January 11th, 2010
One of the drawbacks of many kinds of streaming media is that there are special protocols and non-standard ports used, which can lead to several different types of failures, and ultimately, a lot of frustration. When Apple set out to include a streaming video feature on their iPhone OS, they decided to use HTTP for several reasons. First and foremost, they could avoid many of the pitfalls of typical streaming media setups. For example: RTSP streams are often rejected by overzealous firewalls and routers, which means that many viewers who reside behind corporate/office firewalls will not be able to view your video stream. Read more... (469 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)
March 4th, 2009
Decks and Cards
WAP sites are generally one file that contains many sub-pages within the master WML page. Each page is defined with a special tag called “<card>”. This is why WML pages are known as “decks”, because they contain multiple cards. Each card can contain text, links, input fields, tasks, images, and more. You can provide navigation from card to card with links that work just like HTML anchors (with a # sign to indicate the id of the card.)
Example WAP code
Here is an example WAP site with two cards, each one containing a link to a different type of 3gp mobile video. Read more... (293 words, estimated 1:10 mins reading time)
March 20th, 2008
From the Microsoft Expression Encoder download site:
“Microsoft® Expression® Encoder, a feature of Expression Media, offers encoding, enhancement, and publishing of rich media experiences to Microsoft Silverlight. ”
Features Include:
Better Encoding
VC-1 advanced authoring SDK integration: by adopting the new VC-1 authoring SDK, Expression Encoder 2 is able to author better quality video faster. We’ve exposed a set of presets for tuning the encoder as well as detailed settings with comprehensive tooltips for the advanced compressionist.
New profiles, and video codecs for streaming media: Encoder 2 supports a number of new modes and codecs including Quality VBR, WMA Pro (stereo), WMA Lossless, 24 bit audio and audio/video encoding stream selection. Read more... (451 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)
January 30th, 2008
When the iPhone was unveiled, the mobile phone market was instantly changed. Consumers raced to buy them, and sales exceeded all expectation. The iPhone now dominates the mobile phone market. But what does this mean for mobile streaming?
Update 3/19/2008: The iPhone continues to garner market share across the mobile phone landscape, continuing to reward its loyal customers with a host of new features and updates. The latest software, iPhone 3.0, announced earlier this week, will now allow for HTTP streaming, which is compatible with GravityLab Multimedia’s video hosting plans.
Read more... (213 words, estimated 51 secs reading time)
April 27th, 2007
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. Read more... (768 words, estimated 3:04 mins reading time)
December 27th, 2006
Tom Keller had a problem. His Bluegrass on Broad Street program had just reached a milestone, streaming the last night of a summer music series on the Web with both audio and video, and the audience response—both physical and virtual—had been better than expected.
But his plans to expand beyond the local area and its crowds of thousands to introduce his hometown of Kingsport, Tennessee—and his hot dog shop where the whole series started—came to an abrupt halt when faced with the minimum costs presented by the streaming service providers contacted in the wake of his initial success.
Read more... (2699 words, estimated 10:48 mins reading time)
