What happens to Flash at the end of 2020?

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Phil M0DNY
Posts: 39
Joined: Sat Jun 01, 2013 10:45 am

Re: What happens to Flash at the end of 2020?

Post by Phil M0DNY » Mon Jan 04, 2021 11:29 pm

Hi All,

Apologies for the delay on this. After some time and effort on the Janus server solution that I confidently presented at CAT20, the integration with the existing streaming system (notably dynamically mapping the stream keys and URLs) proved not to be feasible. Several other similar pieces of WebRTC server software have been attempted but found to have similar limitations.

As of the last couple of days I have a promising lead on a more flexible implementation but it's requiring extending the RTP protocol implementation in ffmpeg to get it to work (specifically adding support for the optional extension headers to embed the per-stream URI). It's likely going to take some time, but if that bit works then we won't have the same limitation. I'll post back here as soon as I have further updates.

Cheers,
Phil M0DNY

aerostar
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Jul 26, 2016 7:40 pm

Re: What happens to Flash at the end of 2020?

Post by aerostar » Tue Jan 05, 2021 11:17 am

As updates to browsers are likely to remove Flash plugins, it is(SHOULD be) possible to still use earlier portable versions.

I have installed the last Chrome XP portable version that has the flash built in.

go here

https://sourceforge.net/projects/portab ... 0Portable/

look for

GoogleChromePortable_49.0.2623.112_online.paf.exe - NB there is a 64bit version, but I have not tried that.

The version runs fine on XP, Win7 32 and 64bit versions, and should run on W10. You may get cannot do update (GOOD) at some time but just ignore it.

When you run the download - it will download the full version from Google, (providing they have not removed it).... still there as of today although it is portable it does say install but that just puts it in a directory of your choosing, and not link into Windows.

Once on your computer you can just copy the complete directory you chose, and put that onto other Win computers.

g0mjw
Posts: 2329
Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:15 am

Re: What happens to Flash at the end of 2020?

Post by g0mjw » Tue Jan 05, 2021 1:05 pm

Thanks for your efforts on this Phil. How frustrating.

What I don't understand in all this is why HTML5 creates such a long encoding delay. That can't possibly be acceptable to a number of other users either - streaming sports or gaming for example - so I must be missing something as surely it has been highlighted. The proponents of HTML5 streaming claim it's a very small additional delay and low latency streams have under 2 seconds delay. Perhaps that requires a lot of server resource or costly proprietary software?

Mike

User avatar
G3GJA
Posts: 337
Joined: Sun Nov 20, 2011 3:44 pm

Re: What happens to Flash at the end of 2020?

Post by G3GJA » Wed Jan 06, 2021 1:46 pm

64bit Chrome Portable asks for a Chrome installation or download that's not available but the 32bit version works fine

Clive G3GJA

DL5BCA
Posts: 158
Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2020 11:59 am

Re: What happens to Flash at the end of 2020?

Post by DL5BCA » Wed Jan 13, 2021 9:35 am

Yes, what aerostar wrote works..

Here is the direct download link 32bit: https://sourceforge.net/projects/portab ... e/download

No need to install anything plugins. As aerostar wrote: Flash is in the browser intigrated.
-----------
After a few tries, here are a few pointers:

The 64bit version doesn't seem to work. The installation aborts on my Win10 64bit system.

However, the 32bit installation works.
A "GoogleChromePortable" subdirectory is created in the "Downloads" directory.
The "GoogleChromePortable.exe" file can be started in this directory.
I copied the entire directory into the "Programs" directory and placed a link on the desktop.
Last edited by DL5BCA on Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
73 Thomas
DL5BCA

G8GKQ
Site Admin
Posts: 2798
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:21 pm

Re: What happens to Flash at the end of 2020?

Post by G8GKQ » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:00 am

Many BATC Streamer users will, in the distant past, have edited the Registry on their Windows PCs to force Chrome to play the low latency Flash stream, rather than the slightly delayed HTML5 stream. That edit was described here: viewtopic.php?f=69&t=5626&p=17787#p17785.

Now that Flash has been disabled in Chrome, that edit needs to be reversed to allow the HTML5 stream to be displayed by default. This is the way that worked for me:
  • Do a Windows search for regedit and click "Run as Administrator"
  • In the left pane, click on "Computer" at the top of the list to start the search at the top.
  • Click Edit, Find, and make sure that only "Keys" is ticked in the dialogue box.
  • Enter PluginsAllowedForUrls (with the exact spelling and capitalisation) in the Find what: box and then click Find Next.
  • When the search works, you should see the key in the image below.
  • Right click on the https:batc.oirg.uk/live line in the name column and select delete.
  • Close regedit and then close and restart Chrome.
You should find that Chrome will now display the html5 stream without any prompts.

Dave, G8GKQ
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DL5BCA
Posts: 158
Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2020 11:59 am

Re: What happens to Flash at the end of 2020?

Post by DL5BCA » Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:02 pm

Hi all,

perhaps this can help : https://ruffle.rs/
73 Thomas
DL5BCA

KA5BBC
Posts: 161
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2018 6:59 pm

Re: What happens to Flash at the end of 2020?

Post by KA5BBC » Tue Feb 23, 2021 4:02 pm

I have been looking at low latency options for another project and found Mixer's Faster Than Light 'protocol' which has a <1sec latency (per the papers I have read so far).
It is in essence an implementation of RTP ingestion and WebRTC for transmission designed for live game streaming at resolutions up to 4K.
This may be worth looking at further as I have no doubt at lower resolutions (PAL/NTSC/720/1080) bandwidth will be significantly smaller and latency likewise.
Andy, KA5BBC/MM0BQV

DL5BCA
Posts: 158
Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2020 11:59 am

Re: What happens to Flash at the end of 2020?

Post by DL5BCA » Wed Apr 28, 2021 10:30 am

Hello,

for a long time nothing has been written here.

We use a Raspberry with free software from StreamRus for our ATV repeater.
This allows you to receive an RTMP stream and output it to HDMI and AV. At the same time, the company has programmed an output pin that is high when a stream is present.

So we have implemented a Hamnet video input.

The same manufacturer has now incorporated the SRT (Secure Reliable Transport - Open Source) Transmission protocol.

For sending you can also use OBS or Vmix, I've just researched.

Perhaps an alternative to converting the BATC server?
73 Thomas
DL5BCA

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