Zixi Broadcaster V18.6.46249 Release Notes (cloned)

version 18 (v18 6 46249) of the zixi broadcaster and zixi edge compute is now generally available and includes the following new capabilities and bug fixes note not all features are available in zixi edge compute improvements •improved overlay blend performance on html5 overlay •improved source switching on no merge failover group to now detect an exit point (i or p frame on the source stream) before switching to the new stream •improved memory allocation and performance in the tr 101 analyzer bug fixes •fixed html5 overlay disappearing on timeline jump, video source changes, profile change, etc •fixed error when editing http file source •fixed regression introduced in v18 5 causing 'allow arq' recovery on zixi push outputs to be off by default •fixed gui load delay due to updating network information •fixed auto switch to higher priority on a no merge failover group to address not switching on cqa rules (frozen or blank video) as expected •fixed artifacts on switch with no merge failover group and "switch input on output" •fixed private data length field in metadata packet to be consistent with dvb private data structure 230 third ave, suite 3203 | waltham, ma | 02451 www zixi com v18 5 46206 release notes improvements •added additional stream stats, such as cc errors within a segment, on hls inputs on input stream stats json api endpoint bug fixes •fixed hls statistics being displayed twice •fixed issue with multiple transcoded inputs with html overlay containing audio from only one of the inputs •fixed memory usage increase on zixi inputs introduced in v18 upgrading broadcaster to this release on either side of the connection will decrease memory usage •fixed issue with zen master not being able to set minimize latency on zixi push sources •fixed issue with “allow arq” check box in the ui not working on zixi push output and bonded zixi push outputs •removed “support scte 35 injection” checkbox on failover groups in the ui as it is currently not supported •fixed bitrate reporting showing very high values in the ui •fixed outputs from being connected due to a very high and incorrect reported bitrate •fixed ui to not allow illegal pids in scte 35 injection •fixed issues in remultiplexing hls sources •behave more gracefully when encountering this issue in srt library \[bug] a thread is stuck waiting to close an srt socket due to an internal srt mutex lock · issue #2944 · haivision/srt the proper fix will happen when srt library is fixed •fixed seamless switch when using pts detection on the target •fixed tr 101 alert state never clearing once set 230 third ave, suite 3203 | waltham, ma | 02451 www zixi com v18 4 46123 release notes improvements •added "latency offset" parameter on outputs to enable scte 35 insertion after the offset in order to support pre roll •added support for removal of sdt pid in pid mapper •added ability to change srt latency when multiple srt outputs share the same port note, all outputs on the port will have the same latency and will require a reconnect •improved seamless switching on no merge failover groups when error concealment is used after the failover group •improved support for remultiplex of hls sources bug fixes •fixed overwriting packets when locking on a no merge failover group source •fixed ui lock due to broken ssh tunnel to zen master •fixed pass through of ac 3 pids in transcoding •reduced artifacts when switching source on no merge failover group broadcaster now detects an exit point (i or p frame on the source stream) before switching to the new stream •fixed race condition resulting in duplicated outputs when adding output while restarting it internally •fixed issue with duplicate output from unsupported seamless source switch on rtmp outputs; seamless source switch now not allowed on rtmp output •fixed ui deadlock related to deadlock issue in srt library, first reported in v1 5 3 on srt github project broadcaster is currently using v1 5 4, which is the latest available version while the deadlock will no longer happen in the ui, it may still happen when restarting the broadcaster a fix to the srt library is required to completely resolve this issue •fixed incorrect audio pes timestamps during a switch when error concealment is enabled •fixed issue with “fill millisecond” errors on aws medialive when certain hls streams are ingested into the broadcaster and then delivered to medialive via rtp •fixed issue with zen master unable to set minimize latency on push sources 230 third ave, suite 3203 | waltham, ma | 02451 www zixi com v18 3 46065 release notes improvements •added feature for including web audio in the html overlay during transcoding •updated no merge failover mode to use 'search window' parameter for inactivity detection, instead of 200m fixed time •updated cpu detection for graviton to be “graviton2” or “graviton3” instead of “neoverse” •added support for billing codes on transcoded sources, bytes going to the transcoder are counted •added support for keeping rtp headers in srt output when srt input contains rtp headers •added support for chroma sub sampling up conversion for software transcoding, including with html overlay bug fixes •fixed inability to erase custom recording path in recording parameters on inputs •fixed reporting ssh key as ok when it's actually empty •fixed bitrate spikes on zixi push inputs on windows •fixed invalid channel not found error in event log when editing html5 overlay url •removed ability to add netint profiles when netint hardware is not present •removed incorrect event log related to source stream switching •fixed cc errors on audio pids when "pass all pids" and "apply audio profile for all audio pids" are both checked •fixed installation on machines with blank gateway on the nic •fixed issue with scte 35 injection, now with more accurate clock calculation •fixed incorrect decoder reset when discontinuity detected in mpeg ts stream •fixed transcoding issue when nvidia card does not support async mode, such as the nvidia a10 •fixed issue with audio codec format preventing playback of hls adaptive group in chrome and vlc •fixed issue with failover sources dropping to zero bitrate •fixed zixi push input connections timing out on windows 230 third ave, suite 3203 | waltham, ma | 02451 www zixi com v18 2 45997 release notes improvements •added feature for including web audio in the html overlay during transcoding •added feature to convert hls inputs into a valid mpeg ts which meets cbr and pat/pmt repetition requirements •added support pid mapped and/or error concealment on transcoded sources •added support for seamless switching on audio only streams the switch will occur on the first audio frame detected and is supported on aac, aac latm, ac3, eac3, opus, mpga1, mpga2 and aes3 •added support for seamless stream switch on rtp/udp push outputs •updated ui message about license expiration to appear two weeks before the expiration date •added display of sdt and nit table in tr 101 analyzer •added support for bind to local port for srt push output and srt pull input •updated jitter alert on rtp/udp sources to turn off after 5 seconds •added support for srt inputs on the same port from different hosts with unique remote stream names •added support for time and date table (tdt) / time offset table (tot) in dvb transport stream on pid 0x14 in tr 101 analyzer •improved performance of html overlay when using software transcoding •added ability to disable metadata injection from ui for non transport streams, such as atsc 3 0 stltp (studio to transmitter link) streams •added option to delay stream by one segment for hls inputs in order to inject scte 35 packet in advance enabled via checkbox in the ui •updated scte 35 report to calculate wall clock time = scte 35 pts – scte 35 packet pcr •updated failover groups to reattempt a source previously considered faulty if there are no alternatives •improved upload performance to s3 using aws recommended settings •added support billing codes for transcoded sources •updated srt library to v1 5 4 •added support for capturing scte 35 mpu format identifier on hls inputs •added ability to dejitter rist sources either by arrival times (default) or by rtp timestamps, as is done on rtp inputs •added checkbox to keep rtp headers in input streams over a unix socket on output streams over a unix socket, added checkbox to keep rtp headers and a checkbox to add new rtp headers to the stream bug fixes •fixed error message in pid mapping api when removing pcr pid 230 third ave, suite 3203 | waltham, ma | 02451 www zixi com•fixed issue where empty key ssh tunnels keys were shown as ok now the private key file is verified before uploading in "settings/ssh connections” •fixed dpdk inputs not colored blue •fixed issue in ui where long strings were not wrapped onto the next line within the input “source” column •fixed issue updating license file when disk is almost full •fixed issue with empty default gateway can occur when there is a dhcp configuration, but now routing rules defined •removed unnecessary content displayed during failure of license activation, migration, or reporting •fixed pcr accuracy error when injecting scte 35 packet into a cbr stream •fixed ui issue showing 0 for local port when should be empty •fixed issue with pids being lost when changing source to the transcoder •fixed issue with incorrect statistics shown on srt outputs •fixed label of extended error string response from output stream stats json api endpoint from “error string” to “extended error string” •fixed udp output that appears offline but is sending data •fixed regression of ndi input not starting •fixed rtmp output to now disconnect if there no bitrate for 10 seconds •fixed incorrect transcoded stream when the video profile includes rescaling and keep aspect ratio on mpgv video stream sources with aspect ratio 1 1 •fixed issue with transcoding audio only streams •fixed issue with dts jumping backward when using error concealment •fixed tr101 analyzer false alert when stream contains a packet with discontinuity indicator set to '1', but the analyzer reports a pts error difference of more than 700ms comparing to previous pts •fixed potential pcr violation generated by the cbr padder •fixed issue with congestion estimation •fixed scte 35 descriptor on generated scte 35 message on hls inputs •fixed ui to block ability to add a channel with both keep video and html overlay •fixed some issues in upstream protocol metadata •fixed incorrect high bitrate due to a bug in calculations of timeline after clock change when error concealment is active •fixed issue with zixi push output stuck in “connecting” •fixed audio codec issue in adaptive streaming 230 third ave, suite 3203 | waltham, ma | 02451 www zixi com v18 0 release notes upstream protocol metadata the zixi broadcaster now saves stream health statistics on zixi input streams as metadata stored in the transport stream when a stream is sent through multiple zixi broadcasters, health statistics from each stage in the transport chain will be saved and if packet loss has occurred or cc errors have been introduced, it can be tracked down to a specific stage of the transport the saved metadata can be viewed by hovering on the status light on inputs in the input tab in the ui bitrate reduction on congested network links the zixi broadcaster and zixi edge compute can now reduce stream bitrate on zixi protocol push and pull outputs when the network link is congested without transcoding it reduces the bitrate by selectively removing p frames and b frames while keeping the audio and metadata in sync with the video settings to enable this feature, called “stream thinner”, are on push and pull output dialogs in the ui when advanced mode is enabled for automatic pull outputs there is a global config as well the stream thinner latency setting should be set to the gop of the stream irdeto digital rights management (drm) integration the zixi broadcaster and zixi edge compute can now retrieve an encryption key from irdeto drm servers and encrypt adaptive hls streams using that encryption key this capability allows customers to use business rules enabled by irdeto to allow or block playback of encrypted streams settings for this feature including credentials for irdeto servers can be found on the adaptive live stream dialog in the ui when advanced mode is enabled both fairplay and widevine are supported video preview using mpeg ts over http the zixi broadcaster has a new option for video preview which plays mpeg ts streams directly in the browser via an http connection from the broadcaster with this feature, vlc is no longer required for video preview however, not all codecs are supported by browsers so the vlc option is still available for maximum flexibility note, automatic http pull outputs need to be enabled in the broadcaster configuration to use this feature netint transcoding accelerator support the zixi broadcaster now supports accelerated transcoding using netint quadra vpu accelerator cards the price vs performance vs quality of the netint quadra vpu offers advantages over gpu and cpu based transcoding this feature is currently in preview while we 230 third ave, suite 3203 | waltham, ma | 02451 www zixi comwork closely with netint to optimize performance netint quadra cards can be purchased for bare metal servers and will also be available on akamai connected cloud in early 2025 scte 35 replacement via pois to support placement opportunity information system (pois) scte 35 replacement methodologies, the zixi broadcaster can now remove all existing scte 35 messages on an input stream while maintaining the existing scte 35 pid and then inject new scte 35 messages on the existing pid or a new custom pid the feature works in conjunction with an esam agent provided by zixi and 3rd party pois servers protocol updates listed below are improvements and bug fixes to the various protocols supported by the zixi broadcaster •zixi oimplemented performance optimizations for zixi protocol •hls oupdated behavior of injecting scte 35 on cue tags in hls inputs now injects scte 35 message in advance, pointing to the pts of the first video frame following the tag, instead of immediate injection at the time of transition oupdated behavior on hls inputs to increment splice event id when converting cue points to scte 35 messages •srt oupdated srt implementation to allow multiple srt outputs to share the same port by using the stream name to uniquely identify them transcoding updates improvements to transcoding in the zixi broadcaster are listed below •added ability to recognize and show nvidia ada cards on the status page in the gui •added support for netint as discussed above •added ability for user to select the transport stream id (tsid) on an input being transcoded •added display of transcoded sources in red if the original source is encrypted and not able to be decoded tr 101 analysis must be enabled •added support for transcode of audio only sources •implemented performance optimization in transcoder 230 third ave, suite 3203 | waltham, ma | 02451 www zixi com additional improvements additional improvements to the zixi broadcaster are listed below •added failover group events to logs •exposed dar and display resolution in the tr 101 analyzer •exposed inter packet gaps maximum, average and standard deviation on udp outputs, instead of timing histogram •added ability to synchronize the timeline of file/http sources by specifying iso time to use for pts at beginning of the file •added count of 608 and 708 closed captions to input stream statistics data can be used to determine whether or not input streams contain 608 captions and/or contain 708 captions, as may be required by law currently the data is only available via the api •added ability to delay inputs in memory by up to three seconds •added 'steal time' into reported cpu usage •added support for delivering payloads of up to 1486 bytes, which may be necessary for payloads such as atsc 3 0 •implemented performance and memory optimizations in tr 101 analyzer bugs bugs fixed in the zixi broadcaster are listed below •fixed advanced distributor logs appearing in general logs and reduced general log noise •fixed parsing of video dimensions in hevc streams in analyzer •show more informative error when duplicated hls output conflicts with existing one •protect from timestamps going backwards on rtp output •fixed dropping packets with file source loopback when file size is not an exact multiplication of 1316 •fixed thumbnail matrix view not working on macos •fixed very rare issue where temporary push streams (push ) are reported as connected (in the event log and can see input bitrate in the status page) but not listed (api and ui) under the inputs tab •fixed issue in pid mapping where remove/null default program action didn't propagate to the es pids properly, when using stream type or category mapping •fixed very high bitrate created by error concealment due to a bug in calculations of timeline after clock change •fixed nic details in ui on ubuntu 24 •fixed an issue where the license was lost on azure vms after a restart •fixed issue with color space info from the source not being passed to the software encoder •fixed corrupted (or not extracted) 708 closed caption messages when stream has both 608 and 708 closed caption messages