Yes, we have live video webcast plans. In addition to our archived on demand video hosting services, we have live video broadcasting with Windows Media. You can take a look at the live video plans here: http://www.gravlab.com/live.html

Instructions for creating the playlist file:

1. Open up a text editor such as Windows Notepad

3. Type in the FULL path to the Web Address (URL) of your MP3 or WMA music file.

If it’s an MP3 music file, type it in like this:

http://media.gravlab.com/editorialemergency/sample.mp3

Repeat for each mp3 you want to add
http://media.gravlab.com/editorialemergency/sample.mp3
http://media.gravlab.com/editorialemergency/sample.mp3
http://media.gravlab.com/editorialemergency/sample.mp3

Save this text file with an .m3u (universal playlist) extension.

Example: playlist.m3u

There is no limit to how may songs you can include in an individual playlist. In a playlist with more than one song, each song is buffered and streamed individually. Therefore, it makes no difference how many songs are referenced in one playlist file. Each song will play one after the other without user intervention. Also, in a playlist with more than one song, the site visitor can use the Media Player controls to skip forward or back a track (song) in the playlist, and also has the option of “previewing” a short clip or a series of short clips of each song in the playlist.

Link to the m3u file (you can put the .m3u file in your GravityLab account or on your website server, it makes no difference)

Here’s how to use Windows Media Encoder 9 to convert your AVI file into Windows Media video.

1. Double click the download, and install Windows Media Encoder on your system
2. After install, launch it.
3. Select “Convert a File” - Click “OK”
4. Browse and find your AVI in the “Source File” box
5. The “Output File” will automatically fill in with your file name, don’t change it
6. Click “NEXT”
7. Select “Windows Media server (streaming)”
8. Click Next
9. Select “Video - VHS Quality Video” and  “Audio - CD Quality Audio”
10. Select “400 kbps” uncheck 300kbps if it is checked
11. Type in your descriptions - Click next
12. Select “Begin converting when I click “Finish” - then click finish

When Windows Media Encoder is finished, go to your folder where your files are (you should have an AVI and WMV)

You can then upload the Windows Media Video file to your Gravlab account

Link to your video with mms://media.gravlab.com/your-account-name/your_file_name.wmv

You’ll probably want to convert your AVI file to Windows Media. It’s a much better streaming video than AVI when delivered over the web. Windows Media Encoder is a free utility from Microsoft that you can download here - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx
However, I don’t see any AVI file in your account. I don’t think you could have uploaded it last night while the account was locked. Remember, since you’re uploading video to our delivery network, it can take quite awhile for your file to finish uploading (it starts uploading when you drag it to the folder, but can take awhile). If you do use your AVI file on myspace, the link would look like this:

mms://media.gravlab.com/your-account-name/filename.avi

or

http://media.gravlab.com/your-account-name/filename.avi

We often are asked about custom embedding of audio files from your account into your website. We do have a Flash file that can automatically load an mp3 playlist into a flash player based on an XML file.

To see our audio player demo, take a look here.

GravityLab Multimedia offers MP3, Windows Media, and Quicktime Streaming services. Contact us today for a quote or choose from one of our audio hosting plans to embed audio into your web site.

Digital video files are usually stored to disk in movie files. These files often contain the sample data used by the movie as well. The Player API includes functions to store a movie, or a movie and all its associated sample data, to a file. By default, the movie data structure is stored at the beginning of the file, followed by any sample data, such as in Quicktime. By default, the sample data is interleaved, so that media samples that are displayed at the same time are stored close together, with the samples needed earliest stored first.

This typical streaming encoded movie file can be delivered by any web server, using common protocols such as HTTP and FTP, just as if it were an HTML file or a JPEG image. It is necessary only to name the file correctly and associate the filename extension with the correct MIME type on the server. (The correct filename extension for QuickTime movies is .mov, and the correct MIME type is 'video/quicktime'.)

When a file is delivered over a network or downloaded over the Internet, the entire file is not available immediately, but a typical QuickTime movie can be played while it downloads. This is called progressive download, or Fast Start. It works because the movie atom is stored at the beginning of the file, so QuickTime knows how to interpret the movie sample data even before it arrives, and because the movie data is intelligently interleaved with respect to display time.

It is also possible to create a movie file with the sample data stored first, followed by the movie data structure. This is not usually desirable, because the entire file must download before QuickTime can interpret the sample data. You can correct this kind of data inversion simply by opening the movie file in QuickTime and saving it as a new, self-contained file. QuickTime stores the movie data structure at the beginning of the file by default.

A QuickTime movie file may contain only a movie data structure, pointing to sample data in other files or URLs. In most cases, this type of movie can also play as the movie data downloads, because, again, the movie data structure allows QuickTime to interpret the incoming data, and because the data source for each track is specified independently, causing the network to perform a kind of interleaving by delivering all of the media independently and simultaneously. Obviously, this kind of interleaving is less reliable than the deliberate interleaving QuickTime does when creating a self-contained movie file, so playback may not always be as smooth.

When the bandwidth of a connection meets or exceeds the data rate of the movie, a well-formed QuickTime movie file can play as it downloads. This kind of progressive download, or Fast Start movie, provides the same user experience as real-time streaming.

If the connection is not fast enough to play the movie in real time, you can either wait until the download completes or play as much of the movie as has downloaded at a given time. QuickTime can even estimate the required download time and begin playback when it calculates that enough data has arrived to play the movie smoothly (because the remaining data is expected to arrive by the time it is needed).

QuickTime movies can also be delivered using real-time protocols such as RTP and RTSP. This requires a streaming server, such as the QuickTime Streaming Server or Darwin Streaming Server. To stream movies in real time, the server requires information about how to packetize each track in the movie. This information is stored in special tracks in a QuickTime movie, known as hint tracks. There are functions in the API for adding hint tracks to existing movies, as well as flags that can be used to tell QuickTime to create hint tracks when saving a movie to disk.

Movies with hint tracks can also be delivered using HTTP or FTP protocols for progressive download, but additional bandwidth is needed to carry the hint tracks, which are used only for streaming. Consequently, it is best to determine how you will deliver a movie before saving it as hinted or nonhinted.

In addition to progressive download and real-time streaming of stored movie files, QuickTime supports broadcasting, the creation of one or more real-time streams from real-time sources, such as cameras or microphones. This involves capturing the incoming data, compressing it to the desired bandwidth, and generating streams of outgoing packets, all in real time. The QuickTime broadcast API is currently available for the Mac OS only; it is not available for Windows or Java.

The GravityLab Multimedia content delivery network is comprised of best-of-breed streaming media servers located directly on the fiber optic North American internet backbone. What that means, basically, is that your media content is delivered on demand very quickly to a global audience using the best Internet path directly into their homes.

You are able to deliver all the major streaming media formats from one account. You simply FTP your video to your account, and then link to your video or audio assets from your web site. We try to make it as easy as possible for you to deliver streaming media to your audience.

Once you open your account, within 24 hours you can begin uploading your video. If you need your video encoded to streaming media formats, we can do that as well from your source media.