Sun Ray Software 4 Update 3 (aka SRS4U3) Beta - FAQ
Please note that this is a living document and will be updated on a frequent basis.
What's New?
Sun Ray Software 4 Update 3 delivers following Multimedia enhancements:
-
using Sun Ray Connector for Windows and Windows Media Player
- H.264 (MPEG-4) and VC-1 (Windows Media Video 9)
playback capabilities on Sun Ray 2 family of clients (Sun Ray 2, Sun Ray 2FS, Sun Ray 270) by extending Sun
Ray architecture to accept these streams and transmit them directly to
Sun Ray clients for decoding.
- Improved playback of other video formats such as avi, divx, MPEG-2, etc. by leveraging standard XVideo interface on Sun Ray 1 and Sun Ray 2 family of clients where YUV streams are sent directly to the Sun Ray client.
-
using Non-Windows environment
- Accelerated YUV playback with applications such as RealPlayer by leveraging standard XVideo for Sun Ray 1 and Sun Ray 2 family of
clients where YUV streams are sent directly to the Sun Ray client.
What's the Required environment?
-
Sun Ray Server Software (SRSS) 4.1 and
Sun Ray Connector for Windows OS (SRWC) 2.1 running on
- Solaris 10 5/08 (Update 5) on SPARC with and without Trusted Extensions
- Solaris 10 5/08 (Update 5) on X86 with and without Trusted Extensions
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 Update 1
- SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10 Service Pack 1
-
Windows Terminal Services running on
- Windows 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition Service Pack 2
- Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (32-bit)
- Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (64-bit)
-
Windows Media Player version 10 or 11
-
Multimedia Redirection Component (SunMMR)
This includes the following components
which intercept H.264, VC-1 and uncompressed YUV streams. This
component is delivered in the <download-dir>/srwc_2.1/Supplemental/SunMMR section of the SRWC
2.1 image.
To install and register this Multimedia Redirection Component:
- Run setup.exe on the destination Windows server
- Select 'Everyone' option during installation.
-
Third party components required for H.264 (MPEG-4)
SunMMR does not include any demux
filter, audio decoder filter and video decoder filter for H.264
(MPEG-4) and YUV redirection. The following components have been
tested:
OR
- MainConcept codec, available at http://www.mainconcept.com and select 'Codec SDK'.
Only mpeg splitter, mpeg decoder, mp4 splitter, mp4 decoder and H.264 decoder are required.
Note that additional third
party components are required only for H.264 (MPEG-4), No additional
component is required for VC-1 (WMV9).
What's the Sanity Test?
After installing all the components as described above, play the sample files available in
<download-dir>/srwc_2.1/Supplemental/SunMMR/samples directory using Windows Media Player.
These clips will be played with better quality and audio/video synchronization.
What's Session Reconnection behavior?
If a Sun Ray Connector session is
relaunched or hotdesked while a supported media format clip is playing,
an error alter box may be displayed and user must relaunch
(File->Open) the clip from Windows Media Player.
What's logged?
When multimedia enhancements are in use,
as when video clips in a supported format are played, debugging
messages are logged in the following files:
- On Solaris, /var/dt/Xerrors
- On Linux, /var/log/gdm/$DISPLAY.log (e.g. /var/log/gdm/:11.log)
Following table describes sample messages that will be logged in the above files:
Message
|
Comments
|
Display :3.0 Video port Id 39 Compressed: H264
|
Start of H.264 compressed video stream.
|
| Display :3.0 Video port Id 39 Compressed: VC1 |
Start of VC1 compressed video stream. |
| Display :3.0 Video port Id 39 YUV: YV12 |
Start of stream for XVideo.
Note that the XVideo protocol does not require
start/stop so an application may send multiple
streams without a new debug message. |
Display :3.0 Video port Id 39 Compressed: H264 hotdesked
|
Stream has been connected to Sun Ray client.
|
Display :3.0 Video port Id 39 Compressed: H264 hotdesked
firmware does not support compressed video
|
Stream has been connected to Sun Ray client
that does not support decoding.
|
What are the Limitations?
In the Beta release, multimedia enhancements will not work in the following environment
- Low bandwidth environment
- Xinerama
- Multiple Streams at the same time
What are the Known Issues and Workarounds?
- In Windows Media Player, Repeat Mode should be disabled before playing the video streams by following these steps:
- Open Windows Media Player
- Disable Repeat Mode
- Close and restart Windows Media Player to play the video streams
- In Windows Media Player, video playback using Playlist option may not work correctly and is not supported in Beta release.
The workaround is to double-click the filename under 'Now Playing List'.
- On Windows Terminal Server, 'Sound Scheme' should be disabled before playing the clips
Open Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices Properties -> Sounds -> Sound Scheme -> No Sounds
The effective limit for playability is
around 3 million pixels, or around 352 * 288 at 25 fps. This is
fundamental limit derived from the CPU available in Sun Ray 2
units. It's a known issue that multimedia support does not
degrade gracefully for videos above the supported sizes and framerates.