Server not found issue

I think now my problem is been solved, as i see that i can not play videos if i am b/h proxy, as it must be run with direct internet.

We have a known issue with RTMPE with certain types of proxy servers, that cause the fallback to tunneled RTMPE to break. We are going to fix this in an update to our Flash player that should happen soon. Alternatively I can also enable HTTP delivery for your account, which is less sensitive to firewalls etc.

At the end of the day both RTMP and HTTP have their own distinct advantages and disadvantages, but we think that for most purposes RTMP offers the best tradeoff, especially once we have addressed this proxy issue.

Hi, I am getting this issue as well. Is this a widespread issue? Same as Omega this is a bad first impression. I don't think my internet is particularly special so I wonder will this happen for a lot of my customers? Is it possible to enable the HTTP version for my account as well?

Hi Matt, Tuesday we will roll out a player update that will fix one of the issue that we are aware of. It might be best to wait and see if that fixes it for you too.

Thanks, I'll check following the update.

The fix I talked about has been deployed this morning. Please let me know if you still see issues.

Hi Remco

I'm sorry to report that I had this issue today at 20:00hrs GMT.
I was in a hotel on WIFI, showing someone my first BOTR streamed film and unfortunately it didn't work... : (

I got the same message as Omega ITech.

I will test it in various locations over the coming days and report back.

Also, what is edgecastcdn.net?

Thank you

Declan

Edgecast is our content delivery network. There is a possibility that some types of firewalls just hard block streaming video servers. Unfortunately this is almost impossible to debug remotely. If you like I can switch your account type over to HTTP streaming, that should work in almost any condition.

If you give me a video key of a video in your account I will have enough information to be able to switch over your account to HTTP delivery.

I may experiencing a similar problem. I have several videos to my site. Only one them does not play it returns this error: Server not found: rtmpte://fms.413C.edgecastcdn.net:80/004 . Followed by Stream not found: conversions/KAkQwUwN/videos/YKw4VBU7-1469128.mp4?eee6cc8084bc02b3096443468bd6269a25236a7cc572265bd240c0dbe086cf7d3f16edd2cf180f6cce7cdd7169f0a77ff0351e05353523e0b7d3e2b44028993dab857ba947fa6e12933e63ee508beaf6730efe2ab1a487d71d30141a16b8df8f6dbf779f93c8b2f37ac41bd2d251ee0b

The video does not work on the preview part of the BOTR dashboard. However BOTR has correctly uploaded the video You Tube where it plays correctly.

What do I do?

Our CDN, Edgecast had issues earlier today. These should now be fixed and things should be working or start to work quickly.

Remco. I use a Mac with Safari, Firefox and Chrome. The videos are working in Firefox and Chrome now but I still get the edgecast error in Safari. Could you change my account over to HTTP? I would not like my customers to see this error as it doesn't give a good first impression.

That's really strange. I have never seen this before, we test in Safari and I have never seen this report before either for only one browser, so I suspect that something else is wrong and this is not common for real users, so I would be very much incline to advise against forcing HTTP in this particular case.

You can force videos to play back in HTTP by editing your players, going to the behavior subtab and at bitrate switching force a template rather than using bitrate switching. When a single template is forced the player will use HTTP.

Hi Remco

Thank you for your reply and offer to change my account to HTTP.

I would like to learn more about the pros and cons of both RTMP and HTTP before I make a decision, I will research your docs and forums for info and maybe a bit of "Googling".

One question though...
Does this mean:
It is possible when someone views a BOTR (RTMP) served video in a public wifi zone, it may have a greater chance of being blocked by a firewall than a BOTR (HTTP) served video?

Kind regards

Declan

I have researched this some more and I now know that the answer to my last question is yes.

I noticed that your documentation states that JW Player can get around this issue and also you had mentioned that there was now a fix in place for this.
When possible, can you please update me on the status of this fix?

I have some more video I would like to place on BOTR, so that I can soon become a paying customer, however I need to understand any issues/potential issues however small they may be. At the moment this "Server Not Found" issue is a small bit of a concern, because I am moving my content to BOTR to improve the delivery of my video.

I will continue to read about RTMP vs HTTP and I will make a decision soon.

Kind regards

Declan

Spot on, that player behavior change made it work in Safari as well. I have decided to go with a size below my normal video size and then offer the HD button so that people can watch it in better quality. Not ideal but at least it will not be blocked.

We rolled out the fix that fixed one issue with firewalls. We are not going to switch accounts between HTTP and RTMP anymore by the way, because in the long run we're going to stop supporting HTTP bitrate switching, as that has a couple of performance and reliability issues too.

The forcing a single template and optionally using the HD button is much better (and results in a Vimeo-like experiences, so it is something users are used to).

Hi Remco

I used to offer a 640x360 flv version and (using a HD Plug-in) a 1920x1080 version of each film on a JW Player.
I decided to try BOTR because was having issues with some viewers in lower speed broadband areas and I wanted to support iPad, smart phones and other mobile devices.
The broadband speeds in Ireland are generally poor, with too high of a percentage of the population still unable to get dsl (landline) broadband, leaving lots of people depending on the small plug-in modem that gives approximately between .2mb - 2mb download, the adaptive streaming on BOTR would be a great solution.
Also, mobile devices can't depend on good signal strength, quality or consistency either and wifi zones are used quite a bit, this may include corporate wifi in hotels etc...

You can see why I would love to use BOTR for streaming...
I really like BOTR and like the idea of fully integrating it into my work, however I am now concerned that the RTMP would let us down in particular with business users who may be on a local corporate wifi network...

My question:
Do you think it might be possible to code it into each of my BOTR players, that in a situation where a corporate firewall blocks the stream (from BOTR), it will request for fallback to a HTTP streamed version of a video hosted on my own website??
I use JavaScript to deliver my videos and a lightbox effect around the videos, maybe this could also be used to detect a request from BOTR to deliver the HTTP video..?

This would mean all bases are covered... I should add that I am not a programmer/developer/software engineer and I'm a fairly new to the video world so what I'm asking might be a little...emm... out there! : )

Sorry for long post

Kind regards

Declan

I don't think that building such a fallover is very feasible. I also very much doubt that it is very necessary. We server millions of video views over RTMP every day, and there are relatively few issues, so the only time I would say it is worth to make a non-RTMP player is available is if you are actually getting reports from real users that they are having issues.

Hi Remco

Thank you for you reply, I appreciate your opinion.

Do you think it would be feasible/sensible to place a "Report An Issue" button or something similar for our viewers? Linked back to my own account of course.
At least then we would have a better chance at finding out that viewers are having difficulty in certain locations and we can continue to evaluate it??

I would appreciate your thoughts on this, as I am genuinely concerned that a portion of the business world would have issues with viewing our videos from BOTR.

Kindest regards

Declan Brennan

I'm afraid that we don't have any back-end infrastructure to handle such a "report an issue" idea right now. If this is so much of a concern you could add a link to a page with an HTTP player underneath a video player that people can go to if they have any problems seeing a video.

While I understand your concern, I have no indication that issues watching videos are widespread other than some exceptional circumstances.

If you want to take no risk whatsoever you should simply use the fixed template with HD button that we offer.

Hi Remco

Thank you for your helpful suggestion.

I will look closer at the idea of placing a link to a HTTP player if the RTMP player is blocked by a corporate firewall.
It is indeed a concern because part of my new business is in the area of business marketing films which are likely to be viewed in corporate environments.
I'm sure that it would be a rare situation that a firewall blocks the stream and as long as I have a "Plan B" in place it will be fine.

When I come up with a suitably simple solution I will post here or somewhere on the forum, as I'm sure some of your customers would also be interested.

All the best and thank you so much for your time.

Declan Brennan

Hi there

I have recently started using BOTR and someone told me they are getting the server not found rtmpe error. They are not behind a firewall or proxy, but an ADSL router - obviously some firewalling or proxy taking place there. So many of my potential visitors could be using this technology to connect to the internet, so how could I possibly prevent this problem? I do not have the problem on my 3g router or on my ipad. Any more fixes to be rolled out soon?

Many thanks

Ian

See the workaround I mentioned before in this thread:

You can force videos to play back in HTTP by editing your players, going to the behavior subtab and at bitrate switching force a template rather than using bitrate switching. When a single template is forced the player will use HTTP.

We do not have any more updates to RTMP streaming planned, as far as we are aware we have done all we can to make it work now.

RTMPE is a very solid and common technology, works almost everywhere and gives you a reasonable level of security, and it helps you to save costs because it doesn't buffer the whole video, while you cannot for that with HTTP delivery, so for all these reasons RTMPE delivery is the default, but in a pinch you can still enable HTTP in the aforementioned manner.

Hi there

I tried editing my players, but could find no 'behaviour' tab?

Many thanks

Ian

Oh - think I see what you mean - under playback? So if I select a similar size template, will it still take my custom size by default, and will it still stream under normal conditions?

Thanks, Ian

I don't understand your question fully, but I expect you're indeed on the right track.

Hi Remco

My first question - I selected a template, it has a specific size. Will this affect the custom size I set for my player?

Second question - does normal streaming still happen?

Am I forcing http streaming now for all clients or just those behind a proxy?

I see the size and streaming still looks ok on my pc and network, need to get my tester to give me feedback...

Many thanks

Ian

It just means that the player will use that size video no matter what, in full screen or in a small window.

This means that HTTP streaming will happen instead of RTMP streaming for all clients.

With HTTP streaming you will still be able to seek in the video etc. etc.

Ok, thanks - understand about the http streaming. However, my videos are remaining the custom size on my site, contradicting your response, but I'm quite happy with this obviously. Need to see what happens behind that router now...will give feedback tomorrow. Thank you, you've been of tremendous assistance, now to get the videos playing on Android...