How we created the world's best low-latency video streaming system
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How we created the world's best low-latency video streaming system
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Re: How we created the world's best low-latency video streaming system
#2You should get wowza to adopt this technology, the keyframe-less solution is a big step forward.
What are the implications for automatic bandwidth adaptation?
To do all this without touching the decoder, so staying within the standard is really impressive, it's funny how such constraints bring out the creativity.
Re: How we created the world's best low-latency video streaming system
#3You should get wowza to adopt this technology, the keyframe-less solution is a big step forward. What are the implications for automatic bandwidth adaptation? To do all this without touching the decoder, so staying within the standard is really impressive, it's funny how such constraints bring out the creativity.
Doesn't Wowza mostly do offline content, e.g. pre-recorded video? Even in the case of live streaming, the keyframeless option is really only useful if you're trying to go for very low latency, which as I mentioned in the blog post isn't very useful for ordinary broadcast purposes.
The primary target of all this is interactive video: gaming, videoconferencing, and maybe something like Livestream or Justin.tv where a person interacts with viewers who are chatting with them. Ordinary broadcast probably won't benefit.
I should note that the keyframeless solution is not unique to our system: this was done a few times in MPEG-2 broadcast encoders back in the day, as well as in some mezzanine stuff. I haven't seen anyone do it in H.264 though yet; it is made slightly more tricky due to the way that intra prediction in H.264 works.
What are the implications for automatic bandwidth adaptation?
We don't support that yet--but that will probably come soon, as it's the natural next step forward. (Currently the encoder's ratecontrol settings can't be changed without re-initting it.)
Re: How we created the world's best low-latency video streaming system
#4You should get wowza to adopt this technology, the keyframe-less solution is a big step forward. What are the implications for automatic bandwidth adaptation? To do all this without touching the decoder, so staying within the standard is really impressive, it's funny how such constraints bring out the creativity.
Doesn't Wowza mostly do offline content, e.g. pre-recorded video? Even in the case of live streaming, the keyframeless option is really only useful if you're trying to go for very low latency, which as I mentioned in the blog post isn't very useful for ordinary broadcast purposes. The primary target of all this is interactive video: gaming, videoconferencing, and maybe something like Livestream or Justin.tv where a p…
They do live streams.
I use them for ww.com.
Most of the time wowza is used for videoconferencing and video chat.
Re: How we created the world's best low-latency video streaming system
#5Fortunately, there was a startup–which has requested not to be named–that saw the potential here. With a few features, x264 could be turned into the most powerful low-latency streaming platform in the world.
...
Videoconferencing? Pah! I’m playing Call of Duty 4 over a live video stream!
October 2009 seems a little late for it, but could the startup be OnLive? http://www.onlive.com/
Re: How we created the world's best low-latency video streaming system
#6Fortunately, there was a startup–which has requested not to be named–that saw the potential here. With a few features, x264 could be turned into the most powerful low-latency streaming platform in the world. ... Videoconferencing? Pah! I’m playing Call of Duty 4 over a live video stream! October 2009 seems a little late for it, but could the startup be OnLive? http://www.onlive.com/
Nope, not OnLive. They have their own system which I could talk about rather at length if anyone wanted, but in short is really not very good (but is probably passable). They split the frame into 16 rectangular slices and encode them in separate streams, each of which runs at a constant bitrate. Updates to each block are staggered 1ms apart, for a total frame latency of about 16ms.
More problematic is their awful business model, which, given that it's thought up by the guy behind WebTV, is probably not very surprising.
Re: How we created the world's best low-latency video streaming system
#7Will it play in Flash, like http://www.gaikai.com/ ? That would be awesome...
Re: How we created the world's best low-latency video streaming system
#8Will it play in Flash, like http://www.gaikai.com/ ? That would be awesome...
I'd be willing to bet that Gaikai is the unnamed startup that sponsored/requested this work. (DarkShikari already said it isn't OnLive, and those are the only two companies I know of that are preparing to launch on-demand gaming services that use streaming video).
Re: How we created the world's best low-latency video streaming system
#9Will it play in Flash, like http://www.gaikai.com/ ? That would be awesome...
I'd be willing to bet that Gaikai is the unnamed startup that sponsored/requested this work. (DarkShikari already said it isn't OnLive, and those are the only two companies I know of that are preparing to launch on-demand gaming services that use streaming video).
It's the ultimate answer to game piracy and bots.
Re: How we created the world's best low-latency video streaming system
#10You should get wowza to adopt this technology, the keyframe-less solution is a big step forward. What are the implications for automatic bandwidth adaptation? To do all this without touching the decoder, so staying within the standard is really impressive, it's funny how such constraints bring out the creativity.
Doesn't Wowza mostly do offline content, e.g. pre-recorded video? Even in the case of live streaming, the keyframeless option is really only useful if you're trying to go for very low latency, which as I mentioned in the blog post isn't very useful for ordinary broadcast purposes. The primary target of all this is interactive video: gaming, videoconferencing, and maybe something like Livestream or Justin.tv where a p…
IMO it would be a great step forward in digital tv broadcast too. The current latency when changing channels compared to what one is used to get with analogic tv is a very annoying to me.