streaming media

[bba21]

Hello

I am a complete novice. I am in the process of designing my first web site as a learning tool at university. I intend to stream short (6-7 minute) presentations. I think the windows media format is most compatible with my target audience. How do I set-up my site to stream a windows media file? Does my host have to have special support for streaming? Is it just a matter of embedding the video in the web page and it will stream? I haven't purchased hosting for my site as I don't want to spend money and find that the company I have chosen doesn't support what I need.

Any help would be extremely well received

Many thanks

Ben

[PeOfEo]

http://htmlgoodies.com/tutors/embed.html no it will steam just fine as long as it is chached, which the user will do that just keep it trim for 56k your host does not need to support anything this is client side.

[Robert Wellock]

It depends upon the user-agent configuration as to whether it will stream and the file format in question.

QuickTime *.mov is not actually streaming file format, for example: http://www.xhtmlcoder.com/beck.htm assuming you have QuickTime installed the movie files might have the "appearance" of streaming whilst still downloading - again depending upon your user-agent configuration, etc.

[Pixelchik]

For a real stream of a WMV you would need access to a streaming server. But if you only have access to a regular web server, you could encode your videos to perform a progressive download. If you have a broadband internet service, the video will appear to stream. To do this cheaply I encoded my original .avi video to an .asf (advanced streaming format) using On Demand Producer (an old free tool from Microsoft). There are instructions on their website as to how to embed the .asf in your html. Worked like a charm for me. Suggest you look over this webpage for detailed information:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwmt/html/webserver.asp

Also here's the link to On Demand Producer:

http://download.com.com/3302-2189-908343.html

[IrDa]

If you have access or able to use custom mime types, you can use httpd streaming method. All web host support that type of streaming but it will only work if you are able to setup a custom mime for your wmv file.

[PeOfEo]

but with most hosts it still should not be a problem its really the client if he has plugins.