What’s New in Red5 Pro 13.1.0, 13.2.0, 14.0.0: JDK 21 Update, Stream Manager Improvements, h.265 Ingest Support, and More!

Let’s go over the latest releases introduced in Red5 Pro since our previous blog about Red5 Pro 13.0.0. Red5 Pro 13.1.0, 13.2.0, and 14.0.0 bring new features like thumbnail generation, Stream Manager enhancements, support for h.265 (HEVC) ingest, server update to JDK21, Tomcat 11, and SRT support. 

Upgrade your Red5 Pro server today to fully take advantage of these enhancements. If you need assistance with installation, require a custom feature, or want to prioritize a development request, contact us to discuss your needs. We’re known for our flexibility.

What’s New in Red5 Pro 13.1.0?

The Red5 Pro 13.1.0 update, announced on October 30, 2024, introduced the following updates:

New Features

• Thumbnail generation for live streams
• Additional webhooks around thumbnail generation and stream connections

Improvements

• Allow WebRTC subscriptions to streams in main or high profile by assigning baseline to the stream regardless of the profile.
  NOTE: b-frames in the stream will still cause flickering/jumpiness in the video. Use baseline profile for best cross browser support and results. If your encoder does not support baseline, ensure that b-frames are disabled in other profiles.

Bug Fixes

• When auto recording is enabled, m3u8 may not be playable in certain browsers

What’s New in Red5 Pro 13.2.0?

Announced on December 4, 2024, the Red5 Pro 13.2.0 delivers these updates:

New Features

• Stream Manager support for Restreamer
• Stream Manager support for Node Mixer

Improvements

• Adjust Stream Manager node id naming conventions to support GCP
• Node Mixer clustering support

What’s New in Red5 Pro 14.0.0?

The newest Red5 Pro 14.0.0 update from February 14, 2025 brings major new features, improves existing capabilities, resolves technical issues, and introduces deprecations. 

Here is what you need to know about this update:

New Features

• ERTMP v2 — supporting additional codecs over RTMP, this enhances RTMP and provides backwards compatibility with RTMP.
• h.265 (HEVC) Support:
  – h.265 is not supported by default in browsers and is hidden behind browser configuration flags.
  – Windows: Requires the HEVC Video Extension from the Microsoft Store.
  – Mobile Devices: Requires hardware h.265 encoding and/or decoding support.
  – Linux: Requires hardware h.265 encoding and/or decoding support.
  – Chrome: Using Windows version with these startup flags and the Red5 Pro Testbed with codec selection: chrome –enable-features=PlatformHEVCEncoderSupport,WebRtcAllowH265Receive,WebRtcAllowH265Send –force-fieldtrials=WebRTC-Video-H26xPacketBuffer/Enabled
  – Safari: Use developer options to enable h.265 and the Red5 Pro Testbed with codec selection

Improvements

• Update to JDK21 from JDK11
  – If you have created a custom plugin for Red5 Pro, you may need to update it to support JDK21. Detect compatibility issues with JDK21 using a tool from this blog. 
• Update Tomcat to 11 from Tomcat 8.5
  – If you have a custom web app running in Tomcat under Red5 Pro, you may need to update it to support Tomcat 11 using this guide and the migration tool.  
• Windows SRT Support
  You may need the Visual C++ Redistributable. Download the exe file.  

Deprecations/Removals

• RTMPE — RTMPE is no longer supported, please use RTMPS instead.

Conclusion

The latest Red5 Pro updates (13.1.0, 13.2.0, and 14.0.0) introduce a range of new features and improvements, including server update to JDK21, Tomcat 11, thumbnail generation, Stream Manager enhancements, h.265 (HEVC) codec support. The addition of ERTMP v2 and Windows SRT support, along with the deprecation of RTMPE, marks significant progress for both stream quality and system compatibility. These updates provide Red5 Pro users with improved flexibility, performance, and cross-platform support. 

Ready to experience the Red5 Pro difference? Start your 30-day trial today, check out Github examples or reach out to our team to discuss how we can help solve your streaming challenges.