Wowza Streaming Engine 4.1.0 Release Notes

Updated on 04/27/2022 11:24 am PDT

Important: A newer version of Wowza Streaming Engine is available. For more information, see Latest software updates for Wowza Streaming Engine.

Version: Wowza Streaming Engine™ 4.1.0 build 12602 released on September 10, 2014.

 


Note: For step-by-step instructions about how to update your Wowza Streaming Engine media server software, see How to update your Wowza Streaming Engine installation.

Contents

New Features and Functionality in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.1.0

Detailed list of changes in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.1.0

New Features and Functionality in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.1.0

Wowza Streaming Engine™, formerly Wowza Media Server™, is robust, customizable, and scalable server software that powers reliable streaming of high-quality video and audio to any device, anywhere.

Enhanced SecureToken Playback Protection

Wowza Streaming Engine 4.1 software extends SecureToken playback protection to all streaming protocols supported by the server and includes new hashing options for generating the security token that's exchanged between the server and clients. SecureToken is a challenge/response system that helps to protect content against spoofing threats. Each connection is protected by a random single-use key and a password (shared secret).


You can enable a new option in the server software to use a secure hash algorithm (SHA) for generating a security token for playback protection over all streaming protocols supported by server. The supported secure hash algorithms are:

  • SHA-256
  • SHA-384
  • SHA-512

For compatibility with Flash Players that you've already configured to use SecureToken functionality with previous versions of the Wowza media server software, you can still use Wowza Streaming Engine 4.1 to provide SecureToken playback protection to protect RTMP streams using the Tiny Encryption Algorithm (TEA). For more information, see How to protect streaming using SecureToken in Wowza Streaming Engine.

Works With Wowza Integration for JVC ProHD Camcorders

Wowza Streaming Engine features integrated publishing options that simplify live streaming workflows. The Incoming Publishers page for live applications in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager enables you to deliver connection settings for the application to a variety of popular encoders and cameras. Publishers that aren't integrated with Wowza Streaming Engine can still connect to live Streaming Engine applications, but you must configure their connection settings manually.


Wowza Streaming Engine 4.1 adds JVC GY-HM650, GY-HM850, and GY-HM890 ProHD camcorders to its growing lineup of integrated publishers. JVC ProHD camcorders have a built-in streaming encoder and network connectivity for capturing and publishing live video to Wowza Streaming Engine. On the Incoming Publishers page for live applications, you can create connection settings in a stream file that enables the applications to re-stream the JVC camcorder's video output to players. 

HEVC/H.265 Transcoding (Preview)

Wowza Transcoder AddOn in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.1 contains preview technology that adds support for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) encoding of live video streams. HEVC (also known as H.265) is the successor to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (Advanced Video Coding). HEVC/H.265 encoding features higher data compression ratios than H.264 for video of the same quality and has better video quality than H.264-encoded video with identical bitrates. For more information, see How to stream using HEVC/H.265 transcoding.

 


Note: Live incoming streams using H.265 video compression can also be recorded to MP4-formatted video on demand files in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.1. For more information, see How to record live streams (Wowza Streaming Engine).

Detailed list of changes in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.1.0

  • Added long property scalerMainConceptScaleMode available in Encoder/Properties to control the scale mode used in transcoder (0 = nearest neighbor, 1 = best (default), 2 = bilinear, 3 = polyphase8)
  • Added support in transcoder for double rate deinterlacing of H.264, MP2, and MP4 streams (enabled by adding long parameter with the name deinterlaceDoubleRate with a value of 1 to the Decode/Video/Parameters section of transcoder template, off by default)
  • Made SHOUTcast AAC group count property shoutcastAACGroupCount available in Streaming Engine Manager
  • Changed SHOUTcast default MP3 and AAC group count (shoutcastMP3GroupCount and shoutcastAACGroupCount) to 1 (previous value was 4)
  • Improved parsing of SCC caption files, allowing multiple whitespace characters between fields
  • Fixed problem with HEVC/H.265 VPS decoding leading to warning message about multiple VPS NAL units
  • Enhanced debug context for DVR MBR alignment logging to include aligner ID
  • Fixed problem with transcoder multi-threaded scaling throwing an error if only a single encoder output
  • Improved transcoder system to properly shutdown transcoder (and release license) when stream source is push publisher
  • Added Streams/Properties boolean property transcoderShutdownOnClose to control when transcoder is shutdown (true: transcoder is shutdown when stream is closed, false: transcoder is shutdown when stream is destroyed, default to false except when source stream is push publisher)
  • Modified the Linux services code for stop and start rather then returning a status code as they have in the past. They will now return 0 for both stop and start. The status call will return a 0 for running and 3 for not running.
  • Added some exception handling in the PushPublishing module where HTTP streams are being pushed to an endpoint
  • Exposed the default value for securityPublishValidEncoders as "Flash Version String" in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager so users can replace or append to the list of allowed values
  • Fixed a Push Publishing cupertino-akamai bug that prevented Wowza Streaming Engine from sending the HLS playlist file to Akamai
  • Changed the default setting for importing AC3 streams via MPEG-TS to true
  • Fixed case where DVR ABR would not align correctly after packet time reset mid recording. This could sometimes result in out-of-order DVR segments or longer than expected playlists
  • Fixed an issue with reading the MPEG-TS PMT Stream Descriptors and the detection of AC3 streams
  • Changed parsing of flash version string to allow either pipe or comma delimiters
  • Fixed Push Publishing HLS bug where an occasional race condition would cause an exception in the HLS chunk processing, which would cause a chunk to never get pushed to the destination
  • Fixed logic around selecting the correct VHost port for the test players in Streaming Engine Manager
  • Fixed issue where HLS AES encryption using SMIL files would not return correct internal encryption key
  • Added MPEG-TS property mpegtsRemoveRepeatStartCodes that can be set to remove start codes that are repeated in the stream
  • Turned importing AC3 back to "false" as the default because we don't support AC3 in the transcoder. We are concerned that this can adversely affect customers that have MPEG-TS streams with AC3 streams before their other audio streams in the PMT and we'll pickup the AC3 as the default
  • Fixed Push Publishing memory leak that would occur on every stream disconnect
  • Fixed Push Publishing RTMP connection logic so that all reconnection attempts always occur with a gradually increasing delay (up to 60 seconds) between each attempt, the same way it has historically worked for the initial RTMP TCP connection

  • Added support for enabling the HbbTV-specific live MPEG-DASH manifest profile definition. This property supports the HbbTV 2011 DASH profile (location: [install-dir]/conf/[application-name]/Application.xml, <Application>/<LiveStreamPacketizer>/<Properties>; name: mpegdashEnableHbbtvLiveProfile; type: Boolean; default: false).

  • Added HEVC/H.265 encoder and decoder support to transcoder (preview)
  • Added support for HEVC/H.265 stream ingestion and playback over MPEG-TS (preview)
  • Added support for HEVC/H.265 stream ingestion and playback over RTP (preview)
  • Added support for recording HEVC/H.265 to MP4 files (preview)
  • Fixed CurrentIncomingStreamStatistics for liveRepeaters so that LiveRepeater incoming streams on the edge correctly report Bytes In instead of always showing 0
  • Updated Push Publishing rtmp-akamai profile so that when a map entry provides a streamName with more than 2 "_" characters, we remove the first "_" character. So "my_stream_1_2728@123456" becomes "mystream_1_2728@123456".
  • Fixed the error message presented to the user when they enter an invalid value in the Server > Performance Tuning > Virtual Hosts Ports > Processor Count fields in the manager.
  • Fixed a bug in ModuleDRMVerimatrix for Playready DRM that prevented server from sending a request for a PlayReady key.
  • Fixed logging in ModuleDRMVerimatrix that logged a DASH URL when playing back with Smooth Streaming
  • Fixed the return content type for some JSON calls that caused Google Chrome on iOS devices to crash or otherwise not load the manager correctly
  • Fixed manager test player logic to use a non-VHost SSL port if one exists
  • Removed debug print statement in live receiver for RTMP events
  • Reverted fix for live repeater statistics because it caused an exception on the manager side of the REST interface
  • Fixed closed caption bug where captions were not returned when using a SMIL file and specifying either system language and/or title in the audio or video renditions
  • Fixed issue where closed caption file specified in SMIL file was relative to content folder instead of relative to SMIL file location
  • Removed verbose DVR Recorder timeout logging message
  • Enhanced CEA-608 parser to capture the raw commands as well as the text of converted caption
  • Fixed problem where .scc caption files were not displaying on HLS when streaming CEA-608
  • Changed RTSP authentication to use either application-level properties "securityPublishPasswordFile" or "rtspEncoderAuthenticateFile" to find password file
  • Changed RTMP to allow either application-level properties "securityPublishPasswordFile" or "rtmpEncoderAuthenticateFile" to find password file
  • Fixed issue with getDataMissing in LiveReceiver where it could return a NullPointerException
  • Fixed transcoder so it only suspends keyframe skipping on keyframes if encode is keyFrameFollow
  • Fixed stuttered playback when playing HDS VOD with captions inserted
  • Fixed a bug during application copy process in the manager where application wasn't given the new name in conf/[newAppName]/Application.xml under the Name tag
  • Fixed a bug in the manager where the Copy button wasn't copying an application due to dysfunctional buttons. This was happening on SMIL Files, Stream Files, and Transcoder Addon pages
  • Fixed a corner-case bug in the manager where a form was being submitted even if errors existed on several Incoming Publishers pages
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