The so-called streaming media technology refers to compressing continuous image and sound information and placing it on the website server, so that users can download and watch and listen at the same time (the so-called "online appreciation"). There is no need to wait for the entire compressed file to be downloaded to your own machine before you can enjoy the network transmission technology. Currently, the main competitors in this field are Microsoft, RealNetworks, and Apple. For example, Microsoft has recently released Windows Media Services 9, RealNetworks has recently released Helix Platform, and Apple has recently released Darwin streaming server 4.1, aiming to develop in streaming media. A big fight in the field.

Generally speaking, a complete streaming media service system requires three parts: encoder, streaming server and player. The encoder encodes the content source (such as MP3 files or microphone input) and sends the encoded content to the streaming server; the streaming server then publishes them to the Internet, so that the client player only needs to connect to the streaming server to perform Played online.

Use Winamp to set up MP3 Internet radio stations

When we are quietly enjoying the wonderful MP3 music, have you ever considered putting these originally personal MP3 music on the LAN through the network? Publish within or even over the Internet? In this way, friends all over the world can enjoy the MP3 music journey with you. In fact, it is not difficult to do this. You only need to create this machine as an MP3 streaming server, play your favorite MP3 music non-stop, and then notify your friends to visit your MP3 server. .

When it comes to MP3 playback, Winamp is the most widely used. Regarding the field of MP3 streaming services, Nullsoft, the developer of Winamp, will certainly not give up and has specially released SHOUTcast Server, a streaming server for MP3. Although its functions are not as powerful as Windows Media Server and Real Server, it not only has extremely low hardware requirements, but more importantly, it is completely free, so you have no worries about using it. In addition, you also need to download a plug-in called SHOUTcast DSP Plug-in. Only with this humble plug-in installed can Winamp support streaming services.

First open Winamp (please note that the version number must be above 2.22), switch to the "Options" | "Preferences" | "DSP/Effect" tab, and select "Nullsoft SHOUTcast Source DSP v1.8.2a[ dsp_sc.dll]" button. Open the "SHOUTcast Source" window, select the "Output" tab, as shown in Figure 1, fill in the IP address of the machine in the "Address" column. If you want to broadcast MP3 music on the Internet, you must type in the external IP address of your machine, and then you can run the SHOUTcast DAAS (GUI) program from the program group to start the SHOUTcast service. At this time, the system will automatically connect to the server. Next, please return to the window in Figure 1 and click the "Connect" button. If the connection is successful, the button will change to "disconnect", and we have completed the entire process of setting up an MP3 streaming server on this machine.

Set up a video on demand center in REAL format

If you are setting up a video on demand server, it is very wise to choose the Real format. Because the operation of RealProducer Plus, a powerful software, is quite simple, a wizard dialog box will pop up every time it is used to provide operation prompts. The latest version is currently 10.0, we only need to choose version 8.5.1 or above.

Select the "Create Web Page" command from the "Tools" menu. A wizard-style dialog box as shown in Figure 2 will pop up. Click the "Forward" button to select the tool you want to use to create a Web page. Real multimedia files. RealProducer will then ask whether to create a "pop-up player" or an "embedded player". It is generally recommended to choose the latter, because it requires lower system resources and of course starts faster. As for the player interface, you can select "Standard Player" and you can create it quickly.

Finally, some files will be added to the directory where the RM file object is located. Please upload these files together with the RM object. However, be sure to ensure that the RM file and the HTML file are in the same directory, otherwise the player may not be able to find them. Play object.

Setting up a WMP streaming media server

Microsoft has stretched its hands very far and has to get involved in every field.

Relying on the influence of the Windows operating system, Windows Media Player has an increasing market share, and Microsoft's *.asf, *.wmv, *.wma, *.avi and other formats have also begun to be used by more and more users. accept.

To set up a WMP streaming media server, you need to install Windows Media Encoder. The latest version is the 9.0 Simplified Chinese version. As shown in Figure 3, here we should select "Broadcast Live Events" and then select the audio and video devices used for encoding. Note that please connect the audio and video devices to the computer correctly in advance, otherwise they will not be detected. Then you need to specify the service and publishing point. Of course, you can also use an existing publishing point. Then Windows Media Encoder will automatically create the server and give the HTTP connection address and LAN internal address. Please remember these contents and finally click the "Start" button to officially start the WMP streaming server.

Next, we can tell our friends the HTTP connection address and LAN internal address we just wrote down. As long as they open IE, enter the correct IP address and port number, they can quickly access the WMP streaming server.

Setting up QT streaming server

Usually, most of what we see is building MWF (Map Window File) or RM streaming server, but do you know that QuickTime ( How should a streaming media server be built (hereinafter referred to as QT)? In fact, with the help of Apple's QuickTime Streaming Server tool, we can quickly create a QT streaming server in a short time.

First of all, we need to prepare some tools. The QuickTime media player tool is of course essential. The latest version is the 6.5 Simplified Chinese version, which can be found everywhere, or downloaded directly from Apple's website, and needs to be installed on both the server and the client. Perl language parser, the minimum version requirement is 5.0 or above. QuickTime Streaming Server first met users in 1999. At that time, it deeply shook the foundation of the streaming media industry with its open source code and standards-based real-time transport protocol/real-time streaming protocol (RTP/RTSP) engine. The current latest version It is 5.0, and the download file is 9.2MB.

It can be downloaded for free from the address, but you must have a registered username from Apple to log in (registration is free). There are versions for Mac OS X, Red Hat, Solaris, Windows NT/2000/XP, etc. Available to choose from. What is downloaded is a self-extracting file. After releasing it, execute Install.bat to run the installation program. The running process is completed in the command prompt window. Finally, you need to set the login user name and password, as shown in Figure 4. When you see "Setup Complete!" prompt message is displayed. The QT streaming media server construction process is similar to RM, so I won’t go into details here.

How to *share audio and video

*** Share audio

Previously, we used Winamp and SHOUTcast Server to set up this machine as an MP3 player Streaming server, so how to let friends or colleagues in the local area network all over the world enjoy these wonderful music?

There are two methods: one is to open Winamp, select the "Location" command from the "Play" menu, or directly type the "Ctrl-L" key combination to open a dialog box, and then type here The URL address or IP address and port number of the MP3 streaming server (default is 8000), such as "" or "" to listen; the other method is simpler, open "" from IE to enter the Web management page, such as As shown in Figure 5, then click the "Listen" button to listen to MP3 streaming music online.

***Share Videos

Although Apple's QuickTime Player has a far lower market share than Real or Windows Media Player, there are still many loyal users. And after all, Apple is the originator of online streaming media, so many of the latest blockbusters use the QT format.

First you must start the QT service on the machine, and then notify your friends to open QuickTime on the remote computer. Select the "Open URL in new playback window" command from the "File" menu and type "rtsp://server/file.mov" to access the QT streaming server for remote playback. Here "server" is the IP address of the server, "file.mov" is the media file name, and the default RTSP transmission port is port 554. If there is no problem with the network connection, as shown in Figure 6, you will be able to connect successfully soon.

Build a playlist or on-demand system

After working hard to set up a streaming media server, we can also create a playlist or on-demand system, and even conduct online live broadcasts. Anyway, we have already used If you have broadband, it’s a waste if you don’t use it.

Configure QT streaming server

Open IE and enter "" in the address bar, where "server" represents the IP address of the server. If there are no problems with the previous configuration, you will soon enter the management page shown in Figure 7, where the current system resource usage and related server information are displayed in a list. We can view the user type, IP address, data rate, data transmission volume, packet loss ratio, connection time, connection files, etc. connected to the server here. We can also set the mapping folder, encrypted transmission, and the maximum number of connected users here. , allocate bandwidth, reset passwords, change ports, and view error and operation logs if you need to.

Create a playlist

Click the "New MP3 Playlist" or "New Movie Playlist" button on the right side of the window in Figure 7 to create an MP3 or movie playlist. However, it should be noted here that you need to copy the relevant media files to the C:\Program Files\Darwin Streaming Server\Movies folder.

As shown in Figure 8, we can re-adjust the playback order of the playlist through the small triangle arrow next to "Weight". Unfortunately, QuickTime Streaming Server's support for Simplified Chinese is very poor, and the display It turned out to be some garbled characters. Finally, click the "Save Changes" button in the lower right corner of the window to save the newly created playlist. If you need to change it later, you can select "Edit Playlist" to reconfigure it.

However, if you want other users to access this playlist file, you must also click the play button under "Status" in the "Avaliable Playlists" list box, that is, let "Status" be listed Just change "Stopped" to "Playing".

Realize live broadcast on the Internet

If you still want to say something after playing the MP3 song, it is very simple, just a microphone will do. However, some settings need to be made in Winamp, as shown in Figure 9. Select the "Soundcard Input" item in the "Input Device" drop-down list box, so that the SoundCard Mixer setting item in the picture will appear. If you use the default setting "Winamp (Recommended)", there is only Input Levels. There are "Music Level", "BGMusic Level", and "Mic Level" sliders below to adjust the volume, and "Fade Time" is used to set the removal time value

.

Now, you don't need to make other settings. After preparation, clear your throat, click the "Push to Talk" button, and then press the "Lock" button to lock the current voice input mode. Next, you can start your webcast journey into the microphone. When finished, please press the "Lock" button again to unlock.