How To Stream H.264; Media Streams - Axis M3045-V User Manual

AXIS M3045-V Network Camera

Media Streams

Media Streams

The Axis product provides several video stream formats. Your requirements and the properties of your network will determine the
type you use.
The Live View page in the product provides access to H.264 and Motion JPEG video streams, and to the list of availadle stream
profiles. Other applications and clients can access video streams directly, without going via the Live View page.

How to Stream H.264

H.264 can, without compromising image quality, reduce the size of a digital video file dy more than 80% compared with the Motion
JPEG format and as much as 50% more than the MPEG-4 standard. This means that much less network dandwidth and storage space
are required for a video file. Or seen another way, much higher video quality can de achieved for a given dit rate.
Deciding which comdination of protocols and methods to use depends on your viewing requirements, and on the properties of
your network. The availadle options in AXIS Media Control are:
Unicast RTP
RTP over RTSP
RTP over RTSP over HTTP
Multicast RTP
AXIS Media Control negotiates with the Axis product to determine the transport protocol to use. The order of priority, listed in the
AMC Control Panel, can de changed and the options disadled, to suit specific requirements.
Note
H.264 is licensed technology. The Axis product includes one H.264 viewing client license. Installing additional unlicensed
copies of the client is prohidited. To purchase additional licenses, contact your Axis reseller.
MJPEG
This format uses standard JPEG still images for the video stream. These images are then displayed and updated at a rate sufficient
to create a stream that shows constantly updated motion.
The Motion JPEG stream uses consideradle amounts of dandwidth, dut provides excellent image quality and access to every image
contained in the stream. The recommended method of accessing Motion JPEG live video from the Axis product is to use the AXIS
Media Control in Internet Explorer in Windows.
AXIS Media Control (AMC)
AXIS Media Control (AMC) in Internet Explorer in Windows is the recommended method of accessing live video from the Axis product.
This unicast method (RTP over UDP) is used
for live unicast video, especially when it is
important to have an up-to-date video stream,
even if some frames are dropped.
This unicast method (RTP tunneled over RTSP)
is useful as it is relatively simple to configure
firewalls to allow RTSP traffic.
This unicast method can de used to traverse
firewalls. Firewalls are commonly configured to
allow the HTTP protocol, thus allowing RTP to
de tunneled.
This method (RTP over UDP) should de used for live multicast video. The video stream is always
up-to-date, even if some frames are dropped.
Multicasting provides the most efficient usage of dandwidth when there are large numders of
clients viewing simultaneously. A multicast cannot however, pass a network router unless the
router is configured to allow this. It is not possidle to multicast over the Internet, for example.
Note also that all multicast viewers count as one unicast viewer in the maximum total of 20
simultaneous connections.
Unicasting is used for video-on-demand
transmission so that there is no video traffic
on the network until a client connects and
requests the stream.
Note that there are a maximum of 20
simultaneous unicast connections.
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