Angus Logan's Blog

THANKS TO JIM THILL FOR THIS WRITE UP!

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Summary:

This document gives you a step-by-step tutorial for using the new Preview version of the Silverlight Streaming Plug-in for Expression Encoder. You can import a video, encode the video and publish it to the Silverlight Streaming Service. One it is on the service you can add your rich media Silverlight experience to your web site or blog and let Microsoft pay the hosting freight.

About Silverlight Streaming:

Web site: http://silverlight.live.com/

Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live offers a free streaming and application hosting solution for delivering high-quality, cross-platform, cross-browser, media-enabled rich interactive applications (RIAs). With the ability to author content in Microsoft Expression Encoder and other third-party editing environments, Web designers maintain complete control of the user experience.

While the product is in pre-release, storage and delivery is free up to 4 GB, with outbound streaming up to 700 Kbps. As we move out of Beta, developers/designers will have continued use of the service with up to 1 million minutes of free video streaming at 700 Kpbs per site per month. Unlimited streaming will also be available for free with advertising, or with payment of a nominal fee for the service for use without advertising.

NOTE: In the world of Internet media delivery, the word streaming has a very specific definition – the media being accessed is available upon request, you can access any portion of the file without waiting for a download to complete. To stream media over the web a Streaming Media Server like Windows Media Services is required.

The alternative method for delivering media is progressive download. In this example, you can serve the video file from any web server and when the file is accessed it begins playing as fast as it can. However if you were watching a sixty minute show downloading progressively you would have to wait for 30 minutes of content to download before you could jump to minute 30.

Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live servers the media via progressive download however some sticklers for detail will complain the word Streaming in the service name is technically incorrect. Given that the service is for rich media experiences and Silverlight applications the word streaming is the best fir for both scenarios.

Tutorial

The Silverlight Streaming (SLS) Plug-in for Expression Encoder is a preview for the Alpha version of the Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live service.

Expression Encoder now has a publishing plug-in API. Laurence Moroney had written an MSDN article documenting the API which should appear in print in the next issue or two. We will also have a sample FTP Publishing plug-in. This API will allow customers to write

Setup:

- Install - Expression Encoder RTW version

http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/download.aspx?key=encoder

- Install - Expression Encoder Silverlight Streaming Publishing Plug-in (If you have installed previously, please uninstall and install the most recent version.)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=382a3306-b212-4df3-af86-5d48be550b94&displaylang=en

- Sign up for a Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live Account

http://silverlight.live.com/

OPTIONAL:

- Install Live Writer

http://get.live.com/betas/home

· Configure to Publish to Live Spaces (or your own blog)

o Tools/Accounts

· Install Live Writer Plug-in: Insert a Silverlight Streaming Application

http://gallery.live.com/liveitemdetail.aspx?li=9f952b71-9883-4937-9f28-1e58002bb2ce&pl=8&bt=9

This plug-in was written by James Clarke on the Expression Encoder team. Trust him!

- Sign Up for a LIVE Spaces Page (if you don’t have one).

DEMO

NOTE: If you are unfamiliar with Expression Encoder, please watch the free training videos on using Expression Encoder. The Intro video is twelve minutes long and after watching it you can easily complete the following demo.

http://www.microsoft.com/expression/kc/resources.aspx?product=encoder&type=video

In Expression Encoder:

- File/Import a video (QuickTime, AVI…)

NOTE: To save time, import a WMV file and choose SOURCE as the encoding profile)

- If you are using WMV + Source Profile, you can add metadata and choose a Silverlight Player Template without having to re-encode and recompress your video. If you add a leading or trailing clip you will force a re-encode of the video.

- In the Output Tab/Job Output select a Silverlight Template (E.g., Console)

- Encode the file

In the Output Tab of Expression Encoder, below the Job Output section there is a new set of Options titled: PUBLISH (If you do not see this, the Silverlight Streaming Plug-in is not installed).

- Select Publish To: Silverlight Streaming

- You will see the following

- Enter Your SLS Account and KEY

- Check Automatic Name.

· If you choose your own names make sure the name has no spaces. Automatic Name is safest.

- If you have encoded a project during the current use of the xEncoder application, the Publish button will be active.

- Click PUBLISH

- Once it is done publishing, you will get additional UI that has the iframe code you can paste in to your web page.

- You can also see previously published apps as the Preview window is hosting the browser in its window. You can play the video from the Preview window.

- Additionally you can delete apps.

- Now your app is hosted on the Silverlight Streaming service. You can login to your Silverlight Streaming account and preview the app from a test page on your SLS account.

Publish to Live Spaces

- If you want to show a complete end to end Microsoft demo…

- Launch Live Writer

- Select INSERT\Insert Silverlight Streaming Application

- Enter your account info

- Update your app list

- Choose an App.

- Add some text to your blog entry

- PUBLISH to your “Space”/Blog.

- View your Silverlight application on the real live internet.

Caveats/Notes:

- The maximum file size of your upload to SLS is 22MB. The ZIP file which contains your SLS project is larger than 22MB you will get an error message.

- If you want to set up the player so that it does not play when your page loads:

· After you have encoded your file, but before you publish to Silverlight Streaming, in the Job Output pane, select Open Job

· You will now see all of the files that compose a Silverlight rich media experience.

· Open startplayer.js in Notepad

· Change autoPlay to false,

· Save

· Publish your media experience to Silverlight Streaming Service.

o In a few weeks we be releasing some new Silverlight Templates with autoPlay set to false.