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It is no surprise that most of the adult entertainment or news broadcasts you
see on the Internet is, or has been, presented in Real Audio/Video format.
Why is that?
To truly stream your content to a computer via Windows Media Player you require space on a server running
Windows 2000 or higher. Windows servers cost money; a valid license key is
mandatory for any Windows server exposed to the Internet.
All other operating systems (like Linux) support web hosting. If you
can FTP a file to a server and view it in your browser you are able to stream using Real
Audio/Video or even in Windows Media if encoded as a "progressive
download" during encoding.
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This is because the content, which has
already been encoded is able to stream immediately via http:// on port 80 (or
any other...) but this is the most common protocol and port of them all.
This really makes sense for low level streaming projects; and Real technology
has been included in many audio editing hardware devices for this reason
alone. In most cases you are only supporting a small audience (less than
10 at a time; say for video..) and any old server will do.
So how do you make this happen?
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Using Real Audio/Video
Record your video
Convert your file to Real Audio/Video format (ram)
Open up a notepad window
Type in the exact URL of your CONTENT file Example: http://yourIP/test1.ram
Save as .ra
Upload both files to the server
In any HTML editor create a link pointing towards the .ra
file Example Click
here to see the video MouseOver to
see the link Example
When the browser opens it looks at the text file; which points towards the
content file. Real Player opens and you begin viewing/listening to the
content. Easy, breezy.
OK, that's perfect! Sounds too good to be true. Are
there any downsides?
-
You will have to buy special
conversion software to make it all happen. There are many options, buy
it from Real, check out our friends at Blaze
Media or visit our other site
musiciansoft.com for more options.
-
Your transmission quality is not assured. It can
happen that the sound
and
video
can
be
choppy
since
this
protocol
(http)
isused
for
moving
general
Internet
traffic
(text,
graphics,
etc)
and
breaks
each
file
into
many
pieces
and
re-assembles
it
at
the
destination
computer.
Great
for
images, text, files
Not
so grrrr(buffering
2%)eat
for ss(buffering
5%)und
and
video.
-
Anyone
viewing
your
content
MUST
have Real Player installed
on
their
machine.
I
don't
on mine but
I
certainly
have
Windows
Media
installed
since
it
is
integrated
with
the
Operating
System.....This
makes
Windows
Media
very
attractive;
you
KNOW
everyone
will
have
it
installed if they are
running Windows....
- If you want to do any serious streaming you will have to buy a license from Real. While this may be an option for some, this is the page that
started out with "I don't have any money to spend"; so this could
be an option in the future if things go well.
- If your video is very popular then you have the possibility of maxing out
your network card which can cause bottlenecks. No intelligent
streaming or conversation between the player and the server; it's just
pushing another file your way and hoping for the best.
You can do the same thing using Windows Media Player, save your file as a
"progressive download" during encoding and see our how to create
2 files page for the coding on the server.
More...
Getting
Started - Recording your event
for broadcast later using
Windows Media Encoder
Getting started - Live Unicast
Streaming with Windows Media
Encoder
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Getting
Started - Recording your event
for broadcast later using
Windows Media Encoder
Getting started - Live Unicast
Streaming with Windows Media
Encoder
Setting
Up your Windows 2000/2003 web server for live broadcast
Or,
another way of looking at it:
Other
Areas: Calculating
Bandwidth Random
Tips/Tricks/Notes
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