HTTP Streaming

HTTP streaming enables content providers to stream RealMedia clips from a Web server. While this method is not as robust as using metafiles, it provides a reasonable method for providing short RealMedia content to a limited number of users.

Before you can stream RealAudio and RealVideo clips through HTTP, you must define the following MIME types for your Web server:

audio/x-pn-RealAudio (files with a .ra, .rm or .ram file extension)
audio/x-pn-RealAudio-plugin (files with a .rpm file extension)
video/x-pn-RealVideo (files with a .ra, .rm or .ram file extension)
video/x-pn-RealVideo-plugin (files with a .rpm file extension)

Some Web servers are pre-configured with these MIME types.

If you are running a Web page off an ISP server, ask the ISP administrator to configure the server for the RealPlayer MIME types.

To stream RealAudio and RealVideo content using HTTP:

  1. Copy your encoded RealAudio and RealVideo files (files with the .ra or .rm extension) to your Web server.
  2. Use a text editor (such as Notepad) to create a metafile containing the RealAudio or RealVideo URL. For example, the contents of your file should be in the following form:
    http://hostname/path/filename
    where hostname is the name of your Web server. For example: www.real.com
  3. Save your metafile as "All Files (*.*) using a .ram file name extension.
  4. In your HTML document, reference the metafile in a hyperlink. For example:
    <A HREF="file.ram">
    <A HREF="http://hostname/file.ram">
  5. You can use relative or complete paths. If you use complete paths, you must include both the hostname and the complete path. For example:
    <A HREF="http://www.real.com/home/welcome.ram">
  6. When a user clicks on the link, the audio or video file(s) begin to download. RealPlayer begins playing after a few seconds; it does not need to wait for the entire file to be downloaded.

© 1997 RealNetworks, Inc.