Read-only DVR playback and scheduled recording

Nimble Streamer DVR is a popular feature for those of our customers who handle live streaming. New use cases are being covered per requests of clients all the time.

So today we add "read-only" archive parameter along with respective API methods.
Switching the stream to read-only mode allows stop the recording of the stream while making it available for the playback. This is different from current "pause" functionality when the stream is both not recorded nor played.

It should help when you need to make scheduled recording. E.g. some show is running and you set it up to record (disable read-only). When it's over, you set it to read-only and your viewers can watch it.

Another use case is the archive attachment, like when you previously recorded some stream and moved it to some playback dedicated server.

The basic DVR setup is described in this article so here we'll take a look how you can operate this via our excellent web UI. Same operations are available via API so there will be no difference whether you do it by hands or by the script.

Here is what you see when you create a DVR setting for a given application or stream.

DVR settings tab

Your control buttons look like this:

Recording is on, playback is on

This means that DVR works in default mode - recording is running and the playback is available.

Now if you click on "Play" button, your recording will stop but the playback will still be available. Your buttons will look like below.

Recording is off, playback is on

Now if you want to stop any activity, you can click on "Pause" button. Your buttons will look like this:

Fully paused

From here you can either resume the recording (clicking on "Record" button) and resume the playback (clicking on "Play" button).

As mentioned earlier, you may do the same operations via API in order to automate your streaming infrastructure.

Take a look at this video tutorial to get familiar with DVR most useful features.

Read other documentation articles for more details and full description of available options.

Also notice that HLS DVR streams can be added to SLDP HTML5 Player for rewinding low latency streams. Read this article for details.

If you have any further questions, contact our team.

Related documentation

Nimble Streamer, Live streaming scenarios, DVR feature set, WMSPanel control API, Live Transcoder for Nimble Streamer,