Short film: Bridge - 1080p Flash FMS Dynamic Streaming demo
Flash Media Server 3.5 in combination with Flash Player 10 offers dynamic streaming support, which automatically adjusts the bitrate and quality based on the available bandwidth, the client performance (fps) and numerous other variables.
The feature allows to offer HD quality video on the web without having to worry about different bandwidth conditions or hardware configurations. This demo demonstrates a high-end player with full 1080p resolution (1920x1280) - which is not the standard quality for the web (yet), requires some decent hardware (Flash Player 10 HD hardware recommendations) and a high resolution screen (e.g. 1920x1200). It would be possible to build this demo to automatically downscale to low-end machines with some additional logic (e.g. no 1080p fullscreen resolution for slow machines, VP6 (s) for single core, etc).
Hillman Curtis was so kind to provide his latest short movie "Bridge" for the demo and Uvault provided the Flash Media Server hosting.
For own player development it's important to follow some best practices for fullscreen and H.264 encoding.
The demo above uses the fullscreen acceleration available since Flash Player 9. As alternative Flash Player 10 allows the use of Direct and GPU mode acceleration even in the regular, non-fullscreen mode. Tinic Uro posted a good explanation of the new modes. A use case for GPU mode would be the desire for crisp video controls in fullscreen mode while maintaining the performance (a common issue with most players). GPU mode in this case would HW support the scaling of the video object on the stage, and allow to use a fullscreen resolution that is larger than the actual size of the video source without significant performance impact. The downside of GPU acceleration is the higher hardware requirements.
Although the player is not optimized for screen resolution based scaling of the video controls (1080p screen as target), here is a version of the same player with GPU acceleration. The fullscreen best practices post explains how to enable the GPU mode.
Enjoy the demo - with the right setup it shows what's possible with Flash and HD on the web today. And all those techniques (including full 1080p with the right encoder) work also for live.
The demo is unwatchable. It loads the first few seconds then acts like it's buffering, then kicks an error.. Not certain if it's the host, but it's showing a bitrate of 1082kbps. I have a 20MBPS circuit and it's testing out normal at the moment.
Great demo. I'm using the source to get my head around dynamic streaming. Couple of problems I'm having though. Firstly, the source files don't behave the same way when leaving fullscreen mode, the video stays huge, but is masked by the size it should be. And secondly, is there a way to add smoothing easily?
There's an error when trying to go fullscreen on the video "1080p player with FP 10 GPU acceleration.": TypeError: Error #1009: Il est impossible d'accéder à la propriété ou à la méthode d'une référence d'objet nul. at controller::Main/fullScreenHandler() at flash.display::Stage/set displayState() at fl.video::UIManager/enterFullScreenDisplayState() at fl.video::UIManager/http://www.adobe.com/2007/flash/flvplayback/internal::dispatchMessage() at fl.video::UIManager/http://www.adobe.com/2007/flash/flvplayback/internal::handleMouseUp()
Interesting upcoming webinars with Adobe and Streamingmedia.com StreamingMedia.com has kicked off a new series of “Ask Adobe” webinars. Join us on 9/10th to learn more about the Flash Media Server roadmap with Adobe’s Kevin Towes and Dan Rayburn as they discuss the future plans and how you can be successful distributing high quality video online. ... Demo of Flash P2P video with AIR for Android over 3G Flash Player 10.0 introduced RTMFP and FP 10.1 RTMFP groups, both powerful P2P features. In parallel AIR for Android is getting ready for primetime, with full support of Flash Player 10.1, local camera/mic and P2P. ... Crystal-clear HD with Adobe HTTP Dynamic Streaming Released a couple of weeks ago, Adobe HTTP Dynamic Streaming combines the features of streaming, with the advantages of HTTP scalability. Besides traditional RTMP streaming, and the P2P functionality of Flash Player 10.x, it offers an additional option to deliver your high quality video content - live and on-demand, with full Flash Access DRM protection.... U.S.-Algeria World Cup match largest U.S. live sports event on the web It's official, ESPN reports the U.S.-Algeria game broadcasted on ESPN3.com broke a new record for the largest live sports event audience on the web in the U.S..... World Cup and Wimbledon on ESPN3.com As if the World Cup wouldn't be enough to fill your day, Wimbledon started as well this week, and ESPN3.com is covering it.... Watch the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa live on ESPN3.com It's time again for the biggest sporting event of the world. If you live in the United States, the way to watch the games is on ESPN/ABC, with 52 out of the 64 games on ESPN (see World Cup TV schedule)....
