mark133
Level 1 (73 points)

Q: MediaStreamSegmenter LiveStreaming

The most recent posts on MediaStreamSegmenter appeared to be 2011. I am using an Apache server with ElCapitan and a webcam. The way I understand live streaming, the essential steps are connecting the device, encoding the video stream, segmenting the stream, and serving the segments. Step one is usually easy enough. HTML5 with JavaScript appears to be able to handle the final step.

 

The 'confusion' appears with the encoding and segmenting. The segmenting appears easy enough with the MediaStreamSegmenter tools. So that leaves the encoding, and getting the encoded stream to MediaStreamSegmenter.

 

It seems that AVFoundation is available for developing a custom program in objective C. Also, there are more and more applications and utilities that will encode, segment and serve from a webcam. What strikes me as wrong is that these apps and utilities seem to be universally circumventing provision of an immediate stream suitable for MediaStreamSegmenter.

 

Is this due to some DHS security concern? Or is Apple concerned that 'easy' access to a live webcam is a security threat? Can we try to reason this out, a little? Unless there are Soviet-Style internet media regulators monitoring everything that goes onto the net, there is no difference between a live stream and a file stream, and the file stream is everywhere available now. And newsflash: hackers are more dangerous when the only access is through more complex means, not simpler means.

 

OR am I wrong about all of these contingencies, does QuickTime or QuickTimeBroadcaster or some other Apple utility generate a UDP or stdin stream from webcams for MediaStreamSegmenter!

iMac

Posted on Sep 17, 2016 9:31 AM

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mark133

Q: MediaStreamSegmenter LiveStreaming

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  • Helpful answers

  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft Sep 17, 2016 9:39 AM in response to mark133
    Level 7 (29,298 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 17, 2016 9:39 AM in response to mark133

    Hello mark133,

    At this point few people use OS X server except for developer tools, device management, and maybe some rare Mac-only networks and Time Machine. What you are describing sounds like general-purpose web serving. You want to be using Linux, via some reputable web hosting provider, for that.

  • by mark133,

    mark133 mark133 Sep 17, 2016 10:20 AM in response to etresoft
    Level 1 (73 points)
    Sep 17, 2016 10:20 AM in response to etresoft

    Thank you for your reply. I'm using Apache and have been successfully using my iMac as a home WebServer for many innovative custom uses and valuable applications of technology. I am an avid supporter of home web servers. Most people do not know that standard AT&T Internet service provides a domain name and home web server capability, even at the lowest service tiers, for example, and I feel very strongly that they should. I do not believe in steering people away from the technology available at their fingertips for 'security reasons'. On the contrary, I believe in steering them towards it, and forcing government and industry to adjust accordingly. I have no confidence in any regime that expects to be trusted for prohibiting, or attempting to prohibit or deny, web server and media production capabilities.

     

    However, the specific question is not about web server technology. The question is specifically about directing a webcam to MediaStreamSegmenter.

  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft Sep 17, 2016 12:06 PM in response to mark133
    Level 7 (29,298 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 17, 2016 12:06 PM in response to mark133

    Hello again mark133,

    I didn't say anything about using AT&T. If you want to sacrifice some of your limited home upload bandwidth for other people's downloading, that's your business.

     

    You asked a question about a specific Apple technology that appears to have had little use in the past few years. Apple has very little presence on the server market. Apple itself uses Linux.

     

    You are welcome to wait for someone else to comment. Or you could ask on the Apple Developer forums (https://forums.developer.apple.com) or the mailing lists (http://www.lists.apple.com). But if you don't get a response, and can't figure it out yourself, you are pretty much on your own.

  • by mark133,

    mark133 mark133 Sep 17, 2016 12:22 PM in response to etresoft
    Level 1 (73 points)
    Sep 17, 2016 12:22 PM in response to etresoft

    There are many ways to prevent unwanted use of a home or small business server. Proxy server requests can be blocked, IPs can be blocked, passwords or tickets can be required, etc. So I don't understand your point about unwanted downloading from a home or small business server. If you want a file served from your home or small business, I assume people would be smart enough to know that it will have to be uploaded.

     

    And I did mean to post this on developer forums, which I will do now.

  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft Sep 17, 2016 1:55 PM in response to mark133
    Level 7 (29,298 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 17, 2016 1:55 PM in response to mark133

    What I mean is that other people's downloads of files that you host in your house will be limited to the speed of your uploads. Most consumer broadband services have very slow upload speeds compared to download speeds. When someone with super-fast fiber internet tries to download something from your server, they can only download at your upload rate. While they are doing that, you probably wouldn't be able to do anything with your internet. If you never have anyone accessing your server, then it isn't much of an issue. But then why do you have this server then?

  • by mark133,

    mark133 mark133 Sep 17, 2016 3:14 PM in response to etresoft
    Level 1 (73 points)
    Sep 17, 2016 3:14 PM in response to etresoft

    Some examples include accessing to custom HTML/Javascripts and cgi scripts at remote locations that can interact with the home or small business network (for customers, inventory, marketing, messaging, databases and data processing with devices, and on and on and on), displaying home network cgi script results to TVs on the home network, and interacting with those scripts over smart TVs, designing html/JavaScript and/or cgi scripts for home (device control through home wired Internet service, interactions with base computer data files and Internet data over iDevices for homeschooling or business, and on and on and on). For video, a small live event could be true live-streamed to about 100 people on an iDevice on any urban upload service with sufficient quality if it was framed in an HTML or Keynote display, etc. How people always think technology is developed enough to justify controlling its development!