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Real Audio / Video

Real Audio or Real Audio/Video is available as an optional account feature, or comes free with certain account types. Contact sales for more information.

 
What is Real Audio?

Real Audio is a real time audio transmission/player system distributed by RealNetworks, Inc. A digital audio stream is transmitted from the server over the Internet to the destination and played immediately, rather than being stored to disk first and then played.

 
Setting up a Real Audio/Video Clip

IMPORTANT NOTE: With the server upgrades that occurred in October/November, 2001, the RealAudio/Video configuration instructions have changed. The information below represents the corrected "new" configuration information.

This method requires that your account has the Real Audio/Video option installed. This option is installed from your control panel's Extras section.

Each audio/video clip requires two files, which can be placed anywhere within your www directory structure:

1. a metafile with the extension, .ram, and



2. the digital audio clip itself, with the extension .ra or .rm.

The .ram file holds one or more lines of ASCII text, each of which references the .ra file to be played when the .ram file is accessed by the browser. Entries in .ram files have the form:

rtsp://machinename.host4u.net/yourdomain/subdirectory-name/name-of-clip.ra

Notes:

machinename in the above example is the name of the server you're on. If you're not sure of the server your domain is located on, log into your account by telnet and look at your telnet prompt, or visit your web control panel -- the machine name is provided there.

yourdomain is your domain name without the extension (e.g. hostingmanual.net would be hostingmanual in this example).

subdirectory-name is the name of the subdirectory (relative to your www directory) where your binary files are placed. If the clips reside in your main www directory, that entry would be blank. For example, a clip placed in your main www directory would be accessed by the following .ram file entry:

rtsp://machinename.host4u.net/yourdomain/name-of-clip.ra

A clip placed in your /www/realaudio/ directory would be accessed by this entry:

rtsp://machinename.host4u.net/yourdomain/realaudio/name-of-clip.ra

Important: In order to use the G2 features such as multi-rate SureStream and Slide Presentations (.smi), You must use the rtsp:// protocol in the .ram file. The metafiles (.ram) must be uploaded in ASCII mode while the clips (.ra or .rm) must be uploaded ' in BINARY mode.

 
HTTP Streaming without Optional RealAudio/Video Server

It is possible to present streaming audio and/or video without purchasing the optional RealAudio/Video feature. This method is called "HTTP Streaming."

The HTTP protocol enables audio and video content providers to stream RealAudio and RealVideo from a World Wide Web server. While this method is not as robust or efficient as using a RealAudio Server, it provides a reasonable method for delivering RealAudio content. Note that HTTP Streaming is more prone to internet congestion, timeouts, and other errors than true streaming.

To stream RealMedia content using HTTP:

1. Copy your encoded RealAudio or RealVideo files (files with the .ra or .rm extensions) to your account (within the www directory structure.)



2. Use a text editor (such as Notepad) to create a metafile containing a RealAudio URL. For example, the contents of your file should be in the following form:
   
   http://yourdomain.com/file.ra
   
   or http://yourdomain.com/file.rm
   
   where yourdomain.com is your domain name, and file.ra or file.rm is the name of your RealMedia file. RAM files for HTTP streaming are identical to regular RAM files with the exception that it uses http as the protocol instead of rtsp.



3. Save your metafile in ASCII text format using a .ram filename extension.



4. In your HTML document, reference the metafile in a hyperlink. For example: <A HREF="filename.ram">
   
   or
   
   <A HREF="http://hostname/file.ram"">
   
   You can use relative or complete paths.



5. When a user clicks on the link, the audio file(s) begin to download. The RealAudio Player begins playing after a few seconds; it does not need to wait for the entire file to be downloaded.

 
Creating Real Audio / Video Clips

In order to create clips, you need to have the RealProducer program that allows you to convert digital audio and video files to Real format. For those who heard that they need RealPublisher, please know that RealProducer has replaced RealPublisher.

To purchase and download RealProducer, please visit RealNetworks' "Media Creation Tools".

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