Vishal Sood : IIS Media Pack

Web Playlists SMIL conversion tool

vsood — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:38:00 GMT

With the RC version of Web Playlists, we moved from a custom XML format to a SMIL-based format for storing playlists. As a result of this change the old isx format has been retired. However, Brian Blum (a dev) in our team crafted a tool to help convert the old files. The tool can be downloaded here. Thank you Brian!

As both old and the new SMIL-based playlist formats are XML by nature, this tool uses a XSL to transform the old isx to the new SMIL-based isx format. Another reason for doing this is Brian wanted you to be able to do any minor changes if you so desire without needing to look into the code.

The tool usage is simple and as follows:

isxTranslate.exe /? Coverts prerelease input files for IIS 7.0 Web Playlists to the release format.

Usage: isxTranslate /i PLAYLISTDIR /x XSLT

where PLAYLISTDIR is the path to your playlist files and

XSLT is the xslt to use to convert the playlists.

Example: isxtranslate /i c:\inetweb\wwwroot\playlists /x c:\tools\isx.xsl

Note: This tool is just to help migrate old files and is not released as a part of Web Playlists RC download. As a result this tool is not officially supported. We will be happy to answer any questions and would encourage you to use media forum for your questions.

DOWNLOAD THE TOOL HERE

Web Playlists Release Candidate (RC) Released

vsood — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:08:00 GMT

I am pleased to announce that the Web Playlists Release Candidate (RC) release is ready for you to download and deploy.

This release supports upgrade from the previous Go Live release. (Note: It is recommended that if you have a release earlier than Go Live, you should uninstall the old build and then use the downloads below to do a fresh installation.)

You can get the RC downloads here:

32 bit - Download
64 bit - Download
SDK - Download

Here is a list of walkthroughs published that will help you get going with this release:

Please refer to the online readme for more details.

For general information on how Web Playlists work, please see this post.

For us, this release was primarily about two things:

A step towards embracing open standards - The playlist format now is SMIL-based and additionally you can output the playlist in any XML/text format. The walkthrough talks more about this feature and illustrates and example where you can use ATOM as an output format.
Even more thorough testing - This is incremental release over our earlier Go Live release and our test team has tested it even more than previous release

The three key new features in Web Playlists RC release are:

Ability to customize output format - This release enables you to change the response to a Web Playlists request to a format understood by your app. This feature works by taking and XSL style-sheet from you and transforming the ASX response according to it. The walkthrough talks about this in more details.
Allow Client-side Caching - Earlier releases of Web Playlists disabled the client-side caching using http headers. We got customer requests suggesting that although this is a great security feature, they would like to control this so in this release we allow you just that. You can control, whether clients can cache content or not.
SMIL-based playlist format - Earlier releases used a custom XML. With this release, we are moving a step closer to open standards. We are now using a SMIL-based format. While, Web Playlists does not support the entire SMIL syntax, the sub-set supported is fully SMIL compliant. For those upgrading from previous builds, there is a tool available here to convert old isx files.

We would like to hear what you feel about this release and would love to hear how you are using it.

Got more questions or need support?: Please use media forum.

Web Playlists output format

vsood — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:36:00 GMT

We recently release the Go Live of Web Playlists module and I am sure a lot of you are already beginning to realize the potential of this feature.

After the release our very smart set of engineers are figuring what can we do with this feature next? There is always a balance we need to draw in the features we can support and how soon can we get the product out, so that our customers (you) can benefit from it.

One thing we wanted to explore and hear your feedback on is the output format for the Web Playlists. While we allow you to change the input format, using custom providers, we do not have a way for you to change the output format. Currently, Web Playlists outputs ASX (client-side playlist) as the output. If you don' know much about ASX, it is basically a client-side playlist format (XML based) supported by Windows Media Player and Silverlight. You can also make it work with the Flash player and we have more details here. You can read more about the ASX format on MSDN here.

The question I have for all you is how much do you care about the output format? Would it be beneficial if we enabled you to output the client side playlist in format of your choice (other than ASX) too, or supported something like ATOM syndication format (RFC 4287)out of the box? In our team we deeply care about your feedback so any thoughts are really helpful.

If you have more questions, I will love to answer them.

Making Web Playlists URLs better with URL Rewrite module

vsood — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:21:09 GMT

I have been recently reading about the entire RESTful web services and constantly looking at how we can make our modules more REST friendly in terms of URL look-n-feel and also the output they return (if any). I blogged about RESTful web services in case anyone is interested in knowing more about REST.

At the same time, if you were following Bill's blog, IIS team released URL re-write module. IIS pipeline architecture is such that it almost always requires an extension, URL re-write module helps overcome this limitation. In this post I plan to cover how we can make Web Playlists URLs look prettier (and aligned to REST principles).

Today, Web Playlists URLs are look something like this http://www.example.com/a.isx. For someone looking at this URL and trying to understand, it does mean much. As you have been following my blog all this while ;), you know what isx is (Web Playlists file) but not everyone does. One of the principles of REST as I see applied is that URLs should tell you a lot about what to expect in the response. Let us see how we can live this principle for Web Playlists.

Consider the URLs below

These URLs clearly tell me what to expect as a response. It tells me that response will be a playlist of some kind.

Creating a Rule

Let us take the URL http://example.com/Playlist('a'). In this case the URL tells you that there is a playlist 'a' that this URL refers to. This syntax is very much similar to the Astoria syntax. "Astoria" is the code name for ADO.net Data Services. They are heavily investing in defining URL syntax. Let us see how we can get our existing URLs to look like more like Astoria URLs.

We need to first install URL re-writer module. This is an Out of Band module available for free download from http://www.iis.net site: 32-bit and 64-bit. Once you install you will see the Icon for URL re-writer appear in IIS Manager (highlighted below)

(click to see a larger image)

Double-click on the icon and then click "Add Rule...". Then add rule as per image below:

(click to see a larger image)

For the people familiar with IIS configuration files, this creates the following entry in the IIS config file

(click to see a larger image)

How does this rule work?

If we dissect this rule, "^(.*)/*Playlist$(.*)$$" pattern says that in URL match everything before "/Playlist" and then match everything in between (). As per the URL re-writer module semantics these will be stored in {R:1} and {R:2} variables which are then used while re-writing the rule. (E.g., in http://example.com/Playlist('a') {R:1} becomes blank and {R:2}becomes a. This is because only URL relative to site root are matched. Thus as per the rule the initial URL will be re-written as http://example.com/a.isx which is understood by the IIS7 pipeline.

Re-cap

In this post I ran through an example of how you could use URL-writer to create friendlier URLs for Web Playlists. I would really like to encourage you to play with URL re-write module to create the other URL form (http://example.com/Playlist/a) and share it as comments to this blog.

I would suggest starting with the walkthroughs here. Happy re-writing and looking forward to your comments.

Web Playlists Go Live release is now ready for downloads

vsood — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:33:00 GMT

I am really excited to announce that Web Playlists Go Live was just released to public. Here are the download links for the same:

Here is a list of walkthroughs published on the all new learn.iis.net:

Here is more about this release: http://www.iis.net/Downloads/files/playlist/WebPlaylists_Readme_GoLive.htm.

For general information on how Web Playlists work, please see this post.

Web Playlists Go Live release includes these key features:

Support for all digital media files types. Any digital media file type that can be downloaded from a Web server can be added to a Web playlist by using this feature.
Nested Web playlist media entries. Web playlist files (.isx) can be added as media entries to the Web playlists that you create, up to five levels deep. For more information about how nested playlists work in this feature, see Creating a Simple Playlist.
Remote HTTPd media entries. Content locations that begin with the httpd:// URL prefix can be added as media entries to the Web playlists that you create, allowing you to reference a remote Web server page that returns a custom URL or path for the media item to be played.
Session settings. Allows you to specify the maximum number of clients that can connect to the playlist and the amount of content that must be watched before skip functionality is enabled on the client.
Session provider settings. Allows you to add ASP.NET session persistence and provides an additional level of control for the content on a Web server by configuring multiple options that specify how long the content referenced by a playlist is available to users.
Impersonation settings. Allows for media items that are protected by user credentials to be added to playlists.
ASX import. Allows for quick conversion of client-side playlists (files with .asx file name extensions) for files stored on the Web server to Web playlists.
Custom providers. A COM interface is included that you can use to write native and .NET-based custom providers that extend the default behavior of Web Playlists. For more information, see the Extending Web Playlists through custom providers.

Got more questions or need support?: Please use media forum.

Web Playlists - How does that thing work?

vsood — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:31:00 GMT

Web Playlists! CTP2 been out there for a little more than a week now and some of you simply love it. Others, I am sure love it but I just don't know about that. Some others wonder how it works and the documentation available is a drop in the ocean. Firstly...(read more)

Short-cut to integrate Web Playlists with an existing web application

vsood — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:57:32 GMT

If you read my post / walkthroughs you probably know about the extensibility interface shipped with CTP2. You can use that to integrate into existing business logic applications or web applications. However, in this post I am going to talk about a shortcut...(read more)

Bit Rate Throttling is the pick of the week on Channel 9

vsood — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:30:00 GMT

Bit Rate Throttling was Brian's pick of the week on channel 9. We love you Brian :) Here is the link to video and the post on the site - Click (To see the relevant section in the video seek to around 16:28 into the video.) Here is the excerpt from the...(read more)

Exploring Custom providers - Wrapper playlists

vsood — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:40:00 GMT

In my blog post yesterday I mentioned that we will be releasing sample code written by our teams as reference. Here is the first one. Prakash blogged about a custom provider that provides a wrapper playlist like functionality through a simple playlist...(read more)

IIS 7 Media Pack Web Playlists Customer Technology Preview 2 (CTP2) is Live

vsood — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:28:00 GMT

I am really happy to announce that Web Playlists CTP2 is now released. Web Playlists CTP2 builds on top of CTP1 release that we had in February. It has the following additional features Extensibility through custom providers – We are releasing interfaces...(read more)

Bit Rate Throttling is 1 week old - some interesting thoughts and applications

vsood — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:55:00 GMT

Last week, we announced the release of Bit Rate Throttling (BRT) module and there has been a lot of positive feedback already. I love the way the world of media latches on to new things so fast. Scott Guthrie posted about the release in his blog here...(read more)

Dynamic Throttling with Bit Rate Throttling

vsood — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:56:00 GMT

In the latest RTW release of Bit Rate Throttling, we have an amazing feature - dynamic throttling. It can also be looked at as bandwidth splitting. The primary intentions of this post is to serve as an introduction to this feature. In our earlier releases...(read more)

Bit Rate Throttling is now released

vsood — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:27:00 GMT

Bit Rate Throttling is now out of Beta. We are really pleased to announced the release of IIS Media Pack Bit Rate Throttling Download Links 32 bit - http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1640 64 bit - http://www.iis.net/downloads...(read more)

Mix 08 Keynote - Media initiatives

vsood — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:08:00 GMT

During today's keynote, Scott Guthrie discussed web, media, RIA and mobile. He announced the release of Silverlight 2.0 Beta 1 too. He specifically talked about how Silverlight 2.0 helps improve HD user experience, improve TCO and offers monetization opportunities for media. This is big step that helps our customers to enable their users have a better experience on their sites

Better user Experience
In this space Scott announced an adaptive streaming capability for Silverlight. This can work with any adaptive streaming algorithm. Also announced was a strategic partnership with Move networks. Move networks is big in the adaptive streaming space and their adaptive streaming functionality will be integrated into the Silverlight client. Currently, they use their own client.

Lower TCO
Streaming - Here Scott announced Windows Media Services 2008 (WMS 2008) and how it has 2x improved scalability over previous verison and 3x over others. The moment of pride for WMS was when Scott mentioned how WMS scalability played a crucial role in NBC deciding to go with Microsoft and Silverlight for delivering Olympics online. This is so important as it is clearly a manifestation of customers confidence in WMS. So why don't you give it a try and as Scott mentioned it is free of cost download from Microsoft.com. (In the video link below please seek to 00:58:20 to see Scott talking about WMS)

Here is a screenshot from the keynote:

Progressive Download - Scott mentioned how you have a need to control bandwidth in progressive download scenarios and how IIS Media Pack - Bit Rate Throttling (BRT) helps you achieve the goal without compromising user experience. BRT supports most known media formats out of the box. It is really simple to install please try and explore this on your IIS server. Please don't pay extra on your server when you can save money by saving bandwidth. (In the video link below please seek to 00:59:00 to see Scott talking about BRT).

Here is a screenshot from the keynote:

Monetization
There were several initiatives that were talked about in this space. This included:- Silverlight Ad template for Visual Studio 2008, Using Expression Blend to add design attributes to Ad and Video, Video.Show, Atlas Ad-Manager, Web Playlists and overlay Adverts. John Harris did amazing demos for all of these. Additionally, Double click VP Ari Paparo came out and demoed Double click SDK support for In-stream Ads in Silverlight. This was a cool demo so please see the video. Double click SDK support will be available in Q2 2008. Last and certainly not the least NBC Olympics team came out and gave a sneak peek at the planned NBC Olympics site. This is freaking amazing. You must have never seen a media offering so grand. There is 2200 hours of live video planned to be offered over 17 days. This will also be available for on-demand viewing later. PIP, 4 simultaneous screens, rewind are some of the cool aspects of the new site. (Seek to 01:01:20 in the video to learn more about monetization initiatives)

Web Playlists - John Harris, showed how you can have a pre-roll in stream ad using IIS Media Pack - Web Playlists. He demoed how easy it is to disable/ enable seek using this functionality. He also showed the management console for web playlists as a part of the demo. There are break out session that cover web playlists is more details. As I mentioned in my blog earlier Web Playlists CTP1 went live last week. (Seek to 01:08:00 in the video to learn more about web playlists)

Key Note Video - http://visitmix.com/blogs/Joshua/Day-1-Keynote/

You can download the following anytime on IIS.net
IIS Media Pack - Bit Rate Throttling Go Live

IIS Media Pack - Web Playlists CTP1

Windows Media Services 2008

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9ccf6312-723b-4577-be58-7caab2e1c5b7&DisplayLang=en

IIS 7 Media Pack Web Playlists is Live

vsood — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:18:00 GMT

Yesterday, we launched the first CTP of Web Playlists, a server-side playlist solution for progressive download scenarios. The Web Playlists enables key scenarios and is totally format agnostic. If you have media on your IIS server, Web Playlists has a way for you to distribute it. We are really excited as we continue to work on this feature and hope this really adds value to your business.

The key scenarios enabled by CTP1 of Web Playlists are:

Monetization of content - Web Playlists makes it easier for a web site delivering media content to monetize the same by adding pre-roll and inline ads. The playlist creator has an option to disable seeking, skipping on the ad. This helps ensure revenue to continue supporting media content on the site
Compliance - Web Playlists has an option to control Skipping back to the previous song. This helps in complying with standards like those of Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). These standard limit the number of times a song could be played in a particular time by an internet radio station.
Shared Hosting scenarios - Web Playlists allows protecting content from other sites in the shared hosting scenarios by enabling only relative paths to be added to the playlist. This is a setting on the server that can be disabled. By default, physical and UNC paths are disabled to aid shared scenarios. The Web Playlists for IIS 7.0 - Setup and Configuration walk through talks about how to enable / disable this setting
Enterprise scenarios - The same setting above could be enabled to facilitate enterprise scenarios where the content is usually distributed and only administrators create playlists normally. The Web Playlists for IIS 7.0 - Setup and Configuration walk through talks about how to enable / disable this setting

Some of the compelling features of Web Playlists can be summarized as below:

Server Controlled Media delivery Playlists - Web Playlists uses a session on the server side to control the client viewership. It allows the server administrator to specify sequence and also specify controls like disabling skip, seek on media content in the playlist.
Works with most media players - Web Playlists uses client-side playlist (.asx) as delivery medium to the media player. This enables it to run with any player that can support .asx as a client side playlist format. The walk through Web Playlists for IIS 7.0 – Using Playlist with different Media Players describes how you can make playlist work with Silverlight, Flash Player and Windows Media Player.
Protects from direct access to Media files - Web playlists does not give out the URLs to actual media content. Instead, it tokenizes (obfuscates) the URLs and then sends them to the player in the form of an ASX file. This protects the media content from any user with malicious intent
Accepts credentials to access protected media content - In several situations media content on the server/ share might be protected with credentials. The Impersonation feature of playlists allows access to such protected content. You can specify the credentials to be used with a particular path in playlist impersonation settings.
Format Agnostic - Playlist allows you to add any media content to the playlist and on the client side if you have a player that can support the media content and the asx format you are good to go.
Remote media content - Web Playlists also allows adding remote URLs as media entries in the playlist. This enables the scenarios where the content is on a remote server, for example, ads could be obtained from a third party ad server.
Simple playlist format - The playlist format used makes it easy to create playlists from your existing applications and thus integrating playlist capability into them. The Web Playlists for IIS 7.0 - Creating a Simple Playlist walk through talks about playlist format in details.

As we continue to innovate with this feature as it goes through its life cycle and we would be really glad to hear from you. Is there some feature you would really love to have in Web Playlists? Please let us know.

Download locations: