QuickTime Streaming
If you have an FTP account on a CFA web server and need to incorporate large audio or video files, consider using the CFA QuickTime Streaming Server (QTSS). The following is a discussion of how to prepare and upload hinted QuickTime movies to the QTSS.
What the QTSS is not
The QTSS is not a standard web server. The only kind of file it will server is a hinted QuickTime movie (.mov). Uploading anything else simply wastes your time & storage space. The QTSS will be purged of non-QuickTime movies on occasion, and any non-.mov files stored in your account may be deleted without notice.
The basics
The process for streaming QuickTime files is as follows. Note detailed explanation of each step below.
- Apply for a QTSS FTP account
- Prepare hinted QuickTime movie(s). [Details]
- Upload hinted QuickTime movie(s) to Sites/Streaming/ inside your QTSS FTP account. [Details]
- Display Option 1 (best if you only have one version of each movie you want to stream)
- Embed your streaming QuickTime movie into HTML page within your web server account [Details]
- Display Option 2 (best if you want to offer multiple versions of each streaming movie without needing user interaction)
The details: Prepare hinted QuickTime movies
Visit Apple's QuickTime Support Site for a how-to on preparing media for streaming. Note that these tutorials assume you have QuickTime Pro. Other tools, such as Discreet's Cleaner 6 will also export hinted QuickTime movies.
The details: Upload hinted QuickTime movies
Using an FTP client, connect to quicktime.cfa.arizona.edu. Inside your account, you'll see a folder called Sites. Inside Sites is a folder called Streaming.
Upload your hinted movies to the Streaming folder. There should be no other files elsewhere in your account. The server only serves from the /Sites/Streaming folders.
See the FTP Help page for hints and tips on FTP.
Once your files are in your /Sites/Streaming/ folder, they are ready to stream via the Real-Time Streaming Protocol (rtsp). You can see them by launching QuickTime Player, selecting "Open URL in new player" from the File Menu, and typing the following into the dialog box:
rtsp://quicktime.cfa.arizona.edu/~yourusername/yourhintedmovie.mov
where yourusername is the username of your QTSS FTP account and yourhintedmovie.mov is the name of the uploaded QuickTime movie file.
Embed streaming movie
Sample embed code for HTML is below (Note: the file in src="" should reside on quicktime.cfa.arizona.edu; the URL in src="" should be absolute and should begin as below - rtsp://quicktime.cfa.arizona.edu/~):
<embed src="rtsp://quicktime.cfa.arizona.edu/~yourusername/yourhintedmovie.mov" pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/" width="160" height="136" controller="TRUE" loop="FALSE" autoplay="TRUE"></embed>Apple provides a list of attributes available for the embed tag.
Prepare QuickTime reference movies
A reference movie acts much like a web browser does with images: it acts as a container for the streaming media. This allows the streaming media to be stored on the QTSS but be displayed through a regular web page on www.cfa.arizona.edu or web.cfa.arizona.edu. Using QuickTime reference movies also ensures that browsers will use the QuickTime Plug-in to display the streaming media rather than RealPlayer or another rtsp client.
Using a reference movie also allows you to create multiple versions of your QuickTime movie with different data rates. For instance, if you want to create a high quality video file, you have to assume your viewers have a high speed internet connection, because the resulting file will be very large. With a reference movie, you can create several different movies with different data rates, and let the reference movie determine which one will be displayed based on the viewer's QuickTime Plug-in preferences. That would mean a user on a dial-up connection would see, for instance, a smaller movie file while a user with a cable modem connection could view the full-quality video - all without requiring any user interaction. The reference movie makes the decisions and calls in the appropriate streaming media.
To create a QuickTime reference movie, you'll need a Mac and MakeRefMovie (for "classic" Mac OS) or MakeRefMovieX (for OS X). There is a tutorial available on that download page, but the following outlines the basics of how to use MakeRefMovieX.
- Launch MakeRefMovieX and choose a name and a place to save your reference movie. The filename should end in .mov
- Under the Movie menu, choose "Add URL" (command-2)
- Delete the "http://" from the dialog box and enter the URL for your streaming movie (i.e., rtsp://quicktime.cfa.arizona.edu/~yourusername/yourhintedmovie.mov)
- Select the parameters for this movie you wish to set (most of these are optional, particularly if you are only including one movie URL in your reference movie). The choices you make here will limit the ability to play your movie to those whose QuickTime Plug-in preferences are set accordingly. For instance, in the Speed menu, selecting "256 Kbps DSL/Cable" will mean that this streaming movie is only chosen for display if the user's QuickTime Plug-in Internet preference is set to that speed or higher.
- If you wish to add alternative movies (for instance, a lower bit-rate version limited to those with a dial-up connection), simply select "Add URL" from the Movie menu, include the URL for the alternative movie and edit the settings accordingly.
- When all your alternative URLs are included and all their parameters are set, select Save from the File menu and quit MakeRefMovieX
Upload QuickTime reference movies
Your QuickTime reference movie should be stored in a web server account (NOT in your QTSS account; remember, it's not a hinted QuickTime movie. It's just a regular QuickTime movie.). Upload the reference movie via FTP to your www.cfa.arizona.edu or web.cfa.arizona.edu account. See the FTP Help page for hints and tips on FTP.
Embed reference movie
Sample embed code for HTML is below (Note: the file in src="" should reside on www.cfa.arizona.edu or web.cfa.arizona.edu):
<embed src="yourRefMovie.mov" pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/" width="160" height="136" controller="TRUE" loop="FALSE" autoplay="TRUE"></embed>Apple provides a list of attributes available for the embed tag.
Relevant Links