Stream Video with FME and FMS on same computer?

Can you post the full path to where the FLV is stored on the FMS?

I think you are missing a link there.

cheers

Not a straight forward answer really....

First, no it does not pick up Flash Media Server 3.0, you just tell Flash Media encoder where to store the FLV files which would be in the applications folder of the Flash Media Server directory.

If you use the free Red5 open source application instead of Flash Media Server 3.0, you just point to its required folder for storing FLV files instead. This is usually C:\Program Files\Red5\webapps\oflaDemo\streams. I have mentioned Red5 just to explain that Flash Media Encoder 2.0 does not distinguish Media Server applications as there are others also.

If you want to stream Recorded Video or Live Video without the hassle of learning Actionscript etc, then using FMS as the server to serve out the streaming video along with Flash Media Encoder which is a dedicated application to stream Live Video is the way to go.

You can Stream live Video or play Recorded Video also by using Flash Professional with Actionscript coding using Netstream functions, and also similarly you can do this with Flex.

But, if you just want to get Video onto the Web then FMS 3.0 with Flash Media Encoder 2 for Live streaming is the hassle free way to go. Once you have it successfully running then you can tweak and mess with it a bit.

FMS 3.0 is better as you can stream .MOV, .MP4, HD video with H.264 also.


Ok...FMS is required to store and play out the FLV files as outlined earlier.

Flash Media Encoder 2 needs to be on a computer with the Webcam attached. It will then detect the Camera and make it available. You can have several Cameras on the one machine , but you can only choose one to stream on. (I'm open to correction on this)

When you launch Flash Media Encoder 2.0 it should provide a drop down list of available Cameras, if you get an error of "Cannot detect a video Device" then the PC has a problem with the USB/Firewire Camera, usually drivers can fix this, but the important thing is that the Camera is connected to the PC with Flash Media encoder 2.0 installed.

I have 3 Webcams on three machines, each machine has Flash Media Encoder installed, and are all streaming to the Flash Media Server Folder.


hope this helps.

Streaming Live is similar to Streaming recorded Content.

Open up Flash Media Encoder 2

On the left, Choose the Camera you want to use in the Device drop down.

Once chosen, the two screens should display the live video from the camera

Chose the output size of the video, (try 320 x 240 as a start)

Chose Frame rate ( I use 15 fps)

Down at the bottom on the left i also adjust the bitrate, this depends on your bandwidth, so experiment until happy with that.

Ok, on the right panel are the details of the streaming information required.

Tick the Box "Stream to Flash Media Server"

the address used below matches the above reply to streaming video:

FMS URL: rtmp://ipaddress/MV/Reggae

This means I want to store the live video in the Reggae folder as a reference. ( This will not save the Video, just store it while live)

Stream: Give the FLV a name, ie: live

If you want to have people view the Video afterwards, then tick the box: Save to File

I then Browse to the rtmp://ipaddress/MV/Reggae folder, make sure to put in the flv file name at the end:

rtmp://ipaddress/MV/Reggae/live.flv

If you now click the Start button, you will now be streaming live, but at the moment, no one can see it, as you have not provided the means to watch it yet:

Open up Dreamweaver. the process to view live video it almost identical to the above instructions for viewing prerecorded video,

Open a new html page in Dreamweaver.

place the cursor where you want to put the live video.

Go to:

Insert - Media - Flash Video

Choose Streaming video for Video Type:

Server URL: rtmp://ipaddress/MV/Reggae

again, this points to the folder where the live video is stored, as detailed in Flash Media Encoder Panel on the right

Stream name: live (as stated in right Panel Stream name)

Choose the Skin ( I think only Halo Skin can be used for live streaming)

Choose the Video size: 320h 240w

And finally just click on Live Video Feed

You can add a buffer

Save the page.

In Flash Media Encoder, press the Start Button,

Go back to Dreamweaver and hit F12 to run the page, you should now see the live video feed on the page. This is the page link you send to people to view the live feed.

Note* You do not need to specify a Save to file, if you are not going to provide the video to view later. if you do not choose this option then the video will be live while Flash Media Encoder is running. Once you hit the Stop button, it will be gone.

I provide a link to another page that will link to the saved file for later viewing.

I hope this helps, and I hope I haven't rambled on but I'm happy to clarify anything if required

To do a Live Stream you should use Flash Media Emcoder, as it is dedicated to providing Live streaming/. It shows you two windows, one one is the original footage showing live on the camera, and the other is the stream that the viewers see, so you can make changes to see how it looks.

Yo answer Schawas question, there are always vague answers around when it comes to setting up for streaming video.



I posted this before, so hopefully it will help:

Go to your Flash Media Server Directory for example:

C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Flash Media Server 2\

Open up the applications folder, so you should now be at:

C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Flash Media Server 2\applications


This is the folder where you place your FLV files

Inside ther application folder create another folder to house your particular "Group" of FLV files ie: "MV" for Music Videos

So now you should be at:

C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Flash Media Server 2\applications\MV

Inside the example MV folder, create a folder called "streams" without the quotes.

C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Flash Media Server 2\applications\MV\streams

In this streams Folder place subfolders to catagories your different types of music ie; "Reggae"

C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Flash Media Server 2\applications\MV\streams\Reggae

and in this folder place your relevent FLV files, do not have any gaps in the FLV file names ie:
musicvid1.flv and not "music vid.flv"

so finally you should have:

C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Flash Media Server 2\applications\MV\streams\Reggae\musicvid.flv

(Dont worry about all the folder structures, as these will be ignored when configuring the stream path)

If you are creating your web pages that display the Streaming FLV files in Dreamweaver it is easier.

In the folder "MV" where the streams folder is placed, you need to put a file called main.asc. So in the MV folder you will have two files, the streams folder and the main.asc file. Next, you will see how to get this file main.asc

If you are in Dreamweaver put the cursor where you want to put the streaming video, then go to:

Insert / Media / Flash Video (Dreamweaver CS3)

Under Video type: Choose Streaming Video:

The URL now changed to Server URI and in the box is already written rtmp:// ,

In this box type (As in my example: rtmp://ipaddress of the computer with Flash Media server running/MV/Reggae

As you can see, you do not mention the applications folder, and you also skip the streams folder name.

In the Stream Name, type in the name of the Movie you wish to play here WITHOUT THE .flv tag so:

rtmp://ipaddress/MV/Reggae is the Video Type
and "musicvid" is the Stream name

Choose the desired skin to show the playback toolbar you want.

Choose the Width and Height of the Video you wish to play back.

Choose if it is alive feed or if not as in this case, choose Autoplay.

Buffertime can be set to 0 if you want to play immediately. but I shoose 1 second to allow for errors.

Click ok.

Now if you look at the Files list on the right side of the Dreamweaver pane, Dreamweaver will have created a main.asc file in the same directory as the Webpage that will hold the Movie.

Copy the main.asc file and paste it where I mentioned earlier, in the "MV" folder with the streams folder

If you are putting all of your flv files into the "MV" folder, then this only has to be done once.

Save the page and hit F12 to preview.

Should be then playing fine.

I hope this helps.

It's very simple. I assume you're going to use the "live" application already present on FMS installation.

So here it goes...

On the right side of the encoder, there are 2 fields you need to fill. "FMS URL" and "Stream". Put something like this:

FMS URL : rtmp://localhost/live/instance1
Stream : mylivestream

Uncheck the "save to file" checkbox, unless you want to record the video, and simply click Connect and Start. That should be enough.

I've figured out how to stream from fme to fms on the same computer, but what address do i give my friends to watch the stream?