Windows Media Services 2008 R2 Release Candidate

Last week, we released an updated version of Windows Media Services (WMS) for Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate. Whether you are streaming content to Windows Media Player, Silverlight, or another Windows Media-compatible player, this latest release (WMS 2008 R2, for short) offers all of the great features you have come to expect in WMS, and more.

Here are some highlights of what WMS 2008 R2 provides:

  • More Options. Installs on all Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate (6.1.7100) editions, including the following:
    • Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter
    • Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
    • Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard
    • Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation – new option for WMS!
    • Windows Web Server 2008 R2
  • More Value. All unicast streaming features are now available on all versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 (see table, below).
  • Higher Reliability. Already-proven on-demand and live streaming reliability further improves in Windows Server 2008 R2.
  • Easier Deployment. Fewer installation packages makes deploying WMS simpler:
    • One package for all editions of Windows Server 2008 R2
    • Two packages for the WMS Remote Server Administration Tool (for use on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 clients)
  • Better Virtualization. Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008 R2 improves performance and manageability of streaming VMs.
  • Reduced Power Consumption. Windows Server 2008 R2 can dynamically adjust power usage as streaming loads change.
  • Multicast for Silverlight. With the new Silverlight Multicast Plug-in, WMS can now deliver multicast streams to Silverlight.

The easiest way to get started with WMS 2008 R2 is by running the Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta on your Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate server. This very useful tool will download and then silently install WMS using the default settings.

Table 1 - Windows Media Services 2008 R2 Release Candidate features by edition

Feature

Windows Server 2008 R2
Standard and Foundation;
Windows Web Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008 R2
Enterprise
and Datacenter

Absolute Playlist Time

Advanced Fast Start

Advanced FF/RW

Advertising server support

Broadcast Auto-Start

Cache/Proxy Plug-in

Custom plug-in support

Event-based scripting support

Fast Cache

Fast Reconnect

Fast Recovery

Fast Start

Fast Streaming

Internet authentication method (Digest)

Internet Group Management Protocol
version 3 (IGMPv3) support

 

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) support

Intranet authentication methods
(Negotiate authentication, Anonymous access)

Live Streaming

Multicast content delivery

  

Multiple authorization methods (NTFS ACL, IP Address)

Multiple control protocol support (HTTP, RTSP)

Multiple media parser support (Windows Media, MP3, JPEG)

Multiple playlist parser support (WSX, Directory)

On-Demand Streaming

Play While Archiving

Robust event notification (WMI, SNMP)

Server-based content repacketization

Server Core installation option

Unicast content delivery

6 Comments

  • Thanks for your question about the release of WMS. WMS 2008 R2 will RTW in Q1 of 2010, so it's coming soon - stay tuned!

    -Chris

  • With WMS 2008 it was a little bit tricky to get both WMS and IIS run with http on the same server. I mean the binding to IP addresses and hostname was not so easy like for instance binding differently two websites on the same server.

    Is there a better integration to expect with the version 2008 R2 of WMS?

    Thanks in advance for the answer.

  • Thanks for the comment, Xavier. The HTTP integration will not change in Windows Media Services 2008 R2. Is there anything that would like to see changed in Using HTTP for Streaming and Downloading from the Same Computer (http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/507/using-http-for-streaming-and-downloading-from-the-same-computer/) that would make the configuration easier?

  • @anonymous:  Windows Media Services 2008 R2 is scheduled to release within the next month.

  • This is an automatic translation of English.
    I have "Windows Media Services 2008 R2 RC" because there had been, "Windows Server 2008 R2" has been purchased.
    I was planning to start work immediately, and can not be executed in the plan.
    "next month" is what means the end of April?
    Please know that I have to explain why three times about the delay.

  • @cafelasm: Windows Media Services 2008 R2 will ship within days.

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