Offer dynamic play list to Media Services server

[LeeWonnacott]

Newbie to the forum, but not to creating streaming content. I have several hundred hours of content in a catalog format and most of it can be broken into logical category and class segments. I see that Media Services will accept a dynamically generated play list and that ASP or such is used to pass the parameters, but I know nothing about ASP and have little desire to learn a new environment if I can get away without doing so.

Is there an example somewhere that will show me how to pass fixed parameters to the server? I want to give my viewers some choice it what they see from one publishing point, but it's not my intent to let them just chase down every bit of video on their own. All I'm trying to avoid is having 30 different publishing points to service one catalog segment.

My business partner has been getting tips from this forum for a while (Verwayne Greenhoe) and he says you guys are tops. Hope that I can contribute as well as leech a little.

[Dave]

There is an example of creating a dynamic playlist at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows...#ad_topic5

Dave

[LeeWonnacott]

(07-04-2009 04:25 PM)Dave Wrote:  There is an example of creating a dynamic playlist at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows...#ad_topic5

Dave

Thanks for the prompt response, Dave.

I looked at the example and it's simply beyond what I understand and well beyond what I want to do.

Assume I have five .wsx files in the resident folder, all of them straightforward, no tricks or fancy advertising calls, just five playlists. I create an html page that lists the contents of those five playlists. The viewers clicks on the link for playlist number two and the browser moves to that page presentation and calls up number two dynamically from the server using my static html page. It should be simple... but I don't find any solution along this track.

I just don't want to get into the variables available with ASP. Sure, there may be lots of good reasons to learn it and employ it, but I've got ONE good reason not to. I have recently been diagnosed with a form of dementia that is not allowing my brain to fully comprehend many complex formulaic routines.

Thanks for helping.

[Dave]

Don't quite follow...

You appear to be using static playlist files there and not dynamic ones.

In which case, if you want to keep it simple, what stops you from having the five .wsx files on the streaming server below a publishing point and pointing the player applet at the appropriate playlist ?

Dave

[LeeWonnacott]

(07-04-2009 07:12 PM)Dave Wrote:  Don't quite follow...

You appear to be using static playlist files there and not dynamic ones.

In which case, if you want to keep it simple, what stops you from having the five .wsx files on the streaming server below a publishing point and pointing the player applet at the appropriate playlist ?

Dave

I don't care what I have to do other than NOT have two or three dozen publishing points when I can have just one. Every reference I've seen that talks about multiple playlists seems to tell me I've got to use ASP or some other 'dynamic' device to call the playlist. The embedded player doesn't seem to have a way to call up a specific playlist ...

[Dave]

Why would you need "two or three dozen publishing points" ? Just use one publishing point referencing a folder, and place the playlists below that.

The embedded media player (assuming WMP) will attempt to playback whatever its URL property is set to.

If you want to use a single player and change the URL property, then take a look at this simple example:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/...S.85).aspx

Dave

[LeeWonnacott]

Let's see if I understand correctly.

I currently embed the player like this:

embed
SRC="http://74.53.230.162/CMS_live/"
showdisplay="0"
showstatusbar="-1"
showcontrols="true"
showtracker="-1"
WIDTH="480"
HEIGHT="380"
AUTOPLAY="true"
CONTROLLER="true"
LOOP="false"

Which points it to a publishing point set to a single source playlist file.

If I create a publishing point that allows access to a folder and sub-folders then I can embed the player the same way but be more specific in the http call? Like src="http://74.53.230.162/CMS_live.myPlaylist/"

or do I have to create that button environment. That example loses me - does a player window appear once a button is selected? Is there a working example somewhere?

Thanks for the steer.

[Dave]

Would perhaps be more like:
src="http://74.53.230.162/CMS_live/myPlaylist1.wsx"
...
src="http://74.53.230.162/CMS_live/myPlaylist5.wsx"

The button in that example is used to capture the input textbox which passes the URL entered by the user to the URL property of the player, and then uses the play() method of the player to start playback.

There's a step-by-step example at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/...S.85).aspx

which you may find easier to follow.

Dave

[LeeWonnacott]

I think I'm smiling. Am editing/rendering shows from last night right now, but will have a moment this PM to check this out. A few exchanges and I can accomplish what I've tried to learn for weeks and weeks.

Thank You!

---

Hot Diggity!

Dave, that worked. That was the last element to a play schema that I had envisioned for weeks.

Thanks again, VERY much.

Lee