Streaming H.264 Videos with Wowza Media Server Pro

Streaming H.264 Videos with Wowza Media Server Pro is common place and a great benefit of the Wowza Server. If you have a collection of H.264 real-time streaming videos you can movie the entire library to the Wowza Server since it supports real-time streaming of not only Flash videos but also H.264 videos as well. Now, it's important to note that the server doesn't support real-time streaming of MPEG-4 files but only the H.264 files. Remember in most streaming and compression applications MPEG-4 Part 2 is listed as MPEG-4 and MPEG-4 Part 10 is listed as H.264 or AVC. Why move all of your content to the Wowza Media Server Pro? Well, if you're moving the H.264 real-time content form a server such as the QuickTime Streaming Server, the move will give your content the cross-platform and cross-browser compatibility that Flash provides.

To learn more about encoding and authoring H.264 real-time streaming videos for Flash using the Wowza Media Server Pro attend one of our 1-Day Wowza Media Server Pro Trainings. The class also covers many other topics and is available on-line, on-site or in-class.

New Encoding Algorithm dicasVICO Unveiled

dicas, the German MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 encoding specialist, has unveiled a new revolutionary quality enhancing algorithm called dicasVICO. In order to attain the same picture quality like current H.264 encoders, streams modulated with dicasVICO get by on bit rates being lower by 30 per cent. dicasVICO helps broadcasters and providers of WebTV, MobileTV and IPTV services to overcome bandwidth restrictions and dramatically enhance the picture quality of their programs.

dicasVICO allows for a more efficient use of the available transport capacity by optimising the distribution of bits among the image sections of a video picture during the encoding process. Unlike most current encoders, the algorithm by dicas is not based on prevalent statistical measures but on the properties of the human visual system.

“Most H.264 encoders use variance algorithms to modulate the quantiser”, explains Klaas Schüür, co-founder and CTO at dicas. “Although you may get great measuring results by applying complex operations based on rate distortion, this does not reflect the latest state of scientific knowledge on the visual perception of man.”

dicasVICO, on the contrary, takes advantage of the gradual fault tolerance of the human visual system against varying optical phenomena. For example the human brain hardly notices errors occurring in high-frequency sections, i.e. fast movements or fine-textured patterns, whereas it is very attentive towards errors within regular structures or slow-motion sections.

To what extent a higher encoding accuracy is applied on the particular image sections is controlled by dicasVICO in accordance to the picture’s visual complexity. Such a selective quantisation may lead to lower statistical results, especially when current technical measurement standards like signal-to-noise-ratio (PSNR) are used. Mere statistical measuring methods, however, are hardly significant concerning the subjective picture quality.

Perception tests show that the visual complexity approach has an enormous impact on how a video stream is perceived by its viewers. Subjectively the stream with dicasVICO algorithm applied on appears to be much more brilliant and clearer. “Especially at low bit rates videos encoded with dicasVICO show substantially less artifacts”, says Schüür. dicasVICO is now part of all dicas encoder hardware products and mpegable software packages.

MPEG-4 vs. H.264/AVC

In understanding MPEG-4 vs. H.264/AVC it's important to know that H.264/AVC are also both MPEG-4 as well. Let me explain. MPEG-4 actually consists of 22 Parts, many of which have not been implemented yet. MPEG-4 Part 2 was implemented in real world applications first and because of that, it has become widely known of as MPEG-4. My guess is that MPEG-4 Part 2 came first because it was the least complex of many video profiles for MPEG-4 and people could start viewing what MPEG-4 content had to offer sooner. This is because MPEG-4 Part 2 doesn't require as much processor speed or memory as that of H.264/AVC because it's decoding algorithms are less complex. Now, let's talk about H.264/AVC.

H.264 and AVC are actually the same thing. They refer to another part of MPEG-4 called MPEG-4 Part 10. So you can take your pick at what you would like to call it. MPEG-4 Part 10 includes Advanced Video Coding and uses higher level profiles than that of MPEG-4 Part 2. This type of decoding is more complex and requires more computer processor speed and memory because it uses more complicated decoding than MPEG-4 Part 10.

Note: Simple Profile and Advanced Simple Profile are included in MPEG-4 Part 2. The least complex to decode being the Simple Profile. AVC Baseline Profile and AVC Main Profiles are found within MPEG-4 Part 10. The least complex to decode being the AVC Baseline Profile.