| Developer(s) | Unreal Streaming Technologies |
|---|---|
| Initial release | October 2003 |
| Stable release | 15.0
/ January 3, 2023 |
| Operating system | Windows |
| Type | streaming server software |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www |
Unreal Media Server is a streaming server software created by Unreal Streaming Technologies.
Proprietary UMS streaming protocol is based on Microsoft DirectShow, and therefore, UMS protocol is codec-independent. UMS protocol realizes a distributed DirectShow graph where source filter resides on the server computer and renderer filter resides on the player computer; a corresponding DirectShow decoder needs to be installed at the player computer/device.
Supported file container formats: MP4, ASF, AVI, MKV, MPEG, WMV, FLV, Ogg, MP3, 3GP, MOV, other containers.
With regards to live video, Unreal Media Server acts as universal transmuxer: it receives live streams multiplexed (muxed) in different protocols/formats (WebRTC/RTSP-RTP, MS-WMSP/ASF, MPEG2-TS, UMS), demuxes (extracts) the actual elementary streams from these containers (no decoding or transcoding), and muxes (packages) it for specific player delivery. For example, it can ingest a live RTSP stream from IP camera and send it to WebRTC players; at the same time re-mux it into RTMP/FLV protocol/format for delivery to Adobe Flash Player; at the same time re-mux it to video/mp4 segments for delivery via WebSocket protocol to HTML5 MSE players in web browsers; at the same time re-mux it to MPEG2-TS for delivery to Set-Top box, and at the same time send it to iOS devices with HLS protocol. Unreal Media Server is known for low latency live streaming; with UMS, WebRTC, WebSocket-video/mp4, RTMP and MPEG2-TS protocols latencies of 0.2–2 seconds can be achieved when streaming over the Internet; with Apple HLS the latency can be as low as 3 seconds.
A first version of Unreal Media Server, released in October 2003, supported proprietary UMS protocol only. At that time this was the only server capable of streaming AVI files without transcoding; the first version was completely free.[1]
In the next versions additional streaming protocols such as MS-WMSP(MMS) and RTMP were added. Also, a free version introduced a limit of 15 concurrent connections and a commercial version was offered for purchase.[2] Before version 9.0 the Server accepted live streams from proprietary encoder named Unreal Live Server only. With version 9.0 the ability of ingesting of RTSP, MPEG2-TS and MMS live streams was introduced, to support industry standard live encoders such as IP network cameras, Windows Media Encoder etc.; version 10.0 added support for Flash encoders such as FMLE. Version 10.5 added support for adaptive bitrate streaming; also, limit of concurrent connections in a free version was reduced to 10 connections. Version 11.0 added time-shifted (nDVR) playback for live broadcasts, for up to 12 hours back from real-time. Version 11.5 added "live playlist" feature allowing server-side channel switching and ad insertion. Version 12.0 added streaming via WebSockets to HTML5 <video> Media Source Extensions. Version 13.0 added full WebRTC support: ingesting live WebRTC streams from web browsers and sending live WebRTC streams to web browsers.[3] Version 14.0 added VOD files streaming to HTML5 video element via HTTP byte-range requests. Version 15.0 added RTSP server and full SRT support (ingest and publishing).