Agora plugin not actually streaming or recording

[danielfrenkel]

I’ve been able to get the Agora plugin working fairly well. It manages to stream and upload the recording to AWS S3.

However, there’s a strange problem that must be related to the plugin. The video isn’t actually streaming based on Agora’s analytics.

As you can see here, I’m only using voice for some reason when the video should be working.

In addition, the S3 files aren’t showing any video or voice. Here’s a screenshot from VLC playing the file. The length is correct, but there’s nothing there even though my camera does turn on and appear to stream

Is this something anyone has experienced before and can help me fix?

[Ecaterina]

Hello, @danielfrenkel
Thanks for asking this question.

Please allow me to highlight that after finishing the recording of the Stream, files written to the storage are saved in the M3U8 and TS formats. You receive 3 different files, where 2 of them are in the TS format and one - M3U8. Each of these files is related to the video, audio, and connection with each other.

In order to have one common file with the audio and video, you should convert all these files together.

To decode files, you can use the script suggested by Agora ( as mentioned in our documentation for the recording):
https://docs.agora.io/en/Recording/recording_merge_files?platform=All%20Platforms

Please try it and let me know about the result.
Best regards,

[danielfrenkel]

Hi Ecaterina, I really really appreciate your quick responses. Your support has been very helpful so far.

I was looking through the docs and noted this line below. Would it be possible to add this feature to the plugin?

On this page:

https://docs.agora.io/en/cloud-recording/cloud_recording_composite_mode?platform=RESTful
Is states this:

The recording service generates one M3U8 file and multiple TS files. If you set avFileType as ["hls","mp4"] when calling the start method, the recording service also generates MP4 files, which include the audio and video of all users in the channel.

[Ecaterina]

Hello, @danielfrenkel
Thanks for your feedback.

We will check if this option is possible on the Bubble platform. If it will be possible, we will discuss the possibility to improve the stream recording in future updates.
Thanks for the understanding.

Best regards,

[danielfrenkel]

Thank you, it seems like this option should not affect anything on Bubble and instead just add the MP4 file to the bucket, which will keep everyone from having to run the conversion script and make life a lot easier.

In order to implement this, I think a checkbox in Bubble would work. Something that says “Output MP4” that the user can check or not

Then during the plugins API call, when setting up the cloud recording, you add this section to the plugins call

    "recordingFileConfig": {
        "avFileType": [
            "hls",
            "mp4"
        ]
    },

https://docs.agora.io/en/cloud-recording/cloud_recording_api_rest

[danielfrenkel]

Hello, @Ecaterina,

For some reason, my video files don’t contain anything on them. As per the Agora documentation, I should be able to download the video files from my S3 bucket and play them with VLC Media Player on my computer. However, I only see this red screen in VLC which leads me to believe that the videos are not being captured.

Have you seen anything like this before? I suspect this is something wrong with the plugin

And here’s the data from my Agora cloud recording dashboard. As you can see, no video is being recorded

[danielfrenkel]

Can I see the API calls being made by the app in order to get support directly from Agora? If I know what is being done behind the scenes, I can figure this problem out on my own

[Ecaterina]

Hello, @danielfrenkel
I’m really sorry for my long reply

@danielfrenkel

Thank you, it seems like this option should not affect anything on Bubble and instead just add the MP4 file to the bucket, which will keep everyone from having to run the conversion script and make life a lot easier.

In order to implement this, I think a checkbox in Bubble would work. Something that says “Output MP4” that the user can check or not

Then during the plugins API call, when setting up the cloud recording, you add this section to the plugins call

Allow me to note that we are in process of testing the possibility to record the MP4 files. In case it will be possible - we will proceed with this improvement immediately.

@danielfrenkel

For some reason, my video files don’t contain anything on them. As per the Agora documentation, I should be able to download the video files from my S3 bucket and play them with VLC Media Player on my computer. However, I only see this red screen in VLC which leads me to believe that the videos are not being captured.

Please make sure that you opened the video file. So, one of the 3 recorder files is with the video and another one - with audio.
In case you are sure that all 3 files do not contain video, we need to see how exactly configured the Recording within your application. We will be grateful to receive the screenshots with your current plugin settings

@danielfrenkel

Can I see the API calls being made by the app in order to get support directly from Agora? If I know what is being done behind the scenes, I can figure this problem out on my own

You can check our Demo Editor, where all the settings of the plugin are available for analyzing and replicating. You can easily check each step and compare it with your current configuration.

Looking to hearing from you soon.
Best regards,

[Ecaterina]

Hello, @danielfrenkel
Thanks for your patience.

We have carefully analyzed the official documentation of the Agora platform and especially, the possibility to record the stream in the MP4 format from the beginning.

Please note that according to the official information, recording in this format is possible only for Conference recording, not for Streaming.
In the current plugin version, the recording functionality is possible only for the Streaming, that’s why the MP4 files are not available.

Sorry for this inconvenience
In case you will face any plugin-related questions, let me know.

Best regards,

[danielfrenkel]

Hi @Ecaterina,

I’m curious if you could point me to the documentation that states this? I’ve reached out to Agora but have not heard back yet. But this note is on the documentation:

From April 29, 2021, you can get MP4 files from a composite recording by setting the avFileType parameter. You no longer need to use the Format Converter script.

From: Convert Recorded File Format after a Composite Recording

Since we are using the composite recording, it should work even with streaming. I don’t see any sort of note or warning anywhere that this will not work with streaming. This will really really help me out and I certainly appreciate your help with everything thus far. Thanks!

[Ecaterina]

Hello, @danielfrenkel
Thanks for the question.

@danielfrenkel

Since we are using the composite recording, it should work even with streaming. I don’t see any sort of note or warning anywhere that this will not work with streaming. This will really really help me out and I certainly appreciate your help with everything thus far

Please allow me to note repeatedly that we are not using the Composite recording within our plugin ( it was created just for the Individual Recording).
Here you can see the types of recording https://docs.agora.io/en/cloud-recording/cloud_recording_api_rest?platform=RESTful

Due to the fact that recording is available only for the Streaming component ( in our plugin), we are using the individual recording, which provides the possibility to record only stream ( when 1 user is creating content).

In the current plugin version, the recording functionality is possible only for the Streaming, that’s why the MP4 files are not available.

Sorry for this inconvenience
In case you will face any plugin-related questions, let me know.

Best regards,

[danielfrenkel]

@Ecaterina

Thank you for clarifying this. In the Stop Recording function of the plugin there is an option for setting individual mode or composite mode, which I was setting to mix and assuming it was recording it like that

[Ecaterina]

Hello, @danielfrenkel
Thanks for mentioning this description.

We will remove this part of the description in order to avoid misunderstandings in the plugin configuration
Anyway, please allow me to note repeatedly, that composite recording is not available in the current plugin version.

Use the individual recording for the streaming component with this plugin and it will work properly

Best regards,