Record from webcam to f4v on FMS

Question

I'm trying to build / modify an application to record from webcam and microphone, in a web browser and save it to an FMS 5.4.2 server to stream via web and iOS
recording as a flv file works fine and it plays back just fine in firefox / any browser
I can steam f4v files over http as filename.f4v.m3u8 and that works fine with the samples that come with FMS from my record folder (/opt/adobe/fms/applications/record/streams/)
My flash web application can record to the FMS server, the file it records has the .f4v file extension, has content (i see the file size), and has time in quicktime (4 or 5 seconds - just a test) but it doesn't play - the screen is black and never starts.
I know i'm right on the edge of figuring this out, I just don't know what I'm missing or whats wrong (i'm a php programmer, not action script)
any ideas ?
here is the code i'm working with:
package com
    import fl.controls.ProgressBar;
    import fl.controls.ProgressBarMode;
    import flash.display.MovieClip;
    import flash.events.Event;
    import com.NetConnector
    import flash.events.MouseEvent;
    import flash.events.TimerEvent;
    import flash.media.Camera;
    import flash.media.Microphone;
    import flash.media.Video;
    import flash.net.navigateToURL;
    import flash.net.NetConnection;
    import flash.net.NetStream;
    import flash.net.URLLoader;
    import flash.net.URLLoaderDataFormat;
    import flash.net.URLRequest;
    import flash.net.URLRequestMethod;
    import flash.net.URLVariables;
    import flash.text.TextField;
    import flash.utils.setTimeout;
    import flash.utils.Timer;
    import flash.media.H264Level;
    import flash.media.H264Profile;
    import flash.media.H264VideoStreamSettings;
    import flash.media.VideoCodec;
     * @author Alexander (flash2you) < >
    public class Recorder extends MovieClip
        private var dataHolder:DataHolder = DataHolder.getInstance()
        public var layer:MovieClip
        public var activityLevel_pb:ProgressBar
        public var aguja:MovieClip
        public var aguja2:MovieClip
        public var publishButton:MovieClip
        public var timer_txt:TextField
        public var recordStatus:MovieClip
        public var recordBtn:MovieClip
        private var netStream:NetStream
        private var microphone:Microphone = Microphone.getMicrophone()
        private var camera:Camera = Camera.getCamera()
        public var  video:Video
        private var timer:Timer = new Timer(100)
        private var clockTimer:Timer = new Timer(1000)
        public var published:Boolean = false
        private var isRecording:Boolean = false
        private var minutero = 0;
        private var crono = 0;
        private var records = 0;
        public var settings_mc:MovieClip
        public static var recorder:Recorder
        public var settings_icon:MovieClip
        private var limitTimer:Timer
        public function Recorder()
            Recorder.recorder = this;
            timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, on$timer)
            clockTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, on$clockTimer)
            //visible = false
            recordBtn.buttonMode = true
            recordBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK , recordBtn$click)
            recordBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, recordBtn$over)
            recordBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, recordBtn$out)
            addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, onAddedToStage)
            limitTimer = new Timer(dataHolder.timelimit * 1000);
            limitTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, onLimitTimerHandler)
        private function onLimitTimerHandler(e:TimerEvent):void
             stopPublish()
         *  when we comes to second frame
        private function onAddedToStage(e:Event):void
            removeEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, onAddedToStage);
            init()
         *   function for set up camera from settings module
        public function setCamera(_camera:Camera) {
            camera = _camera
            addCameraSettings()
            video.width = 1280;
            video.height = 720;
            video.attachCamera(camera)
            if (netStream){
                netStream.attachCamera(camera)
        public function setMicrophone(mic:Microphone) {
            microphone = mic;
            if (netStream){
                netStream.attachAudio(microphone)
            addMicSettings()
        private function addMicSettings() {
            microphone.setUseEchoSuppression(true);
            microphone.setSilenceLevel(1)
        private function addCameraSettings():void
            camera.setMode(1280, 720, 25);
               camera.setLoopback(true);
               camera.setQuality(0, 100);
        public function init() {
            startConnect()
         *  main function for connection
        private function startConnect() {
            visible = true
            timer_txt.htmlText = "<b>00:00</b>";
            initCamera()
            initMicropone()
            var nc:NetConnection = new NetConnection()
            nc.connect(null)
            netStream = new NetStream(nc)
            netStream.attachAudio(microphone)
            video.attachCamera(camera)
            layer.visible = false
            publishButton.gotoAndStop(1);
            activityLevel_pb.mode = ProgressBarMode.MANUAL;
            recordStatus.gotoAndStop("noRecord")
            timer.start()
            connection.addEventListener(NetConnector.CONNECTED, connectionComplete)
            connection.startConnection()
        public function get connection():NetConnector {
            return dataHolder.connection
        private function on$timer(e:TimerEvent) {
            activityLevel_pb.setProgress(microphone.activityLevel, 100)
         *  when connection to your stream server done
        private function connectionComplete(e:Event = null) {
            netStream = new NetStream(connection)
            netStream.attachAudio(microphone)
            netStream.attachCamera(camera)
         *   add 0 if less then 10secs
        private function addLeading(nbr) {
            if (nbr<10) {
                return ("0"+Math.floor(nbr));
            } else {
                return (Math.floor(nbr).toString());
         *   update visible clock, rotate arrows
        private function updateTimer() {
            timer_txt.htmlText = "<b>"+addLeading(crono/60)+":"+addLeading(crono%60)+"</b>";
            aguja.rotation = aguja.rotation+6;
            if (addLeading(crono/60)>minutero) {
                aguja2.rotation = aguja2.rotation+6;
                ++minutero;
            // end if
            ++crono;
        private function on$clockTimer(e:TimerEvent):void
            updateTimer()
        private function startClockTimer() {
            clockTimer.start()
         *  update graphics and start recording
        private function recordBtn$click(e:MouseEvent):void
            if (!isRecording) {
                startRecording()
                recordStatus.gotoAndStop("record")
                recordBtn.visible = false
        private function recordBtn$over(e:MouseEvent):void
            if (!isRecording) {
                this.gotoAndPlay(65);
        private function recordBtn$out(e:MouseEvent):void
            if (!isRecording) {
                this.gotoAndPlay(61);
        private function startRecording() {
            if (connection.connected){
                netStream.publish("mp4:" + dataHolder.filename + ".f4v", "record");
            isRecording = true
            startClockTimer()
            publishButton.gotoAndPlay(2)
            publishButton.buttonMode = true
            publishButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, publishButton$click);
            limitTimer.start()
         *  redirect to finishURL that was passed via flashvars
        private function publishButton$click(e:MouseEvent):void
            stopPublish()
            var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(dataHolder.finishURL)
            navigateToURL(request, "_self")
        private function stopPublish():void
            netStream.close();
            connection.close();
            limitTimer.stop();
            clockTimer.stop();
            isRecording = false
            recordStatus.gotoAndStop("recordEnd")
            updateTimer();
         *  init microphone
        private function initMicropone():void
            microphone = Microphone.getMicrophone()
            addMicSettings()
         *  init camera
        private function initCamera():void
            camera = Camera.getCamera()
            addCameraSettings()

Answer 1

Hi,
Thanks for the details
First, the quality of the feed we get to the flash player and FMS is highly limited by the capabilities of the webcam that the users have beyond which we cannot improve the quality.
Next, flash player can encode good quality and hence you should probably find more stuff related to how best you can ingest video from a webcam on to the flash player.
- Does recording from server side with asc script will increase the quality ?
No, FMS does not do any type of transcoding/re-encoding stuff. All it does is to 'transmit' and in your case, to flush bits to the disk. So, unless FMS recieves 'Quality', it cannot do much.
- what configurations files on the server can i adjust to increase the recording quality ?
From above, it flows that, there are no configurations on the server that can make your quality grow. The configurations are more to do with delivery. It can be tweaked to improve streaming, reduce latency, quick start and more.
- is there a way to cache locally the stream if the bandwith is not high enough, and when the user stops recording, upload it to the server (it doesn't have to be live or broadcast).
I don't think flash player can do this.
Thank you !