Windows Media High-definition Streaming Video Tutorial

In this tutorial, the terms "movie" and "video" are equivalent.

ENCODING

1. Importing

The default encoder for encoding Windows Media video is the Window Media Encoder 9 Series. You can download it for free from the Microsoft Web site. Launch Windows Media Encoder from a PC. In the New Session window, you can use Convert a file option to convert an original video file to a streaming video file; however, you will be left with almost no freedom in customizing the encoding. Therefore, use Custom session to convert a file. Click OK.

Under the Source tab, click File. Browse to find the file you want to encode. Windows Media Encoder can import videos in AVI and WMV formats easily. However, it is not friendly to QuickTime movies. When you try to import an MOV movie, you can't see it until you click the Files of type pull down menu to choose All files. If you happen to need to encode a video in MPG format, you need to install a compatible MPEG-2 decoder on the encoding computer. In order to achieve the best encoding result, always try to encode the original video output in AVI or MOV format with a large file size.

2. Configuring

Click the Output tab. The encoder briefly explains how to use Push to server and Pull from encoder. For fast encoding, deselect both Push and Pull. Check Encode to file so that the output goes to your local computer. Give an output name and browse to find a folder for it.

Click the Compression tab. Make sure the Destination is Windows Media server (streaming). For Video, choose High definition quality video (CBR). Keep the default audio preset. The output size based on your HD video format is listed on the bottom of the panel. We are going to encode the video bit rate to 4000Kbps, but it is not listed there. With the first bit rate selected, click Edit. Click the only target bit rate > Edit. Let's keep the default 128Kbps audio bit rate. Change video bit rate to 4000K. OK. Apply. Check Two-pass encoding. If your HD video is 1080i and you have not deinterlaced the video anywhere else earlier, click the Processing tab and check Deinterlace. All the rest options are optional. Click Start Encoding on top.

IMPLEMENTING TO SERVER

The encoded WMV file now needs to be FTPed to a Windows Media Server either hosted in-house or by a content delivery network (CDN). If you are not familiar with this process, talk to your server admin.

WEB AUTHORING

A Windows Media HD video can be embedded in a Web browser. To learn how to embed a Windows Media video, go to the on-demand tutorial page. One problem with embedding an HD Windows Media video is that the user will be deprived of the right to view full-screen video. Therefore, this tutorial teaches an approach to use an image link to trigger an external Windows Media Player to play the HD video.

First, you need to produce a small photo, probably a small screen capture of your video. In the following example, it is nz.png, which is 72 by 80 pixels. Put it in an empty folder. Create an empty Web page and save it to the same folder. Insert the following simple code into your web page after you have replaced the file names to your own:

<a href="mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/nmstream/wm/nz4000.wmv" target='_blank'>
<img src="nz.png" alt="Play" width="72" height="72" border="0" /></a>

In this code, mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/nmstream/wm/nz4000.wmv is the URL to the video file on the streaming server. You will replace it with your own link. The target='_blank' part will trigger not only an empty Web page but also an external Windows Media Player on a PC to play the video. If you are using a Mac, and if you have installed Flip4Mac, which enables users to watch Window Media videos with a QuickTime Player, QuickTime Player will pop up to play the WMV video. As you can see, the image, nz.png, wrapped by the <a> tag is linked to the video.

Finally, FTP both the HTML file and the image file to your Web server. Test the page. You should be able to watch the HD video in a external Windows Media Player on a PC or in an external QuickTime Player on a Mac. It's possible that another default media player that is neither of these two, like VLC, will pop up because you have designated it earlier as a default media player for online videos. To watch the video full-screen, click the Full-screen button. To come back to the original view, press Esc.

Watch a sample video.

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