I made last year a post to introduce a new streaming server : MistServer. From this article, I follow all the updates made by the team. The DDVTech team released the server in version 1.1 the 31th March. The changelog is available too.

Some important formats were updated in this new version : HLS and Smooth Streaming, HTTP Progressive. They added too MPEG TS protocol. The interface get some updates too for a better management. And the most important, the server gets many improvements.

The interface

The main update on the interface is for the protocol section. The Limits are now only available in the LTS (you need to buy it, but it’s only 299€).

The list of the protocols available is more cleanest.

To add or edit a protocol, you will get a specific form. You can choose HTTP or HTTP based protocol, RTMP and TS. We will see the different protocols below.

Formats supported

In this version,  new formats are now supported or the performance to deliver was improved.  MistServer interface is very easy to use and manage if you want to make a try. For the HTTP based protocol, you need to create first a HTTP protocol on a specific interface and port.

HTTP Dynamic Streaming

This format was already available in previous version, but the template of the url changed :

http://[ip_address]:[port]/dynamic/[stream_name]/manifest.f4m

You can test the content with an OSMF player.

HTTP Smooth Streaming

The Microsoft’s protocol works now well with the last version. I tested it 3 months ago but the video doesn’t stream well (lags, buffering, etc…). It’s now fixed.

http://[ip_address]:[port]/smooth/[stream_name].ism/Manifest

Here is a distant Smooth player

HTTP Live Streaming

This format is used by the iOS devices (iPhone / iPad / iPod) and by some Android devices.

http://[ip_address]:[port]/hls/[stream_name]/index.m3u8

You can test your content with an Quicktime player or a VLC player.

This format is currently in progress. The dev team is improving the performance of this format.

HTTP Progressive

With MistServer, you can deliver too the content via HTTP Progressive download. You just need to call the movie as a FLV file or MP3 file (for audio only).

http://[ip_address]:[port]/[stream_name].flv
http://[ip_address]:[port]/[stream_name].mp3

You can read flv with a Flash based player. Or, I read a specific trick (on Mist mailing list) for Android, you just make a <a> link pointing to the flv. Android detects MimeType and suggests one of the player.

RTMP

RTMP is a format provided by Adobe. You can read RTMP stream with some players.
In MistServer interface, add a new protocol RTMP. By default, the port is 1935.

rtmp://[server]:[port]/*/[streamname]

TS

As the CTO of DDVTech told me, TS is a raw stream. You can deliver a single stream once you are connected to. In the interface, you need to provide which stream you want to deliver.

tcp://[server]:[port]/

You can try the stream with VLC for example.

To conclude, this version makes available some good functionalities and the team help us quickly on the different communication channels (GoogleGroup, IRC). To avoid the load, we can make some optimization in the architecture based on Mist. We will see it in a next post. Have fun when you test it !

Update 18/04/2013 : DDVTech published a version 1.1.1 with some bug fixes (changelog).