Manual

Getting Started

1. Installation & Upgrading

On Windows platform it's quite simple. Just download and run executable installer to install IPVTL to your computer. Ignore and choose to run installer if Windows Defender SmartScreen shows up. IPVTL depends on Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable Packages so make sure it is installed before running.

After installation, if Auto Start on System Boot is enabled in Global Settings, IPVTL will run automatically everytime Windows restarts (after user logged in).

For Linux users, first download and extract lzma tarball to local folder, /home or /opt for example. Remember to extract it WITHOUT changing file permissions, or IPVTL could fail to run.

Make sure prerequiest packages libva (>2.0), libva-drm and libavahi are installed before running. For example to install them on Ubuntu:

# sudo apt-get install libva2 libva-drm2 libavahi-client3

or on CentOS Stream/RHEL:

# sudo yum install libva avahi-libs

Start Linux console, go to IPVTL folder and enter command like sudo ./ipvtl_16ch_trial or sudo ./ipvtl_4ch to start program. Remember super user privelege is required. To quit IPVTL, simply pgrep ipvtl_ and kill IPVTL main process, or just pkill ipvtl_.

# cd /home
/home # tar xvf ipvtl_trial-x64.tar.xz
ipvtl/
ipvtl/arial.ttf
ipvtl/libndi.so.5
ipvtl/ipvtl.so
ipvtl/ipvtl_16ch_trial
/home # cd ipvtl
/home/ipvtl # sudo ./ipvtl_16ch_trial

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*      IP Video Transcoding Live!       *
*          Copyright 2009-2023          *
*           IPVideoTrans.com            *
*           Version 6.3.6.0             *
*         16 Channel Evaluation         *
*        Expires on: 06/30/2023         *
* To purchase licenses, please contact  *
*        sales@ipvideotrans.com         *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

IPVTL starting web interface at http://192.168.1.1:8888...
/home/ipvtl #

IPVTL has web console built inside, making it same experience to set up and manage channels in a web browser in Linux as in Windows GUI. The web console can be accessed at http://<host_IP>:<http_port>, where host_IP is IPVTL's local host address, and http_port is the HTTP service port configured in Global Settings, for example http://127.0.0.1:8888/.

IPVTL web console is available on both Windows and Linux. Even Windows users may use it to set up or manage transcoding from distance.

For the first time running IPVTL licenses, it is required to import and activate license key. Contact our sales if you need one.

IPVTL web console is built with user password and IP address authentication security. It is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to set up web login password in Global Settings IMMEDIATELY after installation. Otherwise there is a risk of your channels configuration being exposed to the internet.

To upgrade IPVTL, just download latest installation package and make the same steps above as a fresh install. Old configuration will be saved and recovered automatically.

Old configuation can also be exported and imported in IPVTL Global Settings. We recommend doing this in case anything unexpected occurs during upgrading.

To set up transcoding channel in IPVTL, there are only 2 basic steps: Media Source and Media Target.

2. Select Source Media

Before setting up everything, make sure of your source stream type first.

Click New Channel button to create a new transcoding channel with default settings. In the channel list panel, select appropriate streaming protocol and enter the URL of the media source.

• To stream from local media clip, folder or remote FTP server

  Choose file or ftp/sftp as source type, enter the full path of the file or click "..." button to browse for the file (on Windows).

  If a file folder rather than a single file is selected, the channel is set to run in play list mode. All IPVTL recoginized media files in that folder (and sub-folder) will be streamed in sequence. Play list controls like forward/backward is available during live streaming.

• To stream from Apple HLS server

  Choose http as source type, enter http or https m3u8_url as source media. e.g. https://my.videosite.com/live/playlist.m3u8

• To stream from RTMP server

  Choose rtmp and enter the stream URL that can be played in a swf player or VLC player, e.g. rtmp://192.168.0.1/vod/sample or rtmp://192.168.0.1/live/stream. Secured RTMP URLs including rtmps, rtmpe, rtmpt are also supported if demanded by server.

  If rtmp authentication is mandatory on the source server, enter username / password in the following format:
  rtmp://<username>:<password>@<server_ip>:<port>/<app>/<stream>

  Note: IPVTL needs RTMP source URL to stream from. It CANNOT stream directly from a Youtube or Twitch video page URL.

• To stream from Real Time Media Service like Helix Server and IP Cameras

  Choose rtsp (over udp) or rtspt (over tcp) accordingly, and enter the URL that can be played in VLC player. Note rtspt (RTSP over TCP) is recommended in lossy network environment, if it is supported by the source server.

  If rtsp authentication is mandatory on the source server, enter username / password in the following format:
  rtsp://<username>:<password>@<server_ip>:<port>/stream

• To stream from MPEG-TS from Dreambox-like DVB-S devices

  Choose udp, rtp or http accordingly, and enter source URL, e.g.

  udp://0.0.0.0:1234 (mpeg-ts over udp unicast)
  udp://224.0.0.1:1234 (mpeg-ts over udp multicast)
  rtp://224.0.0.1:1234 (mpeg-ts over rtp multicast)
  http://192.168.0.1/mpegts (mpeg-ts over http)

• To stream from Blackmagic Decklink capture cards using Decklink SDK

  Choose decklink as source type and click "..." button to select available decklink cards on your computer.

  

  Please note you have to install Blackmagic Decklink Desktop Video software at https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support before setup.

• To stream from Newtek NDI sources

  Choose newtek ndi as source type and click "..." button to search available NDI sources on your computer.

  Note NDI sources could take long time to be detected. If no NDI sources found, try bigger timeout value and click "Search Again".

• To deliver stream P2P via SRT (Secure Reliable Transport)

  SRT makes udp streaming reliable transmission similar to TCP. You can deliver stream losslessly between different places over the internet.

  Streaming from SRT source is like streaming from HTTP. Just choose srt as source type and enter srt url in source address, like srt://192.168.1.2:1234

  In above case, SRT source works in caller mode by default, i.e. It initiates connection to the source server to start streaming. If you want to switch to listener mode though, change address to a listen address with option "mode=listener", for example srt://0.0.0.0:1234?mode=listener. In this case, it waits until the remote point connects to start streaming.

• To stream from DirectShow TV capture cards (Windows only)

  Choose dshow and click "..." button to enumerate and choose your video / audio capture devices available to stream.

  Tip: On some kind of capture cards, video and audio can come from the same device. In that case, enter video=<device_name>:audio=<device_name> in the url box.
  
  If there are more than 1 cards with a same device name, append video_device_number and audio_device_number option (starts from 0) to the url. For example:
  
  video=<device_name>:audio=<device_name>?video_device_number=1&audio_device_number=1 (2nd video & 2nd audio device)

• To stream from Microsoft Windows Media Service

  Choose mms (mms over http tunnelling) as source type, enter the URL that can be played in Windows Media Player, e.g. mms://192.168.0.1/vod/playlist.wsx

  Normally mms will fit in most cases. However, try mmst (mms over tcp) instead if there is problem.

• To stream from Video4Linux interface (Linux only)

  Choose v4l2 source type and enter device name in Media Source, like /dev/video0.

Tip: You can verify the stream source using Preview in IPVTL web console. Make sure you have a good source before start streaming.

3. Setup Output Stream

First, select target stream format you demand appropriately, among RTMP, MPEG-TS over UDP/RTP/HTTP, m3u8 Playlist (HLS), MPEG DASH and Decklink playback card. Then enter target address and modify encoding details if necessary. You can change video resolution, frame rate, encoding profile/bitrate and audio sample rate, etc.

• To stream RTMP to Youtube, Twitch or Facebook live channels

  IPVTL works with 3rd party RTMP server like Nginx-rtmp, Adobe Flash Media Server and Wowza streaming engine. Before setting up RTMP output, make sure you have a valid RTMP URL from either an RTMP server built by yourself or Youtube, Twitch live channel.

  A full RTMP URL is normally like:
  rtmp://<server_address>:<port>/<app>/<stream_name/stream_key>
  

  Tip: Verify the URL using OBS Studio.

  For example, a publish URL for Youtube live:
  rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2/1234-5678-9ABC-DEFG
  For Facebook media live:
  rtmps://rtmp-api.facebook.com:443/rtmp/1226334177416540?ds=1&s_l=1&a=AabUoS3yJSRhM2T
  And for Twitch live:
  rtmp://live.twitch.tv/app/12345678abcd

  If RTMP authentication is required, go to Advanced Format Settings -> RTMP Config and enter confidentials there. (See RTMP Options in Advanced Settings below)

  Tip: Traditionally, RTMP uses H.264 video encoding format. Since v6.1.4.4, IPVTL supports H.265/HEVC as well, utilizing an extended FLV format of type 12 in videoTag.codecId, which is compliant to some new CDNs. Leveraging advanced HEVC encoding technology, the streaming bandwidth can be saved significantly compared to H.264.

• To stream HTML5 video to Chrome / FireFox / Safari / IE web browsers

  Since v6.2.4.4, IPVTL supports HTML5 MP4 video output. Choose MP4 over HTTP in Target format, and enter local http/https url with port in Target URL, like http://192.168.1.1:8888/ipvt/1.

  After channel starts up, output video can be previewed in IPVTL web config page.

  To output secured http rather than plain http, enable SSL and provide SSL certificate key files in Global Settings.

• To stream MPEG-TS over UDP/RTP to OTT STB

  Choose MPEG-TS over UDP in Target Format, and enter target UDP/RTP address (IP:Port) on receiver side. Both muticast and unicast addresses are allowed, for example udp://192.168.0.1:1234 (udp unicast), or rtp://224.0.0.1:1234 (rtp multicast).

  Tip: Some OTT devices require strict compliance to MPEG TS standard, like constant bit rate. To stream to those devices, make sure to use IPVTL version 6.1.4.4 or higher, with Mux Bitrate and CBR enabled. See CBR Settings below.

  Please understand UDP/RTP streaming works in local network only. It is not recommended to use it over internet, as UDP transportation would not be so reliable. For distant stream delivery, consider SRT instead.

• To stream MPEG-TS over HTTP on local host interface

  First configure HTTP Port to be bound to your local network interface in Global Settings. The default port number is 8888. Change it if the port is occupied by other applications on your machine.

  The output URL format is http://<host_IP>:<http_port>/ipvt/###, for example http://192.168.1.1:8888/ipvt/1. The URL can then be fed to streaming servers, or played in streaming players like VLC.

  

  Different http output channels run on different port numbers (starting from 8888). Please make sure the ports are available for listening.

  Although MPEG-TS over HTTP streaming can work over internet, it is not designed to provide stream distribution to large scale end users directly. If you have such requirements, consider a 3rd party media streaming servers, like Wowza server or Nginx (see below).

  To secure your HTTP streams from being exposed unknown streamers, go to Global Settings and enter IP address ACL (access control list) rules. The ACL syntax supports both blacklist and whitelist, which is very like in nginx:

  #whitelist:
  deny all
  allow 127.0.0.1/8
  #blacklist:
  allow all
  deny 1.2.3.4

  Use ACL with caution as it affects web console interface as well.

• To stream Apple HLS to handheld phone and pad devices (Android & iOS)

  First of all, please understand IPVTL DOES NOT output Apple HLS directly. Instead, it outputs stream index file (.m3u8) and segment files (.ts) on your local disk. These files can then be fed to web server like Nginx, Apache or Microsoft IIS to provide HLS to end player running in user Apps or browsers.

  

  In Windows version, the default output index file name is C:\stream.m3u8. And segment files will be generated in C:\stream-###.ts. You can edit Target URL and change it to your perferred folder and file name. Be sure to put them under your web server publish folder to be found and downloaded.

  More HLS settings, like segment length, playlist entry size and encryption (DRM) are availabe in Format Advanced Settings.

  Best Practice - Working with Nginx to provide Apple HLS streaming

  1. Install Nginx, for example to C:\nginx.
  2. In C:\nginx, create folder media as virtual root folder for hls.
  3. In C:\nginx\media, create folder hls to place m3u8 and ts segments.
  4. In IPVTL, set output file to C:\nginx\media\hls\stream.m3u8.
  5. Edit nginx.conf, in http{} -> server{} section, add location{} section for hls as below:

     http {
       ...
       server {
         ...
         location /hls {
           types {
             application/vnd.apple.mpegurl m3u8;
             video/mp2t ts;
           }
           root media;
           add_header Cache-Control no-cache;
         }
         ...
       }
       ...
     }
     

  If both Nginx and IPVTL channel start successfully, the output stream should be able to access at http://<nginx_server_ip>/hls/stream.m3u8.

• To stream to MPEG DASH

  Like HLS, IPVTL DOES NOT output MPEG DASH stream directly. Instead, it outputs MPEG DASH index files (.mpd) and segment files (.m4s) on your local disk. These files can then be fed to web server like Nginx, Apache or Microsoft IIS to provide MPEG DASH streaming to end players.

  In Windows version, the default output index file name is C:\stream.mpd. And segment files will be generated in C:\init-stream#.m4s and C:\chunk-stream#-#####.m4s. You can edit Target URL and change it to your perferred folder and file name. Be sure to put them under your web server publish folder to be found and downloaded.

• To deliver stream P2P via SRT (Secure Reliable Transport)

  SRT makes udp streaming reliable transmission similar to TCP. You can deliver stream losslessly between different places over the internet.

  To do that, Choose SRT in Target Format and enter destination IP address you want to deliver to. For example srt://0.0.0.0:1234.

  In above case SRT works in listener mode by default, i.e. It waits for remote client to connect to start streaming. If you want to switch to caller mode instead, change address to remote server with option "mode=caller", like srt://192.168.1.2:1234?mode=caller. In this case, it initiates connection to remote and starts streaming.

• To output to Blackmagic Decklink playback cards using Decklink SDK

  Select "Decklink Playback Card" as Target Format, and click "..." button to select available decklink cards with desired output format on your computer.

  Please note you have to install Blackmagic Decklink Desktop Video software at https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support before setup.

• To output to Newtek NDI interfaces

  Select Newtek NDI as Target Format and enter NDI name (default to "IPVTL##") your prefer in Target URL.

Once you've finished with the settings, click Apply button to validate and save your configuration. You can always change transcoding settings by clicking Edit button at a later time. But remember setting changes won't make effect to a live channel, until the channel is restarted.

4. Start Streaming!

After a new transcoding channel is set up, you may enter some memo about the channel in the list to keep it simple to identify. The red light in the last column indicates the channel is idle. Click Start button to start transcoding. If everything is OK, the status light will switch to green , which means the channel is on-air now. You can then validate the output stream in your end device or VLC player (http://www.videolan.org/vlc) , a very handy tool.

If there is any problem, please refer to FAQ, or send feedback to support#ipvideotrans.com with your channel settings and channel log file to get a diagnosis. To get channel log file, enable Debug Log in Global Settings before starting the channel. IPVTL config file and log files are located in:

• %APPDATA%\IPVideoTrans\ipvtl\ipvtl.json and %APPDATA%\IPVideoTrans\ipvtl\log\ on Windows
• /etc/ipvtl/ipvtl.json and /var/ipvtl/log/ on Linux

Advanced Streaming Settings

• Adaptive / Dynamic Bitrate Streaming

  To enable adaptive bitrate streaming, you need to create multiple bitrate profiles. IPVTL supports up to 5 profiles per channel, for RTMP, HLS, and MPEG TS over UDP stream formats.

  To set up multiple bitrate profiles, create or delete profiles by clicking "+" or "-" button on bottom of encoding settings panel. In each profile, you can define different video sizes, bitrates and even encodings. Make sure to specify a distinguishing output address for each profile. And remember to set a same Key Frame Intv. for all profiles to keep video key frames aligned.

  

  It's obvious multi-profile encoding requires more computing than single profile. So consider your hardware specification wisely.

• Source Stream Selection

  If you are streaming from Multi Program Transport Stream (MPTS), it is possible to choose which program / channel in the source stream you prefer to output, by picking program ID, stream ID or both in it.

  

  Stream ID can be used to choose audio, video or subtitle streams in MPTS.

• MPEG-TS Output

  

  MPEG-TS output metadata fields can be configured here, including Program/Service ID, Program Name, Start PID and Provider Name.

  To mux multiple sources into MPTS, first setup source channels. After source channels ready, choose one of them as the main channel. Bind other source channels to main channel by entering the main channel number in their Bind columns. Then in main channel MPEG-TS Output settings, add 1 program for each source channel to create MPTS output.

  That's all. To start mux streaming, just start the main channel.

  

• RTMP Config

  Flash Version String	Customized identification for publishing client. Leave it empty if you don't have any idea.
  SWF URL Verify	RTMP stream URL for server verification. Leave it empty if you don't have any idea.
  Publish Username / Password	Publishing authentication required by RTMP server (Both Adobe and Limelight authenticating methods are supported)

• HLS Config

  If you are streaming into HLS format, you can specify more details about index file (.m3u8) and segment file (.ts) to be generated, including segment length, playlist entry size and TS encryption (DRM).

  

  You can also enter a base URL if required to be put in .m3u8 index.

• H.264 / HEVC / VPX / AV1 Encodings

  For video encoding in H.264, HEVC, VPX and AV1, it is possbile to change encoding preset to tune video quality.

  

  Profile & Level	H.264/HEVC encoding conformance. Please refer to wikipedia.
  Threads	Specify how many threads are to be used for encoding. This value can be used to tune encoding performance.
  Encoding Preset	Higher presets lead to better video quality, but at the cost of higher CPU utilization. Choose lower presets to get more smooth output on slow machines. In most cases preset value should be kept less than 6.

• Variable or Constant Bitrate

  IPVTL outputs video stream of variable bitrate (VBR) by default. If you want to specify video output bitrate, choose it wisely as low output bitrate could make video quality bad, creating artifacts during playback. Setting both video bitrate and video quality is NOT recommended.

  Constant bitrate (CBR) stream is mostly required by legacy DVB IRDs. To set up CBR output, enter proper values for both Video Bitrate and Mux Bitrate in encoding settings. That will produce CBR stream compliant with DVB ETSI TR 101 290. Note that Mux Bitrate must be some higher than <Video bitrate> + <Audio bitrate>. In example below, video bitrate = 1600kbps, audio bitrate = 128kbps, while Mux bitrate = 2000kbps.

  

• Key Frame Interval

  Key Frame Interval defines time in seconds (defautls to 5) between key frames in video stream for decoders. For HLS output format, it also affects the .ts segments duration. Users just need to set Segment Length in advanced HLS options and key frame interval will be changed accordingly. If you have no idea about it, just leave it as default.

• Logo / Image / Text / Timestamp Overlay

  During transcoding, it is possible to overlay customized logo and image on the video. To do that, go to advanced video settings -> Overlay, and select a picture file you prefer. Supported picture formats include .bmp / .jpg / .png / .gif. Choose .png / .gif formats to overlay with transparent background.

  Animated logo is also possible, by selecting an animated GIF file as logo.

  To overlay timestamp, enter %timestamp as overlay text.

  

• Hardware Video Transcoding

  NVIDIA / Intel GPU decoding options are available in advanced video settings -> Misc. Enable GPU decoding with GPU encoding makes transcoding more efficient, as it avoids picture copy between system memory and video card memory. But make sure of the source video encoding first, because only H.264 / HEVC decoding is supported by GPUs.

  If video interlacing / deinterlacing is required, the Scan Type option can be enabled here.

Software Specification