Panasonic Network Camera WV-NW960/G & MPEG4 stream problem

[Fusion]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here, but I've been reading the forum for a long time, months to be precise.
I was searching how to access the MPEG4 stream of the WV-NW960/G IP camera.

What I would like is to access the MPEG4 stream of the camera with VLC.

Here is the link I used for M-JPEG, it worked well :

http://myipcam/nphMotionJpeg

Here are the links I tested to get MPEG4 (and failed to do so) :

http://myipcam/rtpOverHttp?Url=nphMpeg4/g726-320x240
http://myipcam/nphMpeg4/g726-320x240
http://myipcam/nphVideo?Mode=0&Resolution=320x240

I tried a whole lot of things on that camera. Because, the Panasonic Support Website (http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/en/ ... index.html) didn't have any firmware or CGI API specific to that model, so I tested everything from the "MJPEG & MPEG4 Network cameras" , and 70% of the CGI webpages gave me a "404 Not Found".

I also tested the links I got on this forum in posts dedicated to Panasonic models. Some worked, some didn't... Everything about MPEG4 didn't, actually.

My final goal would be to get the MPEG4 stream and the audio stream read and saved by VLC (not at the same time, though), and with only one instance of VLC if possible.
Do you have any ideas on how to proceed? Do you have a doc specific to my model? I would be very glad if it was the case.

System used : Windows Vista

[VLC_help]

Your links give Address Not Found error.

[Fusion]

Hello, thanks for the reply.

Yeah, these are fake links, because my camera is on a local network and I don't know yet how to put it online.
So this is kind of a volontary action, I wanted to give an idea of the situation I was in. If I find a way to make the camera available outside of the network I will tell you.

I based my researches on another camera, a WV-NW964 easily accessible, and which got the same troubles than mine.

The IP address is http://209.178.213.36:8082. MPEG4 is enabled, but I can't access it from VLC (same situation than my camera).

If someone could connect to the MPEG4 stream in VLC, or give me the CGI API of this specific model (does it even exist ???), I could make some big steps in my development progress...

[VLC_help]

http://209.178.213.36:8082/ returns html, not MPEG stream. http://209.178.213.36:8082/live/index2.html also gives neough information if you just browse the source.

[Fusion]

Thanks for this answer.

Well, it wasn't easy to find, but I finally got it. The link to the page providing the MPEG-4 window is : http://209.178.213.36:8082/live/mainview.html .

The problem now is, there's still no way to access the MPEG-4 stream. As far as I know (and with a little help from WireShark), the client requests for an access to the MPEG-4 stream and must give an giUid that I can't fathom to the ActiveX. Then, the MPEG4 ActiveX from the camera gives a port to connect to get the MPEG4 stream. So, I'm screwed if I want to stream MPEG4 with sound in VLC.

Any workaround for this situation? I hope I explained it right.

So, to sum up, I don't know if I will be able to do what I wanted to do to begin (or, more precisely, what my firm wants), but that doesn't stop me from helping those who I can help. If you got questions about these cameras, just ask for it ^^.

[VLC_help]

If you can disassemble the ActiveX component (or maybe even wireshark it), you could maybe figure out correct command to wake up the camera.

[Fusion]

You were right about the restart procedure. Even if the command from the doc doesn't work, the one I catched with Wireshark does : http://mycam/cgi-bin/initial?cmd=restart

And to stay on topic, I sent a mail to Panasonic services to ask them my questions, my "inquiry" is being processed (or so they said).
If I learn how to stream the MPEG-4 and g726 streams with VLC as I intend to, I will all let you know.

[Fusion]

Here are the links I tested to get MPEG4 (and failed to do so) :
http://myipcam/nphMpeg4/g726-320x240

Oops, my bad, the link I should use is [url]rtsp://myipcam/nphMpeg4/g726-320x240[/url] according to the doc. Sadly, it still doesn't work.
I tried a whole big lot of things, including upgrading the camera hardware, but the problem's still here : no way to access the MPEG-4 stream if it is not in Internet Explorer.

Additionally I tried the [url]rtsp://myipcam/nphMpeg4/g726-320x240[/url] link with MPlayer 1.0RC2 and here is the result :

MPlayer 1.0rc2-4.2.1 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (Family: 6, Model: 15, Stepping: 11)
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.

Playing rtsp://192.43.185.30/nphMpeg4/g726-320x240.
Connecting to server 192.43.185.30[192.43.185.30]: 554...
librtsp: server responds: 'RTSP/1.0 404 Not Found'
STREAM_LIVE555, URL: rtsp://192.43.185.30/nphMpeg4/g726-320x240
Stream not seekable!
file format detected.

Failed to get a SDP description from URL "rtsp://192.43.185.30/nphMpeg4/g726-320
x240": cannot handle DESCRIBE response: RTSP/1.0 404 Not Found

Exiting... (End of file)

Maybe the fact that the camera cannot do a "DESCRIBE" says that it cannot do any RTSP, no matter what the CGI interface document says.

[Fusion]

I made it! After the upgrade of the camera (with the firmware here : http://www.panasonic.ca/PDP/Software/wv ... 1.10eb.exe, yeah this is a firmware dedicated to the WV-NW964 but it worked great), I can get the MPEG-4 at last. So it was a camera problem in the end.

The access link is : [url]rtsp://192.43.185.30/Mediainput/mpeg4/[/url] .

I will try now to get sound and MPEG-4 at the same time in VLC, but I have made great progress so far ^^

[Fusion]

Hi, I'm still trying to play with the sound of my Panasonic.

"Ctrl + I" says my stream is like that :

Stream #0
Codec mp4v
Type : Video

Stream #1
Codec g726
Type : Audio
Canal:1
Sampling frequence : 8000 Hz
Rate : 32 kb/s

I'm doing saves of the video I stream, here is my typical command :

Code: Select all

vlc -vvv rtsp://mycamip.com/Mediainput/mpeg4/ --sout #std{access=file,mux=mp4,dst=test1}

And when I try to record both I got some uncanny messages (whereas just streaming gets me image and sound without any problems) :

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main debug: adding a new sout input (sout_input:01EE6238) main debug: adding a new input mux_mp4 error: unsupported codec g726 in mp4 main error: cannot add this stream main error: cannot create packetizer output (g726) main debug: adding a new sout input (sout_input:01EE63A0) main debug: adding a new input mux_mp4 debug: adding input main debug: switching to async mode live555 debug: tk->rtpSource->hasBeenSynchronizedUsingRTCP() mux_mp4 warning: i_length <= 0 main warning: clock gap, unexpected stream discontinuity main warning: feeding synchro with a new reference point trying to recover from clock gap mux_mp4 warning: i_length <= 0 live555 debug: tk->rtpSource->hasBeenSynchronizedUsingRTCP() mux_mp4 warning: i_length <= 0

(I spare you the parts where vlc just says it works fine...)

And of course, when I read the file again, there is video but no audio stream.

I made a lot of search about g726 (or is it called ADPCM sometimes?) in this forum and other ones, and I wonder if g726 stream-out is implemented in VLC.
Does anyone have a solution to my problem ? (stream-out both video and audio from my camera into a file and read it again with VLC)
And, if the g726 stream-out is not implemented yet in VLC, does anyone know if/when it could be implemented ? (trac didn't give me a clue about that)

If you need advanced information just ask.

[VLC_help]

g726 isn't in MP4 official specs, so you have to convert it to another format if you want keep the MP4 container.

[contremaitre]

And which container allow g726 sound, mpeg4 video, and file seeking ?

[VLC_help]

for example: Matroska (MKV) and Transport Stream (TS)

[Fusion]

Thanks a lot, I'm gonna give them a try

[Fusion]

I have tested VLC with the two of them, and I have the following results :

Code: Select all

vlc -vvv rtsp://mycamip/Mediainput/mpeg4/ --sout #std{access=file,mux=ts,dst=test_TS}

gives me a file with only a mp4v video stream. Furthermore, a friend of mine said TS format doesn't do any file seeking, because he already tried before. Is it true?

Code: Select all

vlc -vvv rtsp://mycamip/Mediainput/mpeg4/ --sout #std{access=file,mux=mkv,dst=test_mkv}

gives me an empty "test_MKV" file. Is it the right way to make my call, or should I use another way to encode in MKV?

Maybe I'm doing it all wrong, but so far I'm stuck. Can somebody help me with that?

[contremaitre]

for example: Matroska (MKV) and Transport Stream (TS)

For TS container, I have never been able to do real file seeking with my mpeg4 videos :
I can move in the file but it is faked : it is impossible to tell vlc go to position 1mn30s for example. The seek is done (small) step by step

[Fusion]

After many tests, I haven't been able to even dump the audio file into a file. Seems some people with Panasonic cameras (BL-*** series for example) have troubles as well.

I tried these commands :

Code: Select all

vlc -vvv rtsp://mycam/mediainput/mpeg4/ --sout #std{access=file,mux=*,dst=test}

with * meaning all of the containers I could think of : mpg, ps, ts, asf, mov, raw, flv, mkv.

About mp4, I have been told it wasn't working with g726, didn't bother trying again.
About mkv, I doubt this is a good container, as the output file is empty each time I try. Maybe VLC doesn't write MKV?

I also tried to get the audio only with the #es module :

Code: Select all

vlc -vvv rtsp://mycam/mediainput/mpeg4/ --sout #es{access-audio=file,mux-audio=*,dst-audio=test}

Tried for mux-audio the values : a52, flac, mp3, mp4a, mpga, ogg, raw, s16l, spx, vorb, wav, wma. The only non-empty files were : wav, ogg and raw, and VLC couldn't read any of them (audio format couldn't be detected, raw format non recognized, or VLC crash...)

The :demux=dump command failed with Windows, I tested it on Ubuntu :

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vlc -vvv rtsp://mycam/mediainput/mpeg4/ :demux=dump :demuxdump-file=output_test

and I got a file I couldn't use, even MediaInfo and GSpot didn't recognize the dump.

At the very least I would like to make a dump of the g726 stream, as there is a small chance that VLC can read and play it... Unless someone got a better idea, that is

[VLC_help]

You could try MPlayer to see if it can dump the audio from the camera.

[Fusion]

That was one of the first things I've tried, the great mplayer. Not so great on that one, actually

Commande line :

Code: Select all

mplayer -dumpstream rtsp://192.43.185.30/mediainput/mpeg4/ -dumpfile output

Result :

Code: Select all

MPlayer 1.0rc2-4.2.1 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (Family: 6, Model: 15, Stepping: 11) CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1 Compiled with runtime CPU detection. Playing rtsp://192.43.185.30/mediainput/mpeg4/. Connecting to server 192.43.185.30[192.43.185.30]: 554... librtsp: server responds: 'RTSP/1.0 404 Not Found' STREAM_LIVE555, URL: rtsp://192.43.185.30/mediainput/mpeg4/ Cannot dump this stream - no file descriptor available. Exiting... (Fatal error)

Just doing

Code: Select all

mplayer rtsp://192.43.185.30/mediainput/mpeg4/

is fine, although the video is often crappy (green areas everywhere, sound is not good at all, it makes an electric motor noise), and crashes sometimes.

Another point : I tested VLC with a G.726 audio file (or I think it is, actually) that I found at http://www-mmsp.ece.mcgill.ca/Documents ... 2_726.aiff (page : http://www-mmsp.ece.mcgill.ca/Documents ... mples.html). MediaInfo and GSpot said it is a G.726 audio file ^^. VLC couldn't even read it...

Told me :

No suitable decoder module:
VLC does not support the audio or video format "g726". Unfortunately there is no way for you to fix this.

Is it to say that even if I dump a G.726 stream or a video including a G.726 stream, I won't be able to read it with VLC? Then, why can it read the G.726 stream in the RTSP stream?

[VLC_help]

Decoding isn't needed for bitstream copy operations. But it is required for playback.

[olivier10]

I have some problems with the Panasonic WV-NW960/G audio input. The Mic Input has a noise problem.

When the Mic input has nothing connected, we can here a motorbike motor noise. (I'm using the web interface of the camera).

When i connect an electret microphone, i have the same noise, plus the microphone audio. The microphone audio is almost fully masked by the noise of the mic input.

In the end the Mic input is not usable except if the ambient noise is louder than the mic input noise. This is a rare situation.

After some investigations, i have found that the Mic input design was faulty , with a common digital and analog ground.

I asked Panasonic what they can do for me, they replied that for sure they will not correct this problem because nobody reported it before.

Panasonic attitude is strange. I can't undestand how they can answer this for a high end professional camera priced more than 3600 $.

A small web cam has a wonderfull sound compared to the WV-NW960.

I would be interested to know if other users have the same problem.

[iena]

Hi,
I'm beginning to develope a Winform in C# to control this camera.

It seems you have find the way to have an access to the mpeg4 stream provided by the camera. But I need to control the pan/tilt of this camera. Did you find any way to control this property?

Thank you

(sorry for my bad English)

[tranvan.manh]

anyone can help me understand more how to get your mpeg-4 stream rtsp ip camera panasonic wv-nw960 / g?

Thanks a lot