Streaming Server - Web Developers

Streaming video files on our Darwin Streaming server, (rtsp.oit.uci.edu), can be done with QuickTime .MOV video files and MPEG-4 .MP4 video files. These videos must conform to a fairly rigid set of parameters in order to work properly. The QuickTime .MOV files have more leeway, while the MPEG-4 .MP4 files are more restricted. Both video formats must be processed with hint tracks. You will need to use QuickTime Pro to "hint" the files. (There may be other video processing tools that will hint properly, but they have not yet been tested to work with our streaming server.) Apple.com has step-by-step instructions for hinting .MOV video files with Apple QuickTime on a Mac here: Apple.com QuickTime Hinting Tutorial. We have put together step-by-step instructions for hinting .MP4 files with Apple QuickTime on a Windows PC here: OIT QuickTime Hinting Tutorial.

A QuickTime Pro license can be purchased directly from Apple.com (for $29.99). QuickTime X (on Snow Leopard) includes some of the QuickTime Pro features. If you have Snow Leapard, you may not need to purchase the Quicktime Pro license.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuickTime
http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/

If you want to include a link in a web page to a streaming QuickTime file, you will first need to create a separate HTML file in which the QuickTime file is embedded as an object. Use the object code snippets below to get started.

The first code snippet is for an MPEG-4 .MP4 video file. (See below for a QuickTime .MOV video file.) You will need to replace the bolded information in the code:

the default width and height dimensions with those of your video file
the three generic URLs with ones that point to your videofile and reference file
If you have a 'controller' as true add 16 to the second height value
For only the .MP4 video files, the second URL is a video reference file which is a text file with the '.mov' extension that contains a line of text with the HTTP URL of your video file. This text file can either be on your own web server, or on our streaming server. If you put this text file on your web server, you will need to change the 2nd URL below to point to your web server instead of cast.oit.uci.edu. Here is the format of the text line to put into this '.mov' text file, (changing the path to your file):
RTSPtextRTSP://cast.oit.uci.edu/your-home/your-sub-folder/video-name.mp4
For a .MOV video file, all URLs are to your video file.

Embed code snippet sample for MP4 video files:

<object  CLASSID="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" width="320"  height="240"
  CODEBASE="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
  <param  name="qtsrc"
    value="rtsp://rtsp.oit.uci.edu:554/your-home/your-sub-folder/video-name.mp4">
  <param  name="autoplay"  value="false">
  <param  name="loop"  value="false">
  <param  name="controller"  value="true">
  <embed  src="http://cast.oit.uci.edu/your-home/your-sub-folder/video-name-reference.mov"
    qtsrc="rtsp://rtsp.oit.uci.edu:554/your-home/your-sub-folder/video-name.mp4"
    width="320"  height="256" type="video/mp4"
    autoplay="false"  loop="false"  controller="true"
    pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/">
  </embed>
</object>

Embed code snippet sample for MOV video files:

<object  CLASSID="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" width="352"  height="272"
  CODEBASE="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
  <param  name="qtsrc"
    value="rtsp://rtsp.oit.uci.edu:554/your-home/your-sub-folder/video-name.mov">
  <param  name="autoplay"  value="false">
  <param  name="loop"  value="false">
  <param  name="controller"  value="true">
  <embed  src="http://cast.oit.uci.edu/your-home/your-sub-folder/video-name.mov"
    qtsrc="rtsp://rtsp.oit.uci.edu:554/your-home/your-sub-folder/video-name.mov"
    width="352"  height="288"
    autoplay="false"  loop="false"  controller="true"
    pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/">
  </embed>
</object>

Once you've

hinted the file,
moved it to a directory on the OIT Streaming Media server, and
created and uploaded a web page that has the appropriate object code embedded in it,
you can direct your audience either to
the rtsp://rtsp.oit.uci.edu/path/to/file.mp4 (to open outside of a browser, directly in the QuickTime viewer) or
the http://www.your.web.uci.edu/path/to/your/page.html address to the web page that includes the embedded object code.

For more detailed information about options for embedding QuickTime files in web pages, refer to Apple's tutorial.

NOTE

Because of a change within Microsoft Internet Explorer, users of that browser will have a slightly different experience when trying to stream Apple Quicktime content. Streaming will still work, but those users will need to click the security bar that pops up at the top of IE to allow the appropriate ActiveX control to permit the Quicktime stream.

For those intrepid programmers wishing to circumvent this Apple presents a solution to this at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/embed.html.

Again, Quicktime streaming will still work regardless of applying these coding changes.

This page was taken from http://help.unc.edu/index.htm under a Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Preparing QuickTime (.mov and .mp4) Filesfor RTSP/Darwin Streaming

Preparing QuickTime (.mov and .mp4) Files
for RTSP/Darwin Streaming