MCU 8510 Content Frame Rate & Quality

[Patrick Sparkman]

Is there a combination of settings on the MCU or codec that can be made to help when sending video to participants in a conference, mainly increasing the frame rate of the video being sent, yet doing what can be done to keep the sharpness as crisp as possible?

I know you can change the quality setting on the codec to motion, which does give us the desired result of smooth video, however the downside is the content then gets a bit blurry due to not being on sharpness.

Any suggestions, thoughts?

[Dharmesh Nandoria]

Hi Patrick,

You can check following configuration on MCU .

Home>Settings> Conferences : Motion Sharpness tradeoff

following is from help :

Choose the MCU-wide setting for motion/sharpness            trade off. The options are:

• Favor motion: the MCU will try and use a high frame rate. That is, the MCU will strongly favor a resolution of  at least 25 frames per second
• Favor sharpness: the  MCU will use the highest resolution that is appropriate for what is being viewed
• Balanced: the MCU will select  settings that balance resolution and frame rate (where the frame rate  will not be less than 12 frames per second)

In conf Setting :

Content mode:

The MCU can send on content without having to decode it. This is  known as passthrough mode. In passthrough mode  the incoming content  packet stream is simply repackaged and sent out to endpoint in the  conference that are capable of receiving content at that resolution and  framerate. This means that the MCU can support content in resolutions  higher than would be able to if it had to transcode it. Passthrough mode  does not use up a content port  for that conference.

The MCU also has a Hybrid content mode. In Hybrid content mode   the incoming video stream is decoded, and the MCU sends out two content   streams: a higher resolution one (passthrough) and a lower resolution  stream that  the MCU transcodes and scales down for any endpoints that  are unable to support the passthrough stream. The MCU can therefore also  send content using two different codecs. Hybrid mode does use up a  video port.

Choose from:

• Disabled: Content is not transmitted.
• Passthrough: Content is not decoded and is simply repackaged  and sent out to each eligible endpoint in the conference.
• Hybrid: The MCU sends out  two content streams: a higher resolution one (passthrough), and a lower  resolution stream transcoded and scaled down for any endpoints that are  unable to support the higher stream
• Transcoded: A single transcoded content is sent.

You can change the settings to achive desired result .

hth

Kind regards,

Dharmmesh

[Patrick Sparkman]

Our bridge is currently set to favor motion.  Does the quality setting on the MCU affect both video and content?

I've tested with the videos that they are trying to show, and the quality is viewable, however the frame-rate is the issue, as the video jumps, if that makes any sense.  The participants we're dealing with are a various group, C-Series to Jabber Video.  For all of our integrated rooms, C-Series, the call rate is 768.  Jabber Video, the call rate is 384.  When I did my test, I connected both types of endpoints here in the office at call rates ranging from 384, 765, 1.5M.  All scenarious ended up with jumpy video.

Our content mode is set to Passthrough, however, Jabber Video or SIP devices don't take advantage of that mode, only H.323 from what I've seen.

[petark]

Hi Patrick,

Did you have any success configuring the Passthrough mode on the MCU?

We are trying to make TCS record with Passthrough mode set on MCU. Problem is, this only works with MX300 G2 endpoints(not even MX800). For any other I get "usupported packetization mode". Please see attached.

Is there a way to support content in Passthrough mode for all other endpoints? 

Thanks.

Regards,

Petar

[Patrick Sparkman]

Oh wow, this is an old discussion.

First off, we use Hybrid mode and content passthrough works without any issue. Passthrough should work for any endpoint, as it simply takes the incoming content stream and sends it to the other endoints unchanged. Are you using the same call protocol for all endpoints?

You mention the TCS, it doesn't support passthrough, you'll need to use hybrid because it will require the MCU to transcode the content. 

Regarding the original post in this thread and the presentation frame rates, see cisco-mse-8510-content-frame-rate-and-resolution-limitations.