReady Container in the Group Codec Profile. 9. Select the Output tab. The Archive option will be enabled. If you click on the Archive button you can set the file name that will be used as the root name for the files for your smooth streaming files. Note that since the PlayReady Container s Output format was set to file, you should only enable the Archive output. The manifest files created by this project s PlayReady Container will be specific to file delivery, and will not work for live streaming. (As well, in this project the Microsoft PlayReady video codec used is a 2-pass VBR codec, and 2-pass codecs cannot be used for live streaming.) 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 11

Live PlayReady Encoding Start by loading one of the live Smooth Streaming projects that was installed with Stream. 1. Select File > Open Project and open one of the Smooth_Streaming_Live projects. The group codec is shown in the panel in the lower left-hand corner. In this project the group codec contains two PlayReady Containers, one for Live streaming and a second to create a file for on-demand streaming during the same encode session. Each processor (PlayReady Container) has 4 video codecs and 1 audio codec being combined by that processor. 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 12

2. Right click on the root of the group codec and select Adjust Profile Settings. For this encode, each video layer has its settings specified by its own VC-1 Codec Profile, and the audio layer also has its own WMA codec profile. With Silverlight 3 (and newer) AVC/H.264 and AAC codec are also supported. The PlayReady Container lists all of the layers, one for each codec that it will be processing. Note that in this case there are two PlayReady Containers. The first one will be used to make the Live PlayReady files, and the second one will be used to make the on-demand files. However, both processors will use the same encoded data. For example, the encoded data for the 640x480 video layer will be sent to both processors, so that the SelenioFlex Ingest software does not need to encode that data twice, saving on CPU usage. 3. In the Codec Profile panel on the right-hand side select the first video layer, then click the Edit button (the button with the pencil icon). This will open the VC-1 video elementary stream codec profile window. 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 13

Note that for PlayReady you cannot use the Microsoft Windows Media codec profile with the audio disabled, you must use the Microsoft VC-1 codec profile. For Smooth Streaming there are some settings restrictions for VC-1. The Never Drop Frames option must be enabled The Profile must be Advanced Closed GOP must be enabled The GOP size must have Fixed GOP duration enabled, and the GOP duration (Max key frame distance) must be the same for all layers (all other VC-1 codec profiles). For a tool that will help you to select appropriate video layer bitrates and frame sizes please see http://alexzambelli.com/wmv/mbrcalc.html 4. Return to the Group Codec profile window and select the WMA codec, and click the Edit button. This will open the Windows Media Profile window. Note that this profile is only being used to create the audio so in the Media Types section the Audio check box is enabled and the Video check box is disabled. 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 14

5. Return to the Group Codec profile window. In the left hand panel select the PlayReady Container and click the Edit button under that panel. This will open the PlayReady Container window. 6. On the PlayReady Container window in the tree in the left-hand panel select the Program item. The settings for the program are shown in the right-hand panel. Output Format: Set to Live. This is required for live smooth streaming. Start URL Index: This is set to 0 unless more than one computer is being used to encode the layers that are being sent to the same publishing point for a single presentation. If more than one system is being used to encode the layers, then the first system will be set to 0, and the second system will be set to the number of the first layer it is encoding (counting up from 0). For example, if the first system is encoding 1 audio layer and 2 video layers (numbers 0, 1, 2), then the second system would use a Start URL Index setting of 3. Start time source: The start time is included in the file. This is needed if the encoder is set to failover to another system in case of an encoder failure, so that the backup encoder can continue the segment order from the point where the primary encoder left off. If a Custom time is selected then the Start time can be specified below this setting. Low Latency: When this is enabled the muxer will optimize the stream structure to reduce the latency during live encoding. Low latency playback requires an update to Media Services 4.0 and Silverlight 4. Stop publishing point: When this is set to "yes" the publishing point on the server will be stopped at the end of a live encoding. Chunking duration: This is used by the audio only. The video "GOP chunks" size is determined by the GOP settings in the video codec. Timed text: This option can be used to add a timed text media track to the files, based on a DFXP caption file. Each Video and Audio track can be selected and assigned a 3 character ISO language code if desired. 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 15

While the Program is selected you can click the Add/Remove button and add a Data program. This data program can accept input from a DXFP codec, which allows you to add 608/708 closed captioning to the PlayReady output during live encoding, with the captions being read from the video input. 7. Return to the Group Codec Profile window. Note that when you click on the video or audio nodes in the Processor panel the codecs that can be used by the processor are shown at the bottom of the window. 8. Click on the second PlayReady Container in this group codec, the one for File creation, and click on the Edit button to open the PlayReady Container window. Select the Program item. In this case the Output format is set to File. The manifest files that are created by the PlayReady container will be different when the output format is set to File as compared to Live, so it is important to set this parameter correctly. 9. Return to the Group Codec Profile window. Note that the 4 video and 1 audio codecs that will be encoded by the system are the ones listed in the right hand panel. The same 5 encoded data streams will be processed by both PlayReady Containers. This is a feature of the Group Codec, that is, the same encoded data can be processed by multiple group codec processors, saving on encoder resources. 10. Exit the Group Codec Profile and return to the main SelenioFlex Ingest interface. 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 16

11. Click on the first processor (the live PlayReady container), and then select the Output tab. Note that since the PlayReady Container s Output format was set to "live" you should only enable the Broadcast output. The manifest files created by this processor s PlayReady Container will be specific to live delivery, and will not work for on-demand file delivery. 12. Click the Broadcast Push button. This will open the Broadcast settings window. 13. Enter the Server Name, Username, Password and Publishing point that were provided by the IIS Server administrator for your presentation. 14. Choose one of the options for handling server disconnects. 15. Click OK to save your settings. 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 17

16. Click on the second processor (the file PlayReady container), and then select the Output tab. Note that since the PlayReady Container s Output format was set to "file" in this case, you should only enable the Archive output. The manifest files created by this processor s PlayReady Container will be specific to file delivery, and will not work for live streaming. If you want to delete one of the processors in the group codec profile: 1. You must right click on the "root" of the group codec and select Adjust Profile Settings to open the Group Codec Profile window. 2. Then select the processor you want to delete, and click the Delete button (the button with the red X icon) under the Processors panel to delete that processor. 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 18

Microsoft PlayReady DRM When your output is a PlayReady file or live broadcast one of your output options will be PlayReady DRM. This is a digital rights management technology from Microsoft. When you encode your media it is encrypted using a set of keys. A PlayReady license acquisition URL that identifies where to make a request for a valid license for a piece of content is included in the header of the encoded media. When the media is played back the player attempts to acquire the license needed to decrypt the file for playback, or to redirect the viewer to a web site where they can acquire the license. For more information on PlayReady in Imagine Communications SelenioFlex Ingest please see PlayReady_DRM.pdf, found by default in C:\Program Files\Imagine Communications\SelenioFlex Ingest\documents. 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Page 19