Preview a channel

Applies to: Pearl-2, Pearl Mini, Pearl Nexus, Pearl Nano

You can open a live preview of a channel in your web browser to see any configuration changes you make to the channel as you make them. Web browsers that support HTML5 and Flash are supported.

There are several ways to preview a channel:

• Preview a channel from the Info page
• Preview a channel from the Status page
• Preview all channels at the same time

Important considerations

• Some web browsers disable auto playback of videos with audio. In those cases, the audio for the channel being previewed is muted by default.
• HTML5 does not support PCM audio encoding. If PCM audio encoding is configured for a channel, audio does not play in the preview link for the channel.
• PCM audio encoding at 48 kHz is not supported. A live broadcast preview link is not provided for a channel that is configured for PCM audio encoding with a sampling bitrate of 48 kHz.
• If HTTPS is configured for the device, the live broadcast URL will start with https instead of http.

The Info page has preview links for all the channels that are configured on the device.

Preview a channel from the Info page using the Admin panel

• Log in to the Admin panel as admin.
• From the Configuration menu, select Info. The information window opens. Then click View to open a preview window of the channel.

Preview a channel from the Status page using the Admin panel

You can use the Admin panel to open a preview link for a channel from the Status page. The Live broadcast preview can be viewed using web browsers that support HTML5 or Flash. You can also see a preview of the channel directly from the Status page itself.

The Status page lists information about the channel, including stream information such as the bitrate, frame size, streaming and preview links, as well as the state of the services on the device.

This feature is not available using the local console on the device.

• Log in to the Admin panel as admin.
• From the Channel(s) menu, select the channel and click Status. The Status page opens and a live preview snapshot appears below the Stream info.
• Right-click the Live Broadcast link and select Open in a new Tab or Open in a new Window.

Preview all channels at the same time using the Admin panel

The resulting web page can be very large. You can use your keyboard's zoom keys or the zoom buttons for your web browser to adjust the screen view. Plus many browsers support shortcuts, like Ctrl- (control minus) to zoom out and Ctrl+ (control plus) to zoom in.

• Open a new tab in your web browser on the Admin computer.
• Go to the following URL to open the preview web page: http://<ip address>/preview.cgi?channels
• To preview a single channel: http://<ip address>/preview.cgi?channel=X, where X is the channel's index number.

Device differences

• Pearl-2, Pearl Mini, Pearl Nexus: You can also preview a channel using Epiphan Live.
• Pearl Nano: Does not support "Preview all channels at the same time" (single-channel device — only the Info-page and Status-page preview methods exist) and does not support previewing via Epiphan Live. When H.265 is enabled on Pearl Nano, the Live Broadcast link is disabled because of browser HTML5 compatibility.