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Adding RealVideo and RealAudio

Find out about the benefits of streaming audio and video from Homepages websites.

Adding Real Media streaming files to your site is similar to uploading any other type of file however there are a few of more steps involved in the process.

Encoding your Audio or Video into Real Media streaming file format

First you need to encode your audio or video data into the Real Media streaming file format. To do this you will need the 'RealProducer' encoding tool from: http://www.realnetworks.com/developers/index.html
This is not supported by the helpdesk but the 'RealProducer' encoding tool has built in help documentation.

The Homepages Real server now supports Real versions 7.0, G2 and 10 for both audio and video

Uploading your media files to the Homepages server

Once you have encoded your files into the Real Media streaming format (as .ra or .rm files) you need to upload them to the server, via FTP, in binary format. You can upload your Real Media files to any location within the 'docroot' folder of your Homepages space, however, we recommend that you create a folder called 'streaming' inside your 'docroot' folder and upload your Real Media files to that location. For more information on using FTP to upload to Homepages please see http://www.demon.net/helpdesk/producthelp/homepages/setup.html

Creation of the '.ram' play list files

After uploading your Real Media files, matching play list files need to be created. These are called '.ram' files, and they are plain text files that contain a link to the actual media files on the streaming server. The '.ram' text files are loaded by the web browser and passed to Real Media Player. The Real Media Player application then loads the URL that is contained within the text file. This may seem complicated, but there are valid reasons for this two-stage process (see ‘Avoiding problems' below).

The Homepages FTP server will automatically create these '.ram' text files for your ‘.rm' files – for example, if you upload a Real Media file called 'sound.rm' then our FTP server will also create a text file called 'sound.ram' in the same directory on the server. To take advantage of our facility to automatically generate .ram files, you may rename ‘.ra', ‘.rv', or ‘.rmvb' files so they have an extension ‘.rm'

Please note that currently our FTP server does not automatically create a play list file for '.mp3' or ‘.mov' file uploads.

Link from your webpage to the Real Media file

Once the '.ram' files have been automatically created by our FTP server, you will need to add links on your HTML pages to the '.ram' text files. For example:

<a href="sound.ram">

Once you have added the links in your HTML pages you should then be able to click on the links and view your Real Media streams.

Avoiding problems
Linking directly from your HTML page to your '.ra' or '.rm' media files, instead of the '.ram' text file, will result in your Media files being downloaded via HTTP rather than being streamed. This means the sound or video may not stream smoothly or it may result in the end user being prompted to save the file to disk.
 
Linking directly from your HTML code to the streaming server (rather than via the '.ram' text file) is also not recommended because the 'rtsp://' URL protocol format may not be recognised by some web browsers.

Play lists with multiple Media Files

You can manually create your own '.ram' files to have a play list with multiple media files, however, this is not supported by the helpdesk. Please refer to the documentation on the Real Media website for more information on creating play lists within '.ram' and '.smil' files.

For an example of the URL format on our server, please see the contents of the automatically generated '.ram' files.

Discouraging people from saving copies of your '.ra' and '.rm' files

Discouraging people from downloading your '.ra' and '.rm' Real media files via HTTP (which allows them to save a copy of the file) can be achieved on the new Homepages platform, and requires just a few more steps in setting up your streaming files (please note that this is not supported by the helpdesk):

• First create a folder called 'streaming' inside your 'docroot' folder via FTP
• Go to your control panel at: https://admin.dwh.demon.net
• Login with the same username and password that you use for your FTP access to the Homepages server
• Click on the left menu option for 'Access Control'
• Expand the folder tree on the left, by clicking on the plus symbol, so that you can see the 'streaming' folder
• Click on the padlock icon next to the 'streaming' folder
• Click the button for 'Change Access Control Type'
• Select 'Deny Everyone' from the drop down list and click the 'Select' Button
• Then create a folder called 'streaming-links' inside your 'docroot' folder via FTP
• Upload your Real Media files via FTP to the 'docroot/streaming' folder
• Once the FTP server has automatically created the corresponding '.ram' files you will need to move the '.ram' files to the 'docroot/streaming-links' folder
• You can then create links in your HTML code to the '.ram' files inside the 'streaming-links' folder, for example;
  
  <a href="/streaming-links/sound.ram">
  
  

Migration of play lists and .ram files in June 2007

In 2007, THUS migrated all Homepages websites to a new hosting platform, which includes a new Real Media streaming server. During this migration all '.ram' files in your sites have been automatically amended to contain the correct URL links for the new streaming server.

Some customers may still need to manually edit their '.ram' files. This could be necessary if you have done any of the following:

• Previously created '.ram' files manually and added more than one media file in the play list
• Used '.smil' play list files to sequence multiple media files
• Added links in your HTML directly to the streaming server rather than to the '.ram' file

To see the new format of the '.ram' file URL reference, upload a new '.rm' media file to the server and then download the '.ram' file that is automatically created by the FTP server. Open the '.ram' file in an text editor to see the new URL format.

Find out more about the quota usage for streaming audio and video from Homepages websites.