Introduction

This help file provides API platform information for the LEADTOOLS Media Streaming software development toolkit (SDK).

LEADTOOLS Media Streaming SDK

The LEADTOOLS Media Streaming SDK is designed to provide developers with a full range of the tools required to quickly and easily create professional, high-quality multimedia streaming applications capable of streaming to any device. With LEADTOOLS, using just a few lines of code, you can add multimedia streaming that simultaneously supports industry standard protocols from single source videos.

The LEADTOOLS Media Streaming SDK is ideal for developers who wish to create servers or web sites for streaming large amounts of multimedia content. The SDK makes it easy to stream the video stored in one format (MP4) to any available device. Source files are stored as MP4 and are automatically converted from MP4 to whatever format is required by the streaming specification for the device on which the video is being viewed (for example, the Apple HTTP Live Streaming specification uses an MPEG2 Transport container, so LEADTOOLS will automatically convert MP4 to MPEG2 Transport on-the-fly).  This allows the content provider to maintain content in only MP4 format and stream to all devices.

The SDK also makes it possible for live streaming from a variety of sources. Streams with compatible H264 data can be streamed without recompression, while others will be recompressed on the fly using H264 video and AAC audio compression.

See the LEADTOOLS Media Streaming SDK in action by browsing to: http://demo.leadtools.com/mediastreaming/player.html

Key Features

Multiple Protocol Support

• Adobe Flash RTMP  – for any web browser that has Adobe Flash installed
• HTML5 Video – for most web browsers (PC and mobile devices) ** File streaming only **
• Apple HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) – for Apple iPad / iPhone and Android devices
• RTSP/RTP – for web browsers with the Apple Quicktime or VLC RTSP plugin installed or any application that supports RTSP
• RTSP/RTP (MPEG-2 transport) – for web browsers with Apple Quicktime or VLC RTSP plugin installed or any application that supports RTSP
• RTSP/RTP over HTTP – for web browsers with Apple Quicktime or VLC RTSP plugin installed or any application that supports RTSP
• MPEG-DASH – for most web browsers that have Adobe Flash
• Adobe HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS) – for most web browsers that have Adobe Flash installed
• Microsoft Smooth Streaming (SSF) – for web browsers with Microsoft Silverlight installed

Note: The Windows 10 Anniversary Update includes changes to Microsoft Edge that affect how Flash content is displayed. If you are enabling Flash with the LEADTOOLS Media Server and testing on Microsoft Edge, refer to Windows 10 Update Effects On Edge.

Live Streaming Support      

• Create live streaming applications from multiple sources:
  • Webcams and other DirectShow capture devices (including HDTV)
  • IP network cameras
  • RTSP, ONVIF, or UDP streams
  • RTP/TCP/UDP MPEG2 Transport streams
• Find, configure and stream from IP cameras with ONVIF capabilities
• Avoid recompressing when streaming from live sources using compatible H264 compression
• Control H264 hardware decoding
• Take advantage of Quick Sync Video (QSV) or CUDA hardware acceleration
• Implement activate-on-demand live streaming
• Perform live streaming using any protocol (except HTML5 which uses file streaming only)

Support for HTTPS (secure HTTP over SSL streaming)

• Use the same server for streaming over HTTP (unsecure) or HTTPS (secure).

Windows Native Code

• Written in Windows Native Code, for exceptional performance.

Video-on-Demand

• A single source media file can be used for all of the protocols. When necessary, the file is transcoded in real time to support the particular protocol requested by the client.  LEADTOOLS uses H264 compression for video and AAC compression for audio.

Custom logging

• Application designers can supply their own custom logging interface.
• The server can create IIS-style logs that can be viewed as text or with any tool capable of parsing IIS logs.

Independent Server Object

• Application designers can host multiple servers within the same application.

Simple configuration

• Configuration is modified through an easy-to-use API
• Configuration is serialized, in a user-modifiable XML format, to a string or a file.
• Configuration supports application-defined properties for additional customization.

Product Demonstrations

• Fully functioning Windows executable and Windows service server demos are provided, with full source code.
• HTML example code is provided to demonstrate each protocol in the client machine's browser.

Requirements

LEADTOOLS Media Streaming API features require DirectShow 8.0 or later to be installed. There are also a number of files that you must include when you build your application. See the Deploying your Media Server and Media Streaming Files You Must Include With Your Application topics for more details.

Environments

LEADTOOLS comes in Win32 and x64 editions. The environments supported depend upon the specific product, platform and function. For more information, refer to  Platforms.