Flussonic version 20.06

Flussonic Media Server 20.06 has been released.

WebVTT subtitles in DASH streams, smoother bitrate of PIDs in output MPEG-TS MPTS, live MSS streams with DRM on LG WebOS3 and higher, DASH with single-period manifest for TVs on WebOS, configuring PIDs in the MPTS transponder, global DVR settings in the UI, using external system to provision streams configuration to Flussonic.

What's New

Flussonic Media Server

• #10668 (new) (Flussonic) Flussonic can pass subtitles in WebVTT to output DASH streams. Before, only TTML subtitles were supported for DASH. *
• #10877 (new) (Flussonic) Flussonic ingests raw frames from Decklink cards now without transcoding, and then transcodes them as specified in the 'transcoder' directive. This way, in the configuration with several stream sources and the transcoder, video from Decklink is transcoded only once. The 'enc' option used with 'url decklink://' was deprecated, so use the 'transcoder' directive. The UI support the new settings makes it more convenient to configure Decklink streams.
• #10439 (new) (Flussonic UI) The new DVR tab with global DVR settings was added to Config.
• #11460 (new) (Flussonic) For devices that cannot play DASH with multi-period timeline, such as LG TVs on WebOS, we designed a single-period manifest enabling you to play DASH on that devices. Add 'period=mono' to the URL as follows: 'http://HOST/STREAM/archive-TIME-DURATION.mpd?period=mono' and 'http://HOST/STREAM/archive-TIME-now.mpd?period=mono'.
• #11462 (new) (Flussonic) It is possible now to create streams in an external system and provision stream settings to Flussonic by request. Flussonic has a new plugin 'config_remote' that directs requests for streams to a custom backend that returns the settings of a requested stream. If there are thousands of published streams and the configuration file is frequently updated, this measure makes your service work without delays. Stream configurations are dynamically updated from this external system.
• #11505 (new) (Flussonic) We add to Flussonic the MPEG-TS constant bitrate generator that produces per-PID strict CBR.
• #11573 (new) (Flussonic) You can enable logging of HTTP requests to Flussonic in the UI section Config by selecting the check box 'Log requests'. This sets the server's global option 'logrequests true'. This log shows which manifests and segments are sent to players, and the player's IP address and session.
• #11656 (new) (Flussonic) New transcoder options: 'rc_method=cbr|vbr' (that sets constant or variable bitrate) and 'qp_range=QPmin:QPmax' (or 'qp_range=QPminI:QPmaxI:QPminP:QPmaxP:QPminB:QPmaxB'), which sets the range of the quantization parameter.
• #11164 (improved) (Flussonic) Important! Aspect(X) and Aspect(Y) are no longer supported. Please use SAR instead. SAR values greater than 9 no longer cause transcoder failure.
• #11783 (new) (Flussonic) Playing live MSS streams with DRM (such as PlayReady) on LG WebOS3 is now supported (as well as on some Samsung and Phillips models).
• #11794 (improved) (Flussonic) The bitrate of PIDs in output MPEG-TS MPTS has become smoother.
• #11869 (improved) (Flussonic UI) The UI for configuring authorization backends was re-worked to support all settings.
• #11904 (new) (Flussonic) You can configure PIDs in the MPTS transponder that you add in the 'transponder' directive.
• #11911 (new) (Flussonic) Playing live MSS streams with DRM (such as PlayReady) on LG WebOS4 and WebOS5 is now supported.
• #11919 (new) (Flussonic) The MPTS transponder now can reload configuration.
• #12025 (improved) (Flussonic) The MPEG-TS's program map table has the 'stream_type' field. We have changed it from 4 to 3 to support MPEG-1 Layer 2 audio (mp2a) (stream_type = 3).

Flussonic Coder

• #11713 (new) (Coder) The transcoders' metrics are collected separately for each transcoder and can be obtained in Pulse via custom queries, for example, 'dec_timnig'. The metrics are 'dec_timing', 'enc_timing', 'bitstream_err_count' (errors in an input stream), 'dec_err_count' (errors when decoding), 'encoders' (the number of output qualities), 'fps_in', 'fps_out', 'mqlen' (queue size of the transcoder process).
• #11886 (new) (Coder) We are further preparing the transition to the seamless-only mode where the transcoder does not drop frames when the stream source changes.

The player

• #5118 (new) (Player) You can play live and VOD streams on LG TVs, which have WebOS, by using the Flussonic's embed.html player in the browser. For WebOS, the player uses DASH.

Issues Resolved

Flussonic Media Server

• #4001 (fixed) (Flussonic) The issue with playlist:// was resolved: the API flussonic/api/playlist/ now returns the position in the currently played item and the item's duration.
• #4240 (fixed) (Flussonic UI) Flussonic checks on the Conifg tab that HTTP and HTTPS ports are different.
• #9865 (fixed) (Flussonic) The GS DRM requests were fixed.
• #10208 (fixed) (Flussonic) The input from Decklink cards can be transcoded with Intel Quick Sync.
• #10612 (fixed) (Flussonic UI) The main page shows the number of results found after the text filter was applied to the list of streams.
• #10899 (fixed) (Flussonic UI) You can specify only domain names in the 'Allowed domains', not IP addresses.
• #10909 (fixed) (Flussonic UI) Adding MPEG-TS PIDs in the HEX format was fixed.
• #10990 (fixed) (Flussonic UI) The support for copying the archives of static streams: the box 'Copy chunks to this location' was added to the DVR tab.
• #11013 (fixed) (Flussonic UI) Extra source parameters for streams can be added and edited successfully now.
• #11014 (fixed) (Flussonic UI) The timeout for fallback video can be added successfully now.
• #11151 (fixed) [Flussonic] LetsEncrypt no longer fails when working with unknown certificates.
• #11197 (fixed) (Flussonic UI) The deprecated Aspect(X), Aspect(Y) fields in the transcoder UI were replaced with SAR.
• #11243 (fixed) (Flussonic) Playing DVR via MSS with absolute and relative timeshift was fixed.
• #11343 (fixed) (Flussonic UI) In the cluster configuration, it is enough to specify the server's host and port. We added correct prompts for corresponding boxes.
• #11428 (fixed) (Flussonic) The 'fps' field is present again in the response to API requests '/flussonic/api/media?name=stream' and '/flussonic/api/media_info/stream'.
• #11548 (fixed) (Flussonic) If a camera's RTSP URL contains a password with special characters, such as '@', the authorization no longer fails.
• #11554 (fixed) (Flussonic UI) The performance of the list of streams in Media was optimized, so the list can be scrolled quicker now.
• #11624 (fixed) (Flussonic UI) In Firefox, the message 'Server error' is no longer shown on the login page.
• #11776 (fixed) (Flussonic UI) On the Auth tab, the 'drm_id' is now a required field.
• #11781 (fixed) (Flussonic UI) The Device ID box in the transcoder configuration now shows the value 0 for 'deviceid=0'.
• #11813 (fixed) (Flussonic) Excessive 'ignore config' messages in the log were removed.
• #11814 (fixed) (Flussonic) Publishing now works even if the stream has other active sources.
• #11816 (fixed) (Flussonic) To prevent session closing due to short-term network problems we increased the session timeout for playlists 'timeshift_abs-xxxx.m3u8' up to 100 seconds. This ensures broadcast stability.
• #11837 (fixed) (Flussonic) Users can now upload debug logs if the configuration contains invalid settings.
• #11839 (fixed) (Flussonic) The option 'mbr=1' works again.
• #11840 (fixed) (Flussonic) Fixed reading HLS SCTE35 marks with undefined duration.
• #11859 (fixed) (Flussonic) The script specified in 'on_publish' is called successfully now.
• #11860 (fixed) (Flussonic) The error "erlang,'+',undefined" no longer appears when reading SCTE35.
• #11909 (fixed) (Flussonic) When streams are pushed to a certain external system, the memory no longer leaks with 'live_pusher' over-consuming the memory.
• #11933 (fixed) (Flussonic) The text WebVTT subtitles no longer disappears from live video after Flussonic has connected to an unstable video source.
• #11944 (fixed) (Flussonic UI) Auth backends, Ad Injector, and general authentication settings were moved to three separate tabs in the Config section.

The player

• #5083 (fixed) (Player) The MSE-LD player, when playing live, now automatically restarts after the source was changed.
• #11219 (fixed) (Player) The player no longer stops responding after playing the archive for several minutes at increased speed.
• #11524 (fixed) (Player) In the DVR player the markers of the interval for downloading MP4 no longer move beyond the timeline when the user zooms in the timeline.
• #11705 (fixed) (Player) The missing icon on the sound state button in the DVR player was returned.