Troubleshooting Kinesis Video Streams - Amazon Kinesis Video Streams
Troubleshooting general issuesTroubleshooting API issuesTroubleshooting HLS issuesTroubleshooting Java issuesTroubleshooting Producer Library issuesTroubleshooting Stream Parser Library issues

Troubleshooting Kinesis Video Streams

Use the following information to troubleshoot common issues encountered with Amazon Kinesis Video Streams.

Troubleshooting general issues

This section describes general issues that you might encounter when working with Kinesis Video Streams.

Latency too high

Latency might be caused by the duration of fragments that are sent to the Kinesis Video Streams service. One way to reduce the latency between the producer and the service is to configure the media pipeline to produce shorter fragment durations.

To reduce the number of frames sent in each fragment, reduce the following value in kinesis_video_gstreamer_sample_app.cpp:

g_object_set(G_OBJECT (data.encoder), "bframes", 0, "key-int-max", 45, "bitrate", 512, NULL);
Note

Latencies are higher in the Mozilla Firefox browser due to the internal implementation of video rendering.

Troubleshooting API issues

This section describes API issues that you might encounter when working with Kinesis Video Streams.

Error: "Unknown options"

GetMedia and GetMediaForFragmentList can fail with the following error:

Unknown options: <filename>.mkv

This error occurs if you configured the AWS CLI with an output type of json. Reconfigure the AWS CLI with the default output type (none). For information about configuring the AWS CLI, see configure in the AWS CLI Command Reference.

Error: "Unable to determine service/operation name to be authorized"

GetMedia can fail with the following error:

Unable to determine service/operation name to be authorized

This error might occur if the endpoint is not properly specified. When you're getting the endpoint, be sure to include the following parameter in the GetDataEndpoint call, depending on the API to be called:

--api-name GET_MEDIA
--api-name PUT_MEDIA
--api-name GET_MEDIA_FOR_FRAGMENT_LIST
--api-name LIST_FRAGMENTS

Error: "Failed to put a frame in the stream"

PutMedia can fail with the following error:

Failed to put a frame in the stream

This error might occur if connectivity or permissions are not available to the service. Run the following in the AWS CLI, and verify that the stream information can be retrieved:

aws kinesisvideo describe-stream --stream-name StreamName --endpoint https://ServiceEndpoint.kinesisvideo.region.amazonaws.com

If the call fails, see Troubleshooting AWS CLI Errors for more information.

Error: "Service closed connection before final AckEvent was received"

PutMedia can fail with the following error:

com.amazonaws.SdkClientException: Service closed connection before final AckEvent was received

This error might occur if PushbackInputStream is improperly implemented. Verify that the unread() methods are correctly implemented.

Error: "STATUS_STORE_OUT_OF_MEMORY"

PutMedia can fail with the following error:

The content store is out of memory.

This error occurs when the content store is not allocated with sufficient size. To increase the size of the content store, increase the value of StorageInfo.storageSize. For more information, see StorageInfo.

Troubleshooting HLS issues

If your video stream doesn't play back correctly, see Troubleshooting HLS issues.

Troubleshooting Java issues

This section describes how to troubleshoot common Java issues encountered when working with Kinesis Video Streams.

Enabling Java logs

To troubleshoot issues with Java samples and libraries, it's helpful to enable and examine the debug logs. To enable debug logs, do the following:

  1. Add log4j to the pom.xml file, in the dependencies node: 

    <dependency>
    <groupId>log4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
    <version>1.2.17</version>
</dependency>

  2. In the target/classes directory, create a file named log4j.properties with the following contents:

    # Root logger option
log4j.rootLogger=DEBUG, stdout

# Redirect log messages to console
log4j.appender.stdout=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
log4j.appender.stdout.Target=System.out
log4j.appender.stdout.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.stdout.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss} %-5p %c{1}:%L - %m%n

log4j.logger.org.apache.http.wire=DEBUG

The debug logs then print to the IDE console.

Troubleshooting Producer Library issues

This section describes issues that you might encounter when using the Producer Libraries.

Cannot compile the Producer SDK

Verify that the required libraries are in your path. To verify this, use the following command:

$ env | grep LD_LIBRARY_PATH
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/local/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-video-streams-producer-sdk-cpp/kinesis-video-native-build/downloads/local/lib

Video stream does not appear in the console

To display your video stream in the console, it must be encoded using H.264 in AvCC format. If your stream is not displayed, verify the following:

  • Your NAL Adaptation Flags are set to NAL_ADAPTATION_ANNEXB_NALS | NAL_ADAPTATION_ANNEXB_CPD_NALS if the original stream is in Annex-B format. This is the default value in the StreamDefinition constructor.

  • You are providing the codec private data correctly. For H.264, this is the sequence parameter set (SPS) and picture parameter set (PPS). Depending on your media source, this data may be retrieved from the media source separately or encoded into the frame.

    Many elementary streams are in the following format, where Ab is the Annex-B start code (001 or 0001):

    Ab(Sps)Ab(Pps)Ab(I-frame)Ab(P/B-frame) Ab(P/B-frame)…. Ab(Sps)Ab(Pps)Ab(I-frame)Ab(P/B-frame) Ab(P/B-frame)

    The CPD (Codec Private Data), if H.264 is in the stream as SPS and PPS, can be adapted to the AvCC format. Unless the media pipeline gives the CPD separately, the application can extract the CPD from the frame by looking for the first Idr frame (which should contain the SPS and PPS), extract the two NALUs (which will be Ab(Sps)Ab(Pps)) and set it in the CPD in StreamDefinition.

Error: "Security token included in the request is invalid" when streaming data using the GStreamer demo application

If this error occurs, there is an issue with your credentials. Verify the following:

  • If you are using temporary credentials, you must specify the session token.

  • Verify that your temporary credentials are not expired.

  • Verify that you have the proper rights set up.

  • On macOS, verify that you do not have credentials cached in Keychain.

Error: "Failed to submit frame to Kinesis Video client"

If this error occurs, the timestamps are not properly set in the source stream. Try the following:

  • Use the latest SDK sample, which might have an update that fixes your issue.

  • Set the high-quality stream to a higher bitrate, and fix any jitter in the source stream if the camera supports doing so.

GStreamer application stops with "streaming stopped, reason not-negotiated" message on OS X

Streaming may stop on OS X with the following message:

Debugging information: gstbasesrc.c(2939): void gst_base_src_loop(GstPad *) (): /GstPipeline:test-pipeline/GstAutoVideoSrc:source/GstAVFVideoSrc:source-actual-src-avfvide:
streaming stopped, reason not-negotiated (-4)

A possible workaround for this is to remove the frame rate parameters from the gst_caps_new_simple call in kinesis_video_gstreamer_sample_app.cpp:

GstCaps *h264_caps = gst_caps_new_simple("video/x-h264",
                                             "profile", G_TYPE_STRING, "baseline",
                                             "stream-format", G_TYPE_STRING, "avc",
                                             "alignment", G_TYPE_STRING, "au",
                                             "width", GST_TYPE_INT_RANGE, 320, 1920,
                                             "height", GST_TYPE_INT_RANGE, 240, 1080,
                                             "framerate", GST_TYPE_FRACTION_RANGE, 0, 1, 30, 1,
                                             NULL);

Error: "Failed to allocate heap" when creating Kinesis Video Client in GStreamer demo on Raspberry Pi

The GStreamer sample application tries to allocate 512 MB of RAM, which might not be available on your system. You can reduce this allocation by reducing the following value in KinesisVideoProducer.cpp:

device_info.storageInfo.storageSize = 512 * 1024 * 1024;

Error: "Illegal Instruction" when running GStreamer demo on Raspberry Pi

If you encounter the following error when running the GStreamer demo, verify that you have compiled the application for the correct version of your device. (For example, verify that you're not compiling for Raspberry Pi 3 when you're running on Raspberry Pi 2.)

INFO - Initializing curl.
Illegal instruction

Camera fails to load on Raspberry Pi

To check whether the camera is loaded, run the following:

$ ls /dev/video*

If nothing is found, run the following:

$ vcgencmd get_camera

The output should look similar to the following:

supported=1 detected=1

If the driver does not detect the camera, do the following:

  1. Check the physical camera setup and verify that it's connected properly.

  2. Run the following to upgrade the firmware:

    $ sudo rpi-update

  3. Restart the device.

  4. Run the following to load the driver:

    $ sudo modprobe bcm2835-v4l2

  5. Verify that the camera was detected:

    $ ls /dev/video*

Camera can't be found on macOS High Sierra

On macOS High Sierra, the demo application can't find the camera if more than one camera is available.

jni.h file not found when compiling on macOS High Sierra

To resolve this error, update your installation of Xcode to the latest version.

Curl errors when running the GStreamer demo application

To resolve curl errors when you run the GStreamer demo application, copy this certificate file to /etc/ssl/cert.pem.

Timestamp/range assertion at runtime on Raspberry Pi

If a timestamp range assertion occurs at runtime, update the firmware and restart the device:

$ sudo rpi-update 
$ sudo reboot

Assertion on gst_value_set_fraction_range_full on Raspberry Pi

The following assertion appears if the uv4l service is running: 

gst_util_fraction_compare (numerator_start, denominator_start, numerator_end, denominator_end) < 0' failed

If this occurs, stop the uv4l service and restart the application.

STATUS_MKV_INVALID_ANNEXB_NALU_IN_FRAME_DATA (0x3200000d) error on Android

The following error appears if the NAL Adaptation Flags are incorrect for the media stream: 

putKinesisVideoFrame(): Failed to put a frame with status code 0x3200000d

If this error occurs, provide the correct .withNalAdaptationFlags flag for your media (for example, NAL_ADAPTATION_ANNEXB_CPD_NALS). Provide this flag in the following line of the Android Producer Library:

https://github.com/awslabs/aws-sdk-android-samples/blob/master/AmazonKinesisVideoDemoApp/src/main/java/com/amazonaws/kinesisvideo/demoapp/fragment/StreamConfigurationFragment.java#L169

Maximum fragment duration was reached error

This error occurs when a media fragment in a stream exceeds the maximum fragment duration limit. See the maximum fragment duration limit in the Media and archived-media API service quotas section.

To resolve this issue, try the following:

  • If you are using a webcam/USB camera, do one of the following:

    • If you're using key frame-based fragmentation, then set the encoder to provide key frames within 10 seconds.

    • If you're not using key frame-based fragmentation, then when defining the stream in Step 2: Write and examine the code, set the maximum fragment duration limit to a value that's less than 10 seconds.

    • If you're using software encoders (like x264) in the GStreamer pipeline, you can set the key-int-max attribute to a value within 10 seconds. For example, set key-int-max to 60, with fps set to 30, to enable key frames every 2 seconds.

  • If you're using an RPI camera, set the keyframe-interval attribute to be less than 10 seconds.

  • If you're using an IP (RTSP) camera, set the GOP size to 60.

"Invalid thing name passed" error when using IoT authorization

To avoid this error (HTTP Error 403: Response: {"message":"Invalid thing name passed"}) when you're using IoT credentials for authorization, make sure that the value of stream-name (a required parameter of the kvssink element) is identical to the value of iot-thingname. For more information, see GStreamer element parameter reference.

Troubleshooting Stream Parser Library issues

This section describes issues that you might encounter when using the Stream Parser Library.

Cannot access a single frame from the stream

To access a single frame from a streaming source in your consumer application, verify that your stream contains the correct codec private data. For information about the format of the data in a stream, see Data Model.

To learn how to use codec private data to access a frame, see the following test file on the GitHub website: KinesisVideoRendererExampleTest.java

Fragment decoding error

If your fragments are not properly encoded in an H.264 format and level that the browser supports, you might see the following error when playing your stream in the console:

Fragment Decoding Error
There was an error decoding the video data. Verify that the stream contains valid H.264 content

If this occurs, verify the following:

  • The resolution of the frames matches the resolution specified in the Codec Private Data.

  • The H.264 profile and level of the encoded frames matches the profile and level specified in the Codec Private Data.

  • The browser supports the profile/level combination. Most current browsers support all profile and level combinations.

  • The timestamps are accurate and in the correct order, and no duplicate timestamps are being created.

  • Your application is encoding the frame data using the H.264 format.