OK, so I want to stream my music.  How do I capture it in the first place?

Visit our "How to record music on the computer" page for more detailed instructions if you are just starting out.  If you know a bit about recording the bottom line is that you need to see a MP3 or .wav file on your computer hard drive.  There are many ways to get it there:

• You could use a $5.00 microphone and Windows Recorder
• You could use an audio interface like an Mbox to record and master the file
• You could record on an analog 4 track like a Tascam unit and then record that file via input on the soundcard to your computer.
• There are a million other ways, but essentially you need a .wav file that can be read from your hard drive.

Once you have the file on your computer you then convert it to the streaming format (this process is known as "encoding") .wma.  You then have to create a "stub" or text file pointing to the content and upload to the server.  

Want to record a live video event? 

Here is the way to make a live recording of your audio or video event for playback/editing later:

Using Windows Media Encoder to capture your Audio/Video

Open Windows Media Encoder
Select "Capture Audio or Video"
Select your devices - Video Cam and/or Audio
Type a descriptive name for your file
Choose your download method: Windows Media Server (streaming - using a Windows server) or Web Server (progressive download via http:// port 80; lower quality.)
Select your bitrate - this is where you choose the quality and size of download
Enter Title/Author/Copyright/Rating/Description (optional)
Click Finish
Click on Start Encoding
When finished Click Stop
This process will then have saved a copy of the live event, your "content" to your hard drive in the proper Windows Media format.
You then upload this file to your server

Click here for the steps on "putting it all together" so it streams over the Internet

Want to edit the raw footage?  If you are working within an environment like Final Cut Pro for video or ProTools for audio, once the file has been saved to your hard drive you can then edit it.  You would have to record the event, convert to AVI; and edit the video, add titles, etc... then save as then convert to .wmv for video and .wma for audio.  It is a little trickier if you are converting MP3 to .wma; you normally have to pay for this conversion software since there is a patent fee to be paid to the MP3 folks; so this feature is only added to paid software; it's not included in Windows Media encoder since Microsoft is not going to pay a fee every time someone downloads a free program...  Other software vendors have already added this fee into the price of their software and it is sold as a feature.  

Once your project is saved in the proper format it is then the "content" file to be uploaded to the server.

Click here for the steps on "putting it all together" so it streams over the Internet