Video Quality Problem: Action Script netStream X Flash Media Encoder
Hi,
We're running Wowza to stream a live webcam from a Flex web application (using ActionScript 3 netStream method) for a 1 to 1 video chat.
We are able to stream it properly, but the quality does not look good at all (320 x 240, 300 Kbps, 15 fps).
We tried tweaking the paramenters (quality x bandwidth), but the quality is still surprisingly poor for a H.264 video.
Just out of curiosity, we decided to use Flash Media Encoder 3 to generate a live stream from the very same computer, with the very same webcam, at the very same video specs. The quality is much, much better than the one using the ActionScript 3 netstream approach. The difference is amazing!
So this leads us to believe that the problem is in the "encoder"; the Flash Media Encoder seems to be much for efficient in generating a high quality video stream, compared to ActionScript 3.
My question to you guys is: are we missing something? Are there any parameters on ActionScript 3 or even on Wowza that can increase the quality of video?
Installing Flash Media Encoder on each end user machine is impossible, so we really need this to work on the browser, via Action Script.
In other words: how can I make the quality of the video generated by ActionScript 3 be similar to the one we're able to achieve (remember: under the very same specs) on Flash Media Encoder?
Thanks in advance,
Julio Costa
juliobcosta@atitude.com.br