Imad Baig.
Guest
|
 Posted:
Sun Nov 14, 2004 1:48 am Post subject:
I Need HELP/ I`m new with everything. |
|
|
Hi there,
My Name`s Imad... i`m from india, and i`m presently in Hyderabad, AP, in
India.
I need some help with an issue i have, and i`m sure there`s no one in the
whole world who could help me with it better than you all... the Microsoft
Guys.
Well... here`s my story...
I have a sort of a conference thing that`s gonna be happening here at my
place, it`s gonna be of 3 days long, and it`s gonna start from the 1st of
December. I have everything planned, and there`s no way the date can change.
Now the problem is,well, the real thing... is that i wanna broadcast the
gathering, Live, streaming over the internet, i think i can make it happen,
and i`ve already told half the people in the world i`m doing it, the question
is, how???
My parents and other relatives can`t come see the event, and they are very
sad that they are away... i have folks in USA, U.K, Canada, Saudi Arabia,
Oman, and Pakistan too.
I want them all to be able to see it, and the only way that`s gonna be
possible is, to broadcast it live, someway... i wish i`d know how... any
software that i`d need ??? anyway you guys would suggest to help me with ?
I thought i`d use Yahoo`s webcam service, but the frame rate is per second,
and that would be like taking snapshots, i wanna stream a video.
I`d really appreciate a reply from you all, i`d love you all for helping me
and making my dream, a reality.
THanks for taking your time and reading.
Bye.
imad.....
|
|
Neil Smith [MVP Digital M
Guest
|
| Posted:
Sun Nov 14, 2004 3:11 am Post subject:
Re: I Need HELP/ I`m new with everything. |
|
|
On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 12:48:07 -0800, "Imad Baig." <Imad
Baig.@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
| Quote: | I have a sort of a conference thing that`s gonna be happening here at my
place, it`s gonna be of 3 days long, and it`s gonna start from the 1st of
December. I have everything planned, and there`s no way the date can change.
|
That gives you 2 weeks to work through this then ;-)
Time to read the basics, stuff like here :
http://www.videodesk.net/Magic_Encoding.aspx
| Quote: | Now the problem is,well, the real thing... is that i wanna broadcast the
gathering, Live, streaming over the internet, i think i can make it happen,
and i`ve already told half the people in the world i`m doing it, the question
is, how???
|
Why not start by downloading windows media encoder :
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx
Spend a day or two encode some file content, then switch to a camera
and/or audio source and get used to how that works. There's a whole
FAQ about it here, but it's pretty easy to do a simple config :
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/faq.aspx
You *probably* don't need a streaming server (though they are nice to
have).
If you decide you need one, you'll have to have windows server 2003
(not web edition) *or* Helix server (Real networks) *or* Darwin server
(Apple). All these can connect to a windows encoder broadcast and
re-broadcast it.
If you do decide to use a server, the performance will be better for a
given amount of bandwidth. This is because the server can use UDP to
broadcast - it's possible to get lost packets, but the player will
compensate for that.
You can expect +10-20% better performance compared to broadcasting fro
the encoder, which uses HTTP over TCP connections. And, you'll be
running the encoder on a different PC to the server, so the encoder
only has one job to do (encoding, quickly) and the server can handle
the connections without any performance hit.
| Quote: | I want them all to be able to see it, and the only way that`s gonna be
possible is, to broadcast it live, someway... i wish i`d know how... any
|
OK for broadcasting, there are a few things to know :
1) You need to tell the encoder to 'broadcast' and/or encode to a file
at the same time (so you have a record of the event)
2) Broadcasting is bandwidth intensive : Lets say you broadcast a
196kbps camera+audio stream. Each connected user will take up 196k, so
if 10 users connect you'll need about 2mbps+ *outgoing* connectiion
bandwidth. You'll need to check this with your service provider.
3) The encoder is configured by default to supply up to 5 users.
However you can modify the registry to increase the limit up to 50 if
necessary : look here for details
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/knowledgecenter/mediaadvice/0016.aspx#isthereawaytoincreasethenumberofmaximumdirectconne
The actual procedure is pretty simple : Go to Start -> Run and type in
regedit
First, backup your windows registry (Registry menu, 'Export registry
file) then find this key :
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Software\Microsoft\Windows Media
Tools\Encoder\MaxClientConnections
Click the ab [Default] and in the popup box, type 50 instead of 5
4) If you choose even a stream like 320x240 and 32kbps mono audio, it
can still put a high load on the machine doing the encoding. Make this
machine as fast as possible, lets say 1.2GHz or higher, fast disk and
384+MB RAM
| Quote: | I thought i`d use Yahoo`s webcam service, but the frame rate is per second,
and that would be like taking snapshots, i wanna stream a video.
|
Yes, well as you're finding it can be quite techincally demanding (but
sometimes, fun). The fun really starts when you realise not all your
relatives can view lets say 192kbps video. Now you need to consider
using multiple streams at different bitrates <g>
Anyway - your relatives still have no way to find your broadcast. I'm
writing a website to handle this (because it's all so complicated !)
but it will be some time yet till it's all working correctly. So right
now, you'll need to provide them with an 'address' to find your
broadcast.
The address will be the IP address of the machine with the encoder on
it. And on that machine, it will broadcast on a specific 'Port
number', by default this is Port 8080 (you can change it, but its
better to leave as-is for now).
Lets say your machines IP address was 165.10.203.45 for example. And
you have left the encoder set to broadcast on port 8080
Your relatives would then go to media player, and click the menu
File->Open URL. In the box, they would type
http://165.10.203.45:8080
And press OK. If your encoder is running, then after a few seconds of
buffering they should see the first pictures from your broadcast.
The problems you're likely to encounter now are two things, and both
may happen at the same time :
1) Your encoder machine is on a private network (eg school,
university, work etc) and not connected directly to the internet or
DSL line. You might have an IP address like 192.160.0.10
---- In this case, you need to provide the *public* ip address of your
network, whatever is finally connected to the internet.
*And* you may need to tell your NAT (router) that it should forward
requests to the machine doing the encoding. So the port number may
change on the outside. Eg you could configure a router to accept
connections on port 5000. And then tell it to send those requests to
your encoder on 192.160.0.10 and port 8080.
2) You have a software or hardware firewall eg Zone alarm or windows
XP firewall. You will need to tell the firewall to either accept
connections to the encoder (It's actually a server !) or to accept
incoming connections on port 8080 , for TCP traffic (to the HTTP
server).
| Quote: | I`d really appreciate a reply from you all, i`d love you all for helping me
and making my dream, a reality.
THanks for taking your time and reading.
|
Well hope you have fun, it's a lot of work to take in ;-) |
|
FAQ
Memberlist
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in