Streaming content from a ce

[mathomas]

I have prepositioned content which customers access through a url. Is there a way to get this content to start streaming as soon as they click on the url or does it have to download the whole file to the customer's pc before the customer can view the content?

[mindnich]

With for example a Windows Media environment you can use .asx files on your WM Server. Those asx files basically include URLs to which the Windows Media Player on the client connects to.

With that you could configure WCCP to intercept WMT client requests and use CEs to act as a streaming proxy / stream splitter.

We implemented that for live video broadcasts where the clients immediately start playing and can watch those broadcasts then.

[mathomas]

Thank you for your response. We are using a Windows Media environment. All our browsers point to CEs as a proxy. The URL's contain files with a .mpg extention. Is it possible to stream these files? If so what do I need to do on the CE to tell it to start streaming rather than downloading?

[mindnich]

I´m afraid that goes beyond my knowledge of Windows Media. I´m a networking guy and it´s other people running the Media Servers.

All I can tell you is that we are using .asx files to tell the WMPlayer what stream to connect to. I would assume that there is a difference between you serving a MPEG file which is rather a video on demand, instead of connecting at some point in time to a live running stream... !?

An example of such an asx file would be:

These asx files can be opened with the Windows Media Player.

The network intercepts all WMT requests and redirects them to the CE (WCCP). Only the CE is allowed on the WMServer to access the HQ stream (256kbit/s). All other clients not running across the CE will be denied for the first entry and roll over to the second which is one with lower quality (34kbit/s).

[seilsz]

This configuration is done on the web site, not the CE. To stream video from a web site, the URL accessed by users will need to reference a meta file. The meta file is returned to the user's browser along with a MIME type that specifies what application or plugin should be used to access to referenced links in the meta file.

For WMT, the meta file is a .asx file. you can find more information about creating ASX files here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/default.asp?url=/archive/en-us/samples/internet/imedia/netshow/simpleasx/default.asp

~Zach

[mathomas]

Thanks a bunch, this helps a great deal.

Mark