[ScienceRules]

I'm getting a considerable amount of herky-jerky behavior and large rectangular-like artifacts on my 9630 from all three operational NASATV streams -

rtsp://a1303.l1857048516.c18570.g.lq...eflector:48516
rtsp://a1352.l1857053128.c18570.g.lq...eflector:53128
rtsp://a11.l1857056010.c18570.g.lq.a...eflector:56010

I'm using the Internet Browser, so all traffic is proxied at the RIM servers.

v4.7.1.61 (Platform 4.1.0.75)


sR

[detman101]

Lol, its NASA...their video feeds are herky-jerky no matter what platform you're on.


Dm

[ScienceRules]

Lol, its NASA...their video feeds are herky-jerky no matter what platform you're on.

Dm

I could live with a little herky-jerkyness, but not the frequent blocks of garbage that paint my screen. I suspect this can be attributed to buffering issues (underruns/overruns) and other timing issues on the device or possibly the RIM proxys.

Other NASATV formats such as mms streams don't have these artifacts as can be observed here:

NASA TV - (Requires a MMS-capable client)


Large chunks of garbage continue to pop up randomly on the 9630 display - a big-time degradation relative to the 8830 (hi-res screen may be a factor?).

I plan to run a few benchmarks, and would also would like to get some technical feedback.

sR

[Chrisy]

None of those links worked for me (Error playing media). i'd like to be able to stream NASA-TV on my BlackBerry.

Hopefully you'll get a reply.

So far all i have access to is NASA-TV audio via Moodio.fm. Pretty cool. To watch would be better!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[nofez]

I'm getting a considerable amount of herky-jerky behavior and large rectangular-like artifacts on my 9630

This happens to me when a stream source is pushing data faster than my phone connection can handle (e.g. streaming at 500 kbps when my connection is only 350 kbps).

I couldn't check your first links, but the one you give later as "clear" is only pushing 149 kbps, which isn't much as far as video goes.

[ScienceRules]

None of those links worked for me (Error playing media). i'd like to be able to stream NASA-TV on my BlackBerry.

Hopefully you'll get a reply.

So far all i have access to is NASA-TV audio via Moodio.fm. Pretty cool. To watch would be better!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

All three of these links were working over the past few days. However, this evening, they have been working intermittently.

When they don't work, its not quite clear what's going on. NASA TV uses Akamai's DNS-based load balancing delivery infrastrucure, where IP addresses are dynamically assigned to provide high availability and minimize congestion. Consequently, if you and I both click on the same link at the same same time, the local DNS would resolve the links to the closest Akamai edge-server in each of our regions.

Keep in mind that your "local" DNS may be in Waterloo, CA if your web traffic is being proxied by RIMs MDS server complex. (This is usually the case when you are using the Internet Browser).

Also note that when you are using "modem mode", with a connected PC, you are bypassing the RIM infrastructure.

Some PossibleTroubleshooting Steps (when the rtsp links appear not to be working) -

1) Determine that the NASA TV Public Channel is broadcasting
From a network-connected PC go to NASA TV

2) Determine that the rtsp feed is up and running -

(for this you need a network-connected PC with a client that supports rtsp streams) go to -

rtsp://a1303.l1857048516.c18570.g.lq.akamaistream.net/D/1303/18570/v0001/reflector:48516 or

rtsp://a1352.l1857053128.c18570.g.lq.akamaistream.net/D/1352/18570/v0001/reflector:53128 or

rtsp://a11.l1857056010.c18570.g.lq.akamaistream.net/D/11/18570/v0001/reflector:56010

3) Repeat step 2 using "phone as modem" connectivity
4) Try accessing any of the links using the BB MDS browser
5) Repeat steps 2,3,and 4 using IP addresses (to bypass DNS issues)

For more on Akamai's DNS-based streaming see - http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~asu2...eaming-imc.pdf

Troubleshooting the problems that I reported in the beginning of this thread will require more thought, but I have a few ideas.

sR

[detman101]

I'm getting a considerable amount of herky-jerky behavior and large rectangular-like artifacts on my 9630 from all three operational NASATV streams -

rtsp://a1303.l1857048516.c18570.g.lq...eflector:48516
rtsp://a1352.l1857053128.c18570.g.lq...eflector:53128
rtsp://a11.l1857056010.c18570.g.lq.a...eflector:56010

I'm using the Internet Browser, so all traffic is proxied at the RIM servers.

v4.7.1.61 (Platform 4.1.0.75)


sR

Well, I just got finished watching spacewalk #2 and I got artifacting 2 times through the whole part.

May I ask what OS you are running? My viewing was relatively undisrupted by garbage. I am running the 5.0.238 hybrid by irtehun.

Dm

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[ScienceRules]

Well, I just got finished watching spacewalk #2 and I got artifacting 2 times through the whole part.

May I ask what OS you are running? My viewing was relatively undisrupted by garbage. I am running the 5.0.238 hybrid by irtehun.

Dm

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I'm running OS - 4.1.0.75; Apps- 4.7.1.61 - from the vanilla Appalachian Wireless bundle (bundle 117).

sR

[ScienceRules]

I plan to run a few benchmarks, and would also would like to get some technical feedback.
sR

My Troubleshooting Tools:

VLC Media Player - allows parallel testing and provides detailed (including codec-level) event logging on the streams
QXDM - provides 6 QTV views/graphs and detailed logging/reporting as "seen" from the device.
Netmon 3.3 - network & protocol analysis.

Issues Unresolved -

1) NASATV doesn't render on the handheld - media player reports "error"
2) NASATV renders with streaming artifacts - large rectangular garbage blocks, in particular.


Observations:

In side-by-side viewing, captured a case where the nasaTV stream couldn't render on the 9630, but rendered ok on the VLC player. The VLC message log (verbosity-1) indicated a number of "conditions" that were automatically "handled" on the client. The stream used was -

rtsp://a11.l1857056010.c18570.g.lq.akamaistream.net/D/11/18570/v0001/reflector:56010.

This stream uses TCP to set up the session options/parms and UDP unicasting of a 2-channel stream.

For the time being I will use VLC, QXDM, and Netmon as my primary benchmarking/troubleshooting tools.

If you are technically inclined and want to participate let me know.

sR

[ScienceRules]

This happens to me when a stream source is pushing data faster than my phone connection can handle (e.g. streaming at 500 kbps when my connection is only 350 kbps).

The 2nd and 3rd RTSP feeds are using a 320x240 frame size over a 300Kbps stream, running off of Apple's open source Quicktime Streaming Server (Darwin) using RTP over UDP. It's likely that the stream as received is not a steady 300Kbps and will actually fluctuate up or down, with overflow/underflow rates that aren't handled well by the BB's media player. The instantaneous data rate could very well spike above the BB's maximum supported stream rate of 38400 kBytes per second, and/or delayed or out of sync packets/frames may be noticably discarded...

whereas -

The same stream would render beautifully on a desktop media player, such as VLC, which is capable of negotiating an RTP over reliable UDP stream, where lost packets may be retransmitted upon request, and the stream parameters can be modified dynamically in mid-session. Add dynamic buffering, post-processing, and other smoothing/masking techniques, and you get a compelling visual experience.

whereas-

Video streaming using Sling Media's Slingstream technology (Slingbox, Sling Player Mobile) renders magnificantly on my 9630.

sR

[Chrisy]

FYI, now that i'm running OS 9630/5.0.0.591 i can view NASA TV perfectly on my BlackBerry. Shuttle just launched!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com