Chapter 4. Using Windows Media


Windows Media is Microsoft's streaming media system, native to the Windows operating system and with limited authoring support for other platforms. As in most things, Microsoft wants its streaming media system to be your one and only, offering software free of charge and not worrying about the Windows Media platform turning a profit. Consequently, Microsoft hasn't made much effort to provide its tools (except for the Windows Media player, which is available for almost everything) for other operating systems to author and serve Windows Media content.

NOTE

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Macintosh users can get a product called Cleaner (www.discreet.com/streamingmedia) to encode on-demand Windows Media as well as RealMedia and QuickTime files on the Macintosh OS. Similarly, Cleaner Live, another product by Discreet, can author Windows Media and RealMedia live streams on a Macintosh. Cleaner is covered in Chapter 13, Media Process, as part of a discussion on batch processing tools.


Serving Windows Media-encoded content via real-time (as opposed to HTTP/Progressive) streaming requires a Windows NT/2000 server platform. Windows Media servers will be covered later in this chapter, "Creating a Server."



Streaming Audio. The FezGuys' Guide
Streaming Audio: The FezGuys Guide
ISBN: B000H2N1T8
EAN: N/A
Year: 2001
Pages: 119

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