QVidium QVSD User Manual

Q V i d i um® T E C H N O LOGIES, INC.

QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

For Broadcast and Professional Video Applications

Model: #QVSD

User‟s Manual v.3

September 14, 2011

Application Firmware Version 28

2011 QVidium® Technologies, Inc.

12989 Chaparral Ridge Road, San Diego, CA 92130

Phone 858.792.6407 • Fax 858.792.9131

User‟s Manual v.3 QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

Table of Contents

1 Introduction............................................................................................................. 4

1.1 Overview

1.2 Network Setup

1.3 Ping

1.4 Passwords and Security

1.5 Updating

1.6 System View

2 Encoder Configuration

2.1 Configuring the Encoder - Overview

2.2 Basic Encoding Configuration

2.3 Configuring Packet Transport & Error Correction

2.4 Advanced Video Encoding Configuration

3 Encoder Operation

3.1

Starting and Stopping the Encoder ............................................................ 17

3.2 Adjusting Encoder Audio Levels

3.3

Dynamically Changing the Video Encoding Bitrate ................................. 18

3.4

Configuring the Encoder for RTSP and Server Mode ............................. 19

4 Decoder Configuration and Operation

4.1

Decoding Profile and Web Interface .......................................................... 20

4.2

Starting the Decoder ..................................................................................... 23

4.3

Stopping and Reconfiguring the Decoder ................................................. 24

4.4

Configuring Packet Transport & Error Correction .................................... 24

5 Transcoding 6 Importing, Exporting, & Resetting Profiles 7 System Management

7.1

Access Configuration .................................................................................... 30

7.2

SNMP Trap Configuration ............................................................................ 31

8 Codec Manager

8.1

Codec Manager ............................................................................................. 32

8.2

Resetting the Network Parameters ............................................................ 32

8.3

Resetting the Password ............................................................................... 32

8.4

Re-installing the Application Software ....................................................... 33

9 Encoding & Decoding to/from Files

9.1 Mounting and Un-mounting an External Storage Device

9.2 Encoding to a File

9.3 Playing Video From a File 10 Known Problems 11 Troubleshooting & Support

11.1 Troubleshooting – Common Problems

11.2 Support 12 Appendices

12.1 Appendix A: Encoder Configuration Parameters

12.2 Appendix B: Decoder Configuration Parameters

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& System Resets ................................................................... 32

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User‟s Manual v.3 QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

12.3 Appendix C: H.264 SD Video Codec™ Bitrate Limits

12.4 Appendix D: Hints for Minimizing Bitrates

12.5 Appendix E: Technical Specifications

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12.6 Appendix F: Product Warranty Terms and Conditions

12.7 Appendix G:

FCC Notice

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User‟s Manual v.3 QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

1 Introduction

Congratulations on purchasing the QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™.

QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™ – Front View

1.1 Overview

The QVidium QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™ can encode, decode, or transcode standard or high definition video using either MPEG2 (main profile) or MPEG4-AVC (Part 10, H.264 High Profile, Level 4.1) compression, and to interface a video feed from a wide range of video standards and connections for transport over nearly any IP network. The H.264 SD Video Codec™ includes QVidium‟s patented, advanced ARQ Error Correction and clock synchronization. With these advanced Quality of Service (QoS) features, the H.264 SD Video Codec™ can send video over nearly any network and across the world, including wireless connections and the public Internet, with unsurpassed video transport quality and state-of-the-art video compression for minimizing bandwidth.

1.2 Network Setup

The H.264 SD Video Codec™ comes with a factory preset IP address of 192.168.1.23 and Netmask of 255.255.255.0. You can download and run our CodecManager application to determine or change the IP settings, even when the IP address has been reset to an unknown address. Please refer to Section 8 of this manual for configuration using the CodecManager application.

The H.264 SD Video Codec™ can also be reconfigured through a web browser when you know the IP address. Follow the steps below to reconfigure the network settings through a web browser on a computer connected to the same subnet as the Codec.

1) Point your web browser to http://192.168.1.23 NOTE: The H.264 SD Video Codec™ requires user authentication to enter the web browser or to

log in using Telnet. The factory preset username is “root” and the password is also “root.” Please enter these settings when prompted to access the system.

User‟s Manual v.3 QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

2) Click on “Configure” under the “Network” menu on the left. You should see a web page similar to the following network configuration web page:

3) Change settings as desired and click “Apply”.

4) If you change the IP address, you will need to change the URL in the web browser to point to the new address after clicking on “Apply”.

The Network Configure panel allows you to modify the static IP address parameters and DNS server settings, or to have these settings automatically configured through DHCP. A Hostname panel allows you to specify the host name for use in conjunction with a DNS server to assign a predetermined IP address.

Note on Resetting IP Address: In case you change the IP address or select DHCP and cannot determine the IP address, you use the QVidium application, CodecManager that you can download from the Downloads page of www.qvidium.com. Alternatively, you can connect the Console serial port to log into the Linux shell and change the IP address or other settings. To reset the IP settings, connect a PC running a terminal emulator, such we Hyperterm or TeraTerm at 57,600 Baud (8-N-1, no flow control) and type “ifconfig eth0 <IP address>,” where <IP address> is replaced by the desired IP address, for example, “ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.23”. Alternatively, upon power-up the Codec will emit a gratuitous ARP packet from which you can determine its IP address by using a packet snifter or network monitor such as Wireshark (from www.wireshark.org).

Or, go to http://www.qvidium.com/reset, copy the “autorun” file on a USB flash, and plug flash into QVSD. This will reset all IP network settings. (File must be “autorun” and not “autorun.txt”.)

User‟s Manual v.3 QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

1.3 Ping

Selecting Ping allows you to test network connectivity by sending ping packets to an address or hostname you specify. However, to use a hostname in place of an IP address, you must have configured at least one DNS server.

User‟s Manual v.3 QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

1.4 Passwords and Security

The QVidium H.264 SD Video Codec™ requires a username and password to protect access to its configuration settings. This includes both Web access and Telnet access. The default user name is “root” and the default password is also initially set to “root.” You can change the password by selecting the Password menu item under the System Menu at the upper left of the Web page.

Note on Resetting Password: If you lose the password and need to reset it, you can go to

http://www.qvidium.com/reset, click on Reset Password, copy the “autorun” file onto a USB flash,

and plug flash into QVSD. This will reset the root password back to “root”. (File must be saved as “autorun” and not “autorun.txt”.) You must have physical access to the USB ports on the QVSD to use this procedure.

1.5 Updating

QVidium provides firmware updates from time to time to add new features, overcome limitations, or to fix bugs. You can find these new update packages on the QVidium Web Site under Support or by going to: http://www.qvidium.com/QVSD. QVidium provides these update as a .pkg file that you can upload into the Codec via the web browser interface. To perform an upgrade, you must perform the following steps:

1) Stop the Encoder, Decoder, and Transcoder if any of these functions are running.

2) Power cycle the system to clear memory.

3) Copy the upgrade .pkg file into a convenient location on your PC.

4) Point your web browser to the Codec and click on “Upgrade” in the “System” menu.

5) Click on the “Browse” button and locate the upgrade file.

6) Click on “Upgrade” and wait for the upgrade to finish. DO NOT DISCONNECT FROM POWER OR INTERRUPT THIS OPERATION UNTIL IT COMPLETES.

7) Click on “Reboot” from the system menu to reboot the Codec.

As part of this update, the update will be stopping and restarting the HTTP Daemon in the codec.

Note: Sometimes, a web browser will not be able to continue to reconnect to the new HTTP Daemon after it restarts, causing you to no longer see the update progress. If this happens,

please wait 2 minutes, after which it would be safe to power-cycle the codec so that it can boot from the new update. You can then check under System/Version to confirm that you have

the new firmware.

User‟s Manual v.3 QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

1.6 System View

Front View – Computer Interface ports and Indicators

(All indicator lights either glow green or are off.)

Ref Indicator/Switch Description

1 Video Glows green with active Composite or S-Video input.

2 Power Glows green when the power is connected and unit is on. 3 Reset Various reset functions. See description in manual.

Ref Port Description

5 USB 2 USB 2.0 Ports (external storage or LCD console). 6 Console RS-232 Console Interface via DB-9 Connector. 7 LAN LAN1 & LAN2, 10/100/1000-Base-TX Gigabit Ethernet Ports.

User‟s Manual v.3 QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

Rear View – Power, Video/Audio I/O Connectors, & RS-232 Port

Ref Component Description

1 DC Power 7 VDC to 20 VDC (1 to 3 Amps) alternative DC power input. 2 S-Video Input NTSC/PAL/SECAM composite analog video input. 3 Composite Input NTSC/PAL/SECAM composite analog video input. 4 Audio Inputs Mini-phono stereo analog audio inputs. 5 Composite Output NTSC/PAL/SECAM analog video output. 6 Audio Outputs Mini-phono stereo analog audio output connectors.

Note: Serial number (not shown) is located above DC power connector.

Important Safety Information:

For PLUGGABLE EQUIPMENT, the socket-outlet shall be installed near the

equipment and shall be easily accessible.

CAUTION: The QVSD Codec contains an internal 3V. Lithium battery. RISK OF

EXPLOSION IF BATTERY IS REPLACED BY AN INCORRECT TYPE. USE ONLY PANASONIC CR2032 20MM COIN-TYPE BATTERY OR EQUIVALENT. DISPOSE OF USED BATTERIES ACCORDING TO THE INSTRUCTIONS.

User‟s Manual v.3 QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

The encoder is configured and operated from a web browser. This section explains how to configure the Codec‟s encoding parameters.

2.1 Configuring the Encoder - Overview

1. Enter http://<IPAddress> where <IPAddress> is the IP address of the QVidium QVSD

2. Click on “Profile” under “Encoder” from the menu on the left. “The Encoder Profile”

3. Enter the destination IP address and UDP port number for the decoder, media server, or

2.2 Basic Encoding Configuration

As shown in Figure 1a, you can select the video input source, and set the video and audio encoding format and bitrates. For the QVSD codec, the Video Input can be either Composite or SVideo. The QVSD codec will automatically detect and adjust for the input video resolution and format (PAL vs. NTSC vs. SECAM). You can also use the advanced encoding parameters (Section

2.4) to scale the video resolution and frame-rate. The QVSD can output the encoded video stream either as a Variable Bit Rate (VBR) IP stream, or

(in a forthcoming firmware release) a Constant Bit Rate (CBR) IP stream. When CBR mode is supported, enter the total desired output bitrate, including audio and video feeds, as the Stream Bit Rate. In this mode, it will ignore the Video Bit Rate parameter. At present, this mode is not functional.

For VBR mode, enter the desired peak video encoding bit rate in bits per second as the Video Bit Rate parameter. A VBR stream optimizes IP network efficiency by eliminating unnecessary null packets from the media stream. The encoder will use the Video Bit Rate number as an upper limit on video data bursts. In general, the video rate may be less than this rate, depending upon video content. To calculate the maximum peak IP data rate, you must add to this video bit rate the audio bitrate plus any transport-stream multiplexing and network packetization overhead (usually between 5 and 10%).

Note: Be aware that the user interface will not warn you if you try to enter a bit rate beyond the operating limits of the codec. For more details on the range of MPEG encoding bit rates, please

see Appendix C (Section 12.3). For more information on the various video parameters (Frame

Encoder Configuration

H.264 SD Video Codec™ that you want to configure. (The default address is http://192.168.1.23.)

interface should display in the main area to the right of the menu system, as shown in Figure 1.

network equipment that will be receiving the stream. Enter the desired Video Bit Rate (in bps), and modify the other audio and video parameters, such as Video Input, and Audio Bitrate (in Kbps), to suit your needs, as shown in Figure 1a, and explained below.

Press the “Save” button to save your changes. None of your changes will be saved nor have any effect unless you first save them. If you have any doubt about the parameters selected when running the encoder, you should click on Profile after saving the parameters or starting the coder to see the current operational encoder settings.

User‟s Manual v.3 QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

Rate, Encoding, Format, Resolution, etc.) please see Appendix A (Section 12.1). For SD video, you can select either MPEG2 or MPEG4-AVC (H.264) Video Encoding.

Figure 1a: Basic Encoder Configuration.

2.3 Configuring Packet Transport & Error Correction

The QVidium H.264 SD Video Codec™ features some of the most powerful and advanced error correction capabilities found in any video over IP product. The QVidium H.264 SD Video Codec™ implements QVidium‟s patented ARQ error correction and clock synchronization (US Patents #7,551,647 and #7,522,528) for the more robust video transmission with the lowest delay. QVidium‟s ARQ (Automatic Retransmission Request) is a dynamically adjusting feedback error correction mechanism designed specifically to enable the highest quality video transport over wireless networks and the Internet. ARQ senses packet loss at the receiver and requests replacement packets from the server. ARQ can provide nearly flawless reproduction of a video stream even through extremely lossy or congested networks.

The QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™ minimizes network bandwidth and loading due to its extremely efficient encoding and video transport. The SD Video Codec™ implements MPEG4-AVC (H.264) High Profile (Levels 4 and 4.1) video encoding, providing advanced coding techniques in hardware, such as CABAC processing, not normally found in other MPEG4 codecs. Our codec

User‟s Manual v.3 QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

also features variable bit rate (VBR) transport, which strips out unnecessary null packets from the video transport stream to minimize network loading.

The QVSD supports QVidium‟s patented ARQ error correction. ARQ is a robust feedback-based error correction that can successfully recover nearly all packet loss, even in harsh network environments. However, because of support for CBR, the QVSD also will be supporting SMPTE2022 (ProMPEG) Forward Error Correction (FEC). Because the ProMPEG FEC specification does not support VBR streams, you must use CBR mode when using ProMPEG FEC. However, as FEC cannot anticipate varying network conditions nor correct many common forms of packet loss, we suggest using ARQ wherever possible.

In contrast with FEC, QVidium‟s ARQ is a feedback mechanism that detects packet loss at the receiver and requests the retransmission of only those lost packets from a video source. A userconfigurable buffer at the receiver (decoder) delays the video stream just long enough to allow the system to replace any missing packets and re-insert them in their proper order without disturbing play out of the video stream. Because ARQ senses actual packet loss, rather than attempt to predict packet loss, it can precisely and completely restore all lost packets without disturbing timing of the video play out. In contrast to FEC, ARQ can successfully recover lost packets regardless of the magnitude or pattern of the packet losses, provided that the network connection has enough capacity to send both the original video stream and the replacement packets.

ARQ shares similarities with robust packet transport protocols, such as TCP/IP in that both use feedback to create robust network packet transport. However TCP/IP uses a sliding window that limits the number of packets that a source can have in transit and requires a positive acknowledgement for each window of packets. This limits TCP‟s throughput, especially over links with long latencies. Furthermore, under heavy loss conditions, TCP/IP scales back the data transmission rates and provides no concise deadlines or constraints on packet delivery times. For real-time video, this limits the usefulness of TCP/IP and makes it unacceptable for live, low-latency video transport.

In contrast with TCP/IP, QVidium designed its patented ARQ error correction specifically for live, interactive, real-time video and audio signals to automatically recover nearly all lost packets with minimal latency and over nearly any link loss conditions. It adds a small configurable amount of delay to the network transport in exchange for significantly improving the robustness and reliability of video transport.

This section explains how to configure the video transport capabilities of the QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™ and how to enable ARQ error correction.

2.3.1 Configuring Video over IP Network Parameters

To configure the IP network parameters, within the Network Parameters section of the encoder profile, select among RTSP, ARQ, RTP, or UDP packet transport. Also, specify the destination IP address and UDP port number. The destination IP address may be a multicast or a unicast IP address. The encoder encapsulates the video and audio signals as UDP packets in all cases, regardless of the type of packet transport you select. Specifying UDP eliminates the RTP header and encapsulates the encoder‟s multiplexed MPEG-2 transport stream directly as the payload of the UDP packet. All the other transport selections add an RTP header to the UDP packet stream. The RTP header adds a timestamp and packet sequence number before inserting the MPEG-2 transport stream packets into the RTP/UDP/IP packet payload.

All of these transport types insert an integral number of 188-byte MPEG-2 transport stream packets into the packet payload as specified by the TS packets per IP packet parameter. The IP encapsulation adheres to the IETF/RFC 2733 standard for video over IP that specifies that the packet payload must comprise an integral number of whole MPEG-2 transport stream packets within an RTP header, so all transport types, aside from UDP-only, are compatible with the

User‟s Manual v.3 QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

ProMPEG Forum‟s standard and the IETF/RFC 2733 standard.

User‟s Manual v.3 QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

2.3.2

To enable Automatic Retransmission Request (ARQ), you must first select ARQ transport from the Profile dialog. ARQ transport must also be enabled at the decoder. With ARQ selected and the encoder started, the encoder will begin to save outgoing packets for later retransmission, when necessary. You must also be certain to configure any firewalls to allow the ARQ retransmission request packets through. The default port for these upstream ARQ request packets is UDP port 7020, although you can configure this to any other valid, non-conflicting UDP port. However, if you choose to change the ARQ request port, you must make certain the settings at the encoder and decoder match.

At the receiver, the ARQ error correction mechanism first buffers incoming packets in a synchronized network de-jitter buffer that maintains a constant, configurable delay for incoming packets. The de-jitter buffer processes RTP sequence numbers and reorders packets as necessary to restore proper packet sequence and to buffer against erratic network delays. Its goal is to output a smooth, consistent flow of packets with increasing sequence numbers. This output feeds the ARQ error correction mechanism.

The ARQ unit at the receiver watches for gaps in RTP sequence number from the de-jitter buffer output, and immediately sends out retransmission requests when necessary. Incoming retransmitted ARQ packets bypass the de-jitter queue and find their correct place in the ARQ buffer, so that by the time packet are output by the ARQ buffer, the ARQ error correction mechanism should no longer contain any missing packets.

When the encoder and decoder are both started, the decoder automatically measures the roundtrip delay and packet jitter to the encoder and automatically configures ARQ for optimal operation according to a few basic user-specified parameters, as described in Section 2.3.2.

Error Correction - ARQ: Automatic Retransmission Request

Note: For testing ARQ error correction, select ARQ transport at both the encoder and decoder and use the default ARQ parameters at the decoder (receiver).

2.4 Advanced Video Encoding Configuration

The encoder has a set of advanced configuration settings that you can configure from the Advanced Encoder Profile tab as shown in Figure 1b below. These parameters are divided into 3 sections: Advanced Encoding parameters, Output parameters, and Network parameters.

Warning: Some combinations of parameters can cause the encoder to malfunction. QVidium does not test nor can it support all possible combinations of parameters. However, our philosophy is to allow the user to have the flexibility of setting these parameters to suit his needs and make the decision for himself as to whether the resulting operation meets the needs of his application. To get the system into a known reliable configuration, simply click Default. This will reset all the advanced parameters to known good values.

Advanced Encoding Parameters:

Capture Closed Caption (CC): (Currently implemented for MPEG2 SD video only, but soon to

support H.264 and SD video in a forthcoming firmware release.) Setting this to Yes will allow the encoder to pass certain data on Line 21 into the video stream. In the current firmware release, the QVSD may not produce compatible Closed Captioned video, even for SD MPEG2 video. It has only been tested to work with VLC. We expect these constraints to be lifted with the upcoming firmware release when closed captioning and teletext becomes fully supported.

User‟s Manual v.3 QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

Figure 1b: Advanced Encoder Configuration.

Low Delay: This parameter enables a low latency mode that will generally reduce the total end-to-end latency to between ½ second and one second.

Audio Channels: Normally this is set to two for stereo audio encoding. You can set this to one for monaural audio to reduce audio bitrate. WARNING: Setting this to 1 channel can cause the encoder to unexpectedly halt under certain circumstances.

Video Filtering: Enabling Video Filtering applies a special pre-filter to the video input, allowing more efficient video encoding.

Video Frame Rate and Resolution (for SD): Normally, the encoder automatically detects the frame rate and resolution of the video input signal. Setting these values allows you to override the original input signal to reduce the frame rate and/or resolution, enabling very low output encoding bitrates, such as for broadband wireless connections.

Video Aspect Ratio: This sets a bit in the video stream to tell the display device what output aspect ratio to display.

Number P Frames: This sets the number or Predictive frames in the Group-of-Pictures (GOP). Unless you need a specific GOP, you should set this to Auto.

User‟s Manual v.3 QVidium® QVSD H.264 SD Video Codec™

Number B Frames: This sets the number of Bi-Directional frames in the GOP. Unless you need a specific GOP, you should set this to Auto. The GOP can be calculated by the formula:

GOP = (P+1)*(B+1).

Thus, for all I-Frames (GOP=1), you would set P=0 and B=0. For Baseline Profile, the B parameter is ignored (internally set to 0).

MPEG4 Profile and Level: This sets the H.264 profile and level. Auto uses the best possible encoding for the given parameters. Use this for backward compatibility with decoders that cannot handle the more advanced encoding features. If you see jerky video on a decoder and there is no packet loss and the CPU is not overloaded, then you may want to try lower values for these settings.

Control Parameters:

Error Handling: Enable this feature when high reliability is required. When set to Reboot or

Restart, this feature starts a supervisory monitoring process that will reboot or restart the encoder when the encoder halts for any reason. Restarting the encoder is very fast (less than a second), but may not recover from all types of errors. Restarting can take up to 23 seconds, but will recover from nearly any error.

Output Parameters:

PMT, Video, Audio, and PCR PID: Changing these values changes the values for the

respective PIDs.

Network Parameters:

TS packets per IP packet: This sets the number of 188-byte MPEG-2 transport stream

packets per UDP/IP output packet payload. The default of 7 sets the payload to 1316 bytes, which minimizes the IP packetization overhead. A lower value results in a higher output packet rate.

Use Pacing: Because the video stream is VBR (variable bit rate), an I-Frame (Key Frame) may generate a large burst of IP packets. Pacing adds output buffering and regulates the output packet rate to attempt to equalize the output packet rate and reduce burstiness.

Network Bonding and LAN1 Bonding Percent: Network bonding is a special feature designed for broadband wireless and other network links where a single network link has insufficient bandwidth for the video and instead you wish to take advantage of both Ethernet ports on the codec. Setting this parameter to true distributes the video load across both When the two network links are asymmetric, LAN1 Bonding Percent specifies the relative distribution of Ethernet packets among the two Ethernet ports. The default, 50 splits the load to 50% on each Ethernet port.

ARQ Buffers: This controls the amount of memory allocated for storing outgoing packets for possible later retransmission by the ARQ error correction. The default is 1024, which is generally enough for normal operation for bitrates under 5 Mbps. This setting allows enough memory to also run the decoder at the same time for SD video. However, you should increase this to 4096 when encoding SD video, or when using encoding at bitrates higher than 5 Mbps. However, you must not start the decoder when running the encoder with this parameter set to

4096.

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