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Serving Videos From Subfolders in VOD Application

Posted At : July 24, 2008 9:01 AM | Posted By : Stefan Richter | Related Categories: FMS

This post should be read in conjunction with my previous one about virtual directories with the FLVPlayback component and FMS.

I just needed to troubleshoot a client's FMS installation. Videos are organised in a deep structure of subfolders and to be delivered via the standard VOD application of Flash Media Streaming Server. I was using the FLVPlayback component to make sure the videos were playable. Once again it became apparent that the FLVPlayback component needs to be fed with an application instance name as soon as you try and deliver files that are not inside the toplevel /vod/media folder.
As you may know, the VOD application is by default configured to live (on Windows) at C:\Program Files\Adobe\Flash Media Server 3\applications\vod while its files are stored at C:\Program Files\Adobe\Flash Media Server 3\applications\vod\media. Both setting can be configured either in fms.ini or directly in FMS's XML conf files.
I needed to remap the VOD directory from VOD_DIR = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Flash Media Server 3\applications\vod\media to a new location. This worked fine. However as soon as I started to create subfolders inside /media I was no longer able to stream the videos using the FLVPlayback component. Luckily - and through past experiences - I knew that this was an instance problem. So instead of setting FLVPlayback's source to rtmp://myserver.com/vod/subfolder/myvideo I added an instance name - any instance name - such as rtmp://myserver.com/vod/inst/subfolder/myvideo and voila, the video would play again.
Hopefully this information will save somebody some grief.

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Using the FLVPlayback Component to Stream Files from Virtual Directories (April 14, 2008)

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Can you explain what you mean by "instance name"? Is this a problem only with the FLVPlayback component?

I have been experimenting with FMS3 and it's new VOD media asset organization. We modified the fms.ini file to look to our high speed SAN for the VOD folder where the videos are organized in subfolders. I didn't have any trouble accessing these assets through RTMP and I use a custom built Flash video playback component. Your post has given me pause for concern.

# Posted By Randy Troppmann | 7/24/08 4:59 PM

No need for concern. This 'issue' is related to the flvplayback component, your custom player should work fine. It's also not really a bug either, more of a gotcha.
Regards
Stefan

# Posted By stefan richter | 7/24/08 7:43 PM

Is it possible to change the VOD_DIR in the fms.ini to a mapped network path ,where the videos are?
I had tried but no effect

# Posted By sooraj | 8/1/08 12:13 PM

I personally would make such a change inside the actual XMl config file, not in fms.ini. But that's my personal preference.
Mapped network drives can be used for storing media, but I seem to remember that I had problems using share names. Try using the IP instead.

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 8/1/08 12:31 PM

My problem is that
I had installed FMS in my local system and the videos are in a network path for example \\salinux\videos
I had put this UNC path for the VOD_DIR.
But it is not working.
In this path, where I put the IP address?

# Posted By sooraj | 8/1/08 12:50 PM

try using something like \\10.0.0.5\videos
(but use the actual IP of your network drive)

Sorry, this is not my best area of expertise...

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 8/1/08 12:54 PM

OK,
It is not working using the IP address.
Thanks for your reply.

# Posted By sooraj | 8/1/08 1:01 PM

What is the best way to set up the folder structure? I have FMS3 on the local drive on my server but the videos are on a different drive. I am able to connect with the server but continue to get the Stream Not Found message. I have tried to change the file path and move the files around and nothing seems to be working.

# Posted By Brad | 8/19/08 10:29 PM

Brad, you can simply configure your stream storage directory to be on your other drive, then organise your folders there. Mapping the VOD DIR is one way of achieving this, or check the docs on details on how to configure the stream storage location independent of VOD. Lastly you can also use dynamic stream mappings which allow you to pull files out of multiple locations. The FMS configuration docs should hold all the answers.

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 8/20/08 8:51 AM

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