Troubleshooting

Error Messages

Screen2Flash has been designed to be as straightforward to use as possible. However there are several common errors that can result in Screen2Flash not performing as expected.

Cannot connect to the webcasting server

You have entered incorrect server URL or Stream ID. Check they match exactly what was provided by your streaming host.

Unable to apply video codec parameters

One of your chosen settings in the ENCODING OPTIONS / CAMERA OPTIONS dialogue box is not supported by your video device. This will usually be the frame rate.

USBwebcams in particular are prone to this error. Setting the frame rate to either 20 or 25 frames per second for any USB camera will generally solve this issue.

If you still get an error it is possible that your webcam uses very old drivers that are no longer supported by current codecs.

Firewalls and Networks

Some users may find that they are behind a firewall or are using a network on which the port required for streaming has been blocked.

You need port 1935 to allow you to live stream using Screen2Flash.

Ask your network manager to open this port for live streaming.

If this is not possible you can use the RTMPT protocol which uses the same ports as standard web browsing. This is NOT recommended if RTMP streaming is available.

To use RTMPT, select RTMPT from the drop down menu in SETTINGS -> OUTPUT OPTIONS.

You will also need to add :80 to the end of your server address, but BEFORE the application name.

Example:

(RTMPT://)streaming.myserver.com:80/mystreamapplicationname

Other Issues

Player does not appear on webpage

If you see a message saying ‘This text will be replaced’ and not your live streaming player then it is very likely that the website cannot support the scripts required to run the standard live streaming player.

In this case you should use the EMBED version of the live streaming player. The player code and full set up instructions can be found by navigating:
START -> PROGRAMS -> SCREEN2FLASH -> JW PLAYER

Output appears squashed or black borders in player

Issues with the output being squashed in the frame, or appearing with black borders are related to the source size and output size not matching correctly.

Refer to Best Results section of this guide for a more detailed description and recommended player sizes.

Pixilation of video picture

The video bit rate is too low for the chosen size of player. This can also be caused by up-scaling a small webcam video image to fill a larger size player.

Poor audio quality

Audio problems are generally caused by one or more of the following:

Audio bit rate set too low
Poor quality microphone
Background noise

Viewers experience ‘buffering’ of live stream.

Either -

The video bit rate is set too high for users on slower connections.

Or -

Your connection is too slow to sustain the chosen encoding rate. Check your connection speed at http://www.speedtest.net/

If your connection is not suitable to sustain a live stream you can still use Screen2Flash to record your presentations as .flv videos and then make these available on demand from a streaming server.