ebyblog libraries and stuff

Windows Media Player 11 and MMS

A new semester and some new problems. The first is Windows Media Player 11. Not yet out via Windows Update so not a huge problem but with the coming release of Vista I think it will be.

I think it was reported in a few places but WMP11 seems to have removed support for the MMS protocol. You can see a chart showing this on their network protocol kit page. It says that it can be used as a rollover protocol but that doesn’t appear to work, at least not in my testing though it may be a server configuration issue.

In my testing I had to change the URL in the ASX file to specify RTSP as well as remove any port statements. The file then worked in WMP11 thanks to Helix serving it on that protocol as well.

A rather abrupt change as most streaming servers appear to use it for windows media files. We got kind of lucky here as Helix will stream the file over rtsp or http without too much problem. The hurdle is changing the ASX file generation it does on the server to include the proper link.

If you have streaming windows media files you may want to check and make sure they play on the latest WMP.

Thanks for this information. We rarely use Windows Media Player because of its cross-platform issues. The biggest one is the lack of multi bit rate stream support on Mac OS X.

With this new change, using the Helix server, how would you link to a file from a web browser? I’ve tried the asxgen utility, linking to a plain asx file, and using rtsp. The asxgen utility opens WMP, then causes an error. Linking to an ASX file in IE will only display the metadata, and Firefox will download the ASX file which then needs to be opened manually. Using RTSP causes it to open in RealPlayer and play.

Thanks.

I think the workaround was to change how asxgen creates the file. I can’t tell you exacts but if you look in the ASX created you should see the change. Here’s an example:

http://streaming.msu.edu/asxgen/storemedia/streaming/ebyryan/Brightness.wmv

Here’s the source of the new ASX generated in case you have troubles:


&lt;ASX Version = "3.0"&gt;<br />
&#160;&#160; &lt;ENTRY&gt;<br />
&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&lt;REF HREF = "mms://35.9.6.170:1755/storemedia/streaming/ebyryan/Brightness.wmv"/&gt;<br />
&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&lt;REF HREF = "http://35.9.6.170:80/storemedia/streaming/ebyryan/Brightness.wmv"/&gt;<br />
&#160;&#160; &lt;/ENTRY&gt;<br />
&lt;/ASX&gt;


[...] — only Microsoft make something deprecated and highly recommended can at the same time.) As Ryan Eby noted earlier this year, those generating ASX files for Windows Media Player need to adjust their [...]

This website works properly with MediaPlayer 10, but I have Windows Vista and just can use WMP 11.

could you help me with the mms protocol , so I can listen to their stream??

mms://media.movinet.com.uy/delplataFM

Thanks,
OSIRIS

Thanks, this was driving me nuts. If you’re using WMP player to stream rtsp:
url needs to be rtsp://server/file not rtsp://server:554/file.

If I use RTSP, this opens RealPlayer instead of WMP.

Osiris: To solve the problem try this:
If your site is, for example:

mms://stream.radio.com.pt/ROLI-ENC-135

Change in the address mms to http:

http://stream.radio.com.pt/ROLI-ENC-135

Work for me… i hope that help you…

hey eby..
i’ve encountering the same problem.I.m using a helix server to stream data.But windows player 11 is reluctant and doesn play.
I’ve made the necessary changes in the asx file.but in vain…
Need some help here..by the i believe my helix server in use is the latest.