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Windows Media
History | Clip Delivery Overview
Windows Media has the obvious advantage of being backed by the biggest player in personal computing. It's a safe bet that Microsoft won't be going broke or radically changing their business model any time soon. Updates to the Windows Media Player are easy and most people who run Windows have the correct player… Files are relatively high quality and low size.
On the downside, Microsoft is renowned for frequently changing formats and standards. As a video producer it can be difficult keeping up with the latest version. Also, Microsoft is very proprietary, and any platform other than Windows/IE may have problems.
(Source: http://www.mediacollege.com/video/streaming/formats/windows-media.html)
However, there is a version of Windows Media Player available for the Macintosh Platform and it performs quite well for downloaded Windows Media Files that are saved locally to the machine, but it seems to have issues with streams of Windows Media Video served by Helix Universal Server.
Streaming Windows Media
Streaming Windows Media is done through the use of RTSP, HTTP, or MMS requests straight from the client player or by using Meta files. Meta files are small text files with a 3-character file extension that makes a client OS such as Windows or Mac OS able to integrate them into their shell or working environment. For Windows Media streams, ASX files are used.
ASX files are coded in XML (Extensible Markup Language) and the code looks like HTML code. Since XML files are fairly verbose to human readers they are fairly straightforward. A brief explanation will be given here. If more advanced features are needed, it is recommended that Microsoft’s reference for Windows Media Metafiles be consulted: link
Since Meta files are simply text files, a simple text editor will be needed such as Notepad if you are authoring on Windows, or TextEdit if you are authoring on Mac OS.
Open up one of these programs and save a new text file called <filename>.asx where <filename> is the name of the file you would like to call your Meta file. This name can be different from the actual media file you are streaming, but in general it is good practice to name them the same. You will then need to insert code that conforms to the ASX file format.
A basic example is given here:
<ASX version = "3.0">
<Entry>
<Ref HREF="<A VALID STREAMING URL>" />
</Entry>
</ASX>
The only thing that needs to be mentioned here is that a valid URL should occupy the space in the code as shown above in <A VALID STREAMING URL>. The protocol for streaming the Windows Media File from the Helix Universal Server to a Windows computer can be either RTSP or MMS. However compatibility issues seem to arise when streaming to Macintosh computers in general and specifically using RTSP as the streaming format since Windows Media Player on the Mac platform only supports MMS. After saving the .asx file, the icon should change to reflect its association with the Windows Media Player. Double-clicking on the icon should invoke the player and begin streaming the media file, and linking to this file from a web page on a web site will also download the file and invoke the player and subsequent stream. Web browser behavior will vary depending user’s settings.
Embedding Windows Media in Web Pages
With the exception of Flash video, many compatibility issues abound when authors attempt to embed video into a web page. All of a sudden, content authors must account for multiple users’ browser and player combinations and preferences. For this reason it is not recommended to embed a media player into a web page, but it is possible to do so. Windows Media is no exception. If an author has embedded the player and a media stream correctly into a web page, and then if a user wishes to do so, they may enlarge the screen to full screen capacity for a Television-like experience.
For code examples of how to embed Windows Media in web pages please refer to http://www.mediacollege.com/video/format/windows-media/streaming/embed.html
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