[Live-devel] Axis camera server changed with firmware 5.60 and later

[Ron McOuat]

Hi All,

I would like to ask a question around standards related to SDP control 
URLs. The Axis cameras still work with live555 on any version of their 
firmware but the behavior is different comparing firmware versions 5.50 
and earlier with 5.60 and 5.70. Since Axis has a significant market 
share this difference I hope it is of some interest to the group.

Firmware 5.50 and earlier
The DESCRIBE response SDP from the camera has 2 control URLs one which 
is the same URL used to reach the camera initially and a stream level 
URL with trackID=1 tacked on to the path of the URL to control only the 
video channel. One of the clients from a video wall vendor does not use 
the stream level URL with the trackID=1 portion during SETUP and PLAY 
but it works regardless for the 5.50 and earlier versions of Axis camera 
firmware.

Firmware 5.60 and 5.70
The DESCRIBE response SDP now has a stream level control URL which is 
the original with stream=0 added to the path of the URL. This client 
still uses the initial session level URL for SETUP but gets back a 404 
error response from the camera.

I have read RFC2326 and there is a statement that if a stream level URL 
is present in the SDP then it takes precedence. It also says the session 
level URL can be used to control all streams at once.

My question is was Axis just being nice and assumed the client was 
asking for and got the video stream for 5.50 and earlier firmware? It 
seems the video wall is the only client that doesn't use the stream 
level URL during SETUP and PLAY that I have in this system so I presume 
they have a deficiency in their protocol and I should look to them for a 
resolution.

I am sorry to post to this group but I checked several other Google 
groups and could not find anything. I have followed this group since 
2006 and have gained a lot of knowledge as well as use of the excellent 
library.

Thanks for any pointers even to another group,
Ron