ILMUDPSnk Interface

This is the interface for the LEAD MPEG2 Transport UDP Sink filter.

Use this interface to monitor the performance of the LEAD MPEG2 Transport UDP Sink filter. You can use it to identify if the network connection is not keeping up with the amount of data being sent. There is usually little you can do to increase the throughput of the UDP sink, so it is recommended that you reduce the bitrate of the data being sent by increasing the video and audio compression.

Interface Properties:

Interface Methods:

HRESULT  ResetToDefaultsEx(LMUDPSnk_APILEVEL ApiLevel)

Parameters

Description

Resets the filter to default values. The ApiLevel parameter determines which default values to use. Current applications should set ApiLevel to LMUDPSnk_APILEVEL_1 = 0.

The filter might change in the future and have different properties or default behaviour. Calling this method ensures future versions of the filter will behave the same way as when you developed your application.

It is best to call ResetToDefaultsEx(LMUDPSnk_APILEVEL_1) before you start setting properties and start calling other methods for this interface.

Returns

S_OK if successful, < 0 if an error occurred.

Common Error Codes

HRESULT  GetStatistic(LMUDPSnk_StatisticIndex index, double *pValue)

Parameters

Description

Use this method to obtain statistical information regarding the performance of the filter. Use this method to monitor how much data is being sent and whether the network connection is keeping up with the amount of data you are trying to send.

If you see the filter is constantly waiting for data to be sent and that the buffers are almost full, then you might get better performance if you reduce the throughput by increasing the compression and reducing the frame rate of the data being sent.

This is especially true for network connections with a limited bandwidth (like a VPN). Attempting to stream too much data through a limited network produces poor results on the receiving end. The symptoms on the client side are corrupted video (when the data is sent using RTP or UDP packets), or slower than normal video (when the data is sent using TCP).

If you are experiencing any of these problems, the solution is to send less data.

At the moment, you can monitor 3 types of data:

1. Bitrate (in bits/second) of the stream, including the mpeg2 transport packets

2. Wait time (as a percentage) - how much time is spent waiting for data to be sent by the network. If this value is consistently above 80%, there is a good chance the bitrate is too high for your network connection.

3. Buffers used (as a percentage) - how much data is currently queued up, waiting to be sent. If this value is consistently above 50%, there is a good chance the bitrate is too high for your network connection.

Each of these values can be obtained for the last second or as an average of the last StatisticListLength seconds. For example:

• LMUDPSnk_StatisticIndex_LastBitrate indicates the bitrate of the data sent in the last second.

• LMUDPSnk_StatisticIndex_AvgBitrate indicates the bitrate of the data sent in the last StatisticListLength seconds.

Note that the UDP sink will not drop any data - instead, you can use this information to increase the compression of the data before it gets to the UDP sink. As a general rule, you can reduce the bitrate by decreasing the video bitrate and increasing the compression ratio. In general, you will have better results decreasing the frame rate, as 10fps smooth high quality video looks better than 30fps video that is blocky or jerky.

Returns

S_OK if successful, < 0 if an error occurred.

Common Error Codes

Data Types:

LMUDPSnk_APILEVEL

typedef enum 
{ 
   LMUDPSnk_APILEVEL_1 = 0,  // current version 
} LMUDPSnk_APILEVEL; 

Lists the valid values for the ApiLevel parameter that can be passed to the ResetToDefaultsEx method.

LMUDPSnk_StatisticIndex

Lists the possible statistical values that can be retrieved using the GetStatistic method.

typedef enum 
{ 
   LMUDPSnk_StatisticIndex_LastBitrate = 1, // the number of bits sent in the last second 
   LMUDPSnk_StatisticIndex_AvgBitrate,      // the average bitrate 
   LMUDPSnk_StatisticIndex_LastWaitTime,    // the percentage of time spent waiting for data to be sent 
   LMUDPSnk_StatisticIndex_AvgWaitTime,     // the average percentage of time spent waiting 
   LMUDPSnk_StatisticIndex_LastBuffersUsed, // the percentage of buffers queued up 
   LMUDPSnk_StatisticIndex_AvgBuffersUsed   // the average percentage of buffers in use 
} LMUDPSnk_StatisticIndex;