Que es?
The Weblog of Brett Singer. Bringing the world what it needs most - a blog.
Note: Sorry about all of the 'hot deals' entries (someone referred to this blog as
CorporateShill.com).
The deals and things are being fed into Multineedia.com. We will
soon move the deals category over to Multineedia so you don't have to read it, and we apologize for any inconvenience.
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Wed, 15 Nov 2006
Here's how they do it on NFL.com.
First, there's a link that looks like this:
That gives us a file named 1110-1.ram, the contents of which are:
If you put the first part of this into the address bar in FFox, it opens in Windows Media Player, but won't play:
FFox thinks that file is an video/x-ms-asf Object, although what gets spit out is a a .ram file (l7g9ccdl.ram, which appears to a randomly generated filename).
The source is:
So that's the ad. The second part yields another randomly named .ram file (z2f0iwy4.ram), which contains the actual video:
It seems complicated but it's basically the same way it used to be on the site. It's a few steps to do something that could be one step (just a .ram file).
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Tue, 14 Nov 2006This butt ugly URL:
Yields a file called play3.pl, which FFox identifies as a SMIL presentation:
It looks like this:
The 'raw' rtsp URL is this:
Interestingly, but not surprisingly, the video plays much more smoothly (that is, it starts faster, has no hiccups, that sort of thing) when I just cut and paste that rtsp link into RealPlayer directly. The embedded version (here) doesn't play in FFox 1.5.08, takes a minute or so to start in Internet Explorer 6.0whatever, and playing the play.pl file causes the video to start and stop ('hiccups').
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Tue, 23 May 2006
New (to me) playlist format-QTL
A QTL playlist (.qtl format) looks like this:
[?xml version="1.0"?]
[?quicktime type="application/x-quicktime-media-link"?]
[embed src="rtsp://quick20ca.audiovideoweb.com:2554/avwebdsquick2235/eresources/cei/Global_Warming_Energy-high.mov" autoplay="true" /]
Note: change the [] to <>.
So it's like a RAM file, but with a Quicktime RTSP link.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Mon, 15 May 2006
RTSP wrapped in SMIL wrapped in RAM
Here is the structure of a video file from here:
Layer 1: RAM file (http://kcrw.com/smil/mb050414Nouvelle_Vague.ram)
Layer 2: SMIL file, inside the RAM file (http://kcrw.com/smil/mb050414Nouvelle_Vague.smil)
Layer 3: RTSP file, part of a playlist which is the SMIL file (rtsp://go.rbn.com/realkcrw/kcrwfm/g2demand/mb050414Nouvelle_Vague.rm)
Here's a question. Do I - or even SHOULD I - have the 'right' to pull out the direct RTSP link so I can put it in a playlist? The reason for the SMIL file is so that I'll have to watch something else along with the content. Is it wrong for me to bypass that? I guess not, since that's part of the appeal of Tivo (skipping the ads and other parts you don't want to watch). Would it be better for the ad or whatever content you want people to see to be in the same file, "embedded" as it were? That's the idea behind sponsorships on TV shows (American Idol being a recent example, Texaco Star Theatre in the 1950's being an old one), and of course product placement, where the product is unavoidable because it's in the freakin' scene.
Regardless of all that, wrapping a file in a file in a file isn't a very effective way of "protecting" your content.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Fri, 03 Mar 2006
RTSP with Quicktime, doesn't really work
This is the first time I've seen RTSP that will only play in Quicktime. In addition, the embedded player won't work in Firefox, but it will work in Internet Explorer.
Here's the page with the video that only sort of works.
Here's the direct link, which despite being RTSP, won't play in Real Player:
rtsp://www.dqtech.net:7070/BubbaCrash.mov
It will, however, play in QuickTime.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Fri, 17 Feb 2006
If XSPF is not RSS, can I still hear the music?
A post from Gonze.com addressing the question "Why not RSS?"
As I understand it, XSPF works like RSS in most user applications, although I admit that I could be completely wrong about that. As I see it, XSPF is a playlist format (like PLS but more robust, like SMIL but less annoying, like ASX but more open, and so on), whereas RSS is something else. These two posts are linked to from Gonze.com, and the latter says that "an XPSF feed is basically an RSS feed without some of the elements that are optional in RSS anyway."
My understanding of XSPF is limited mostly to it's applications on Webjay, but it seems that the attempt is to create a playlist format that works well, is open to all, and is a combo of a playlist and RSS - hence the description Shareable Playlist Format.
This is one of those topics that seems like it's a big who cares, but it actually is pretty important. Whenever you listen to or watch media on the web, view/listen to content on your local computer, or even when you use a Tivo, a DVR, or a Media Center PC, somewhere in there is a playlist format. Wouldn't it be nice if it was a format that played well with others?
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Thu, 19 Jan 2006
Yet another way to play online video
This URL:
Will yield a file called 'ram.jsp' whose contents are this:
Here's the direct rtsp link if you want it:
Via EOnline (the video is of "Brokeback Kong", which is kinda funny.)
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Mon, 16 Jan 2006
Que Es SMIL?
SMIL (pronounced "smile") is an XML application that enables simple authoring of interactive audiovisual presentations.
I thought SMIL was, like HTML, a markup language.
More here:
MobileMag
WebServices.org
W3C (should have the real story)
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Wed, 11 Jan 2006
WVX playlist won't play in FFox
As of today, this playlist (Webjay'd here) won't play in Firefox. All the more reason to simply playlist formats, right? Maybe with Yahoo! buying Webjay and actively promoting XSPF as a playlist format, things will change.
Regarding that awesome transaction, I want to write something about the whole thing, but I haven't had time yet. So for now, let me just say: YES!!!!!! Great work, Lucas. Couldn't be happier for you if I tried.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Tue, 08 Nov 2005
Verizon Video Mail requires QuickTime?
This message is from a "PixMail" message forwarded from a cell phone using Verizon's service to a regular email address:
To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime Player.
This is interesting, because (a) I've never heard of this before and (b) because Apple, with the exception of course of the new iPod that sort of plays video, hasn't really been a vocal player in mobile stuff. Is it possible that they're working behnid the scenes more than we (okay, I) realized?
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Thu, 07 Jul 2005
CNN Free Video is More Annoying Than Before
CNN's new free video service is weirder than it was. Before, you supposedly had to log in, but Webjay watchers know that it wasn't too tough to get the videos if you wanted them (cut and paste the URL and put it into the appropriate syntax). Those were RTSP links to RealMedia video files (.rm).
Now, they still use RTSP, but it's to deliver WMV files. I have no idea why this is, since you can't save RTSP. I have noticed that Windows formats (WMV and WMA) are starting to take over - Rhapsody, owned by Real, even uses WMA for downloads, and now for streams as well (which means that Real pays a license to MS rather than use their own format - huh?). The only reason that I know of to use WMV is that the DRM is supposed to be the hardest to crack. If you can't save the file, what's the point?
CNN also wants you to watch the file on a pop-up web page with an embedded player of some sort. Using Ethereal to capture packets, it wasn't too tough to discover the actual source of the stream:
rtsp://wmscnn.stream.aol.com/cnn/politics/2005/07/07/sot.bush.blasts.8a.cnn.ws.wmv
and put it in a playlist with a BBC video.
And so it goes.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Wed, 06 Jul 2005
UPDATE on Onion AV Club uses QuickTime and RTSP
Turns out that this:
rtsp://teasdale.theonion.com:554/avclub/media/4127/ohno_move.mov
Won't play in RealPlayer, just Quicktime. My Webjay palylist of Onion AV Club stuff won't play in Real: each track will get as far as 99% (sometimes 100%) before it gives up.
HOWEVER - and this is a first try for me - it will play in Quicktime. Cutting and pasting the following into QT:
http://webjay.org/by/webjaybs/onionavclub.smil
actually works. You even get the images for a few seconds. Oddly, it plays as if it were one big ol' track, and there doesn't seem to be a way to rewind or fast-foward. That said, it actually works. So I guess that's a Quicktime RTSP playlist.
Two questions:
- Why do they make this so difficult? That is, why doesn't The Onion use a not-annoying format to serve up their files? If I really wanted to capture these songs, I could easily record the streams. Plus, if you're using Real's server (RTSP), why not serve up Real files, which at least are somewhat easier to playlist?
- Why is Quicktime so annoying? It didn't used to be. It's possible (actually, likely) that I just never noticed how annoying it was, or just never tried to do the things I'm doing now (playlists, mostly). But it does seem that Apple has somewhat abandoned Quicktime as a delivery medium for web content. How can I say that, you ask? The future is in playlists, Steve Jobs, and your player is the worst playlister among all major media players. Now say that ten times fast.
For what it's worth, this playlist seems to play in Quicktime as well. Go to File -> Open URL in new player and paste this:
http://webjay.org/by/webjaybs/qt-test.smil
into the dialog box. Whoo-hoo.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Onion AV Club uses QuickTime and RTSP
On The Onion AV Club's new listening page (which actually has some good stuff, so it's annoying to have to listen to it one track at a time), this link will get you this if you View -> Source:
RTSPtextrtsp://teasdale.theonion.com:554/avclub/media/4127/ohno_right.mov
Which is, of course, not easily saveable. Which is, of course, the point. Of course, if you're going to do this, Onion people, you should at least provide some method of playing all the tracks in... oh, what's that thing all the kids are into these days? A PLAYLIST.
Update: RealPlayer 10 on Windows XP will play the rtsp stream, even though it's Quicktime, not Real. A Webjay playlist is here, I'll add to it when possible.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Wed, 29 Jun 2005I wanted to stream this playlist, which came from here (The Onion AV Club is doing a new 'listen to some music on our site' thing). So far, all I've been able to do is listen to each song one at a time. Not good enough! Onion, dude, use a less annoying audio format. Am I wrong?
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Fri, 17 Jun 2005Lucas Gonze points to this blog entry which makes casual mention of the term 'shareable playlist' (which comes from XSPF). Other XSPFiness that I've noticed lately (most of these via Gonze.com):
More musing on XSPF to come.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Tue, 17 May 2005
Not sure what this means exactly, but Firefox seems to think a XSPF file is a ?!@?!?@?!?!?. Which is too bad. Firefox should lighten up.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Fri, 29 Apr 2005This seemed odd. In looking for the actual URL of a clip on AOL-owned Moviefone.com, I saw some odd-looking HTML:
Anyway, I guess this explains why the hell AOL bought Winamp in the first place. I actually thought they were using Windows Media Player for their streaming, but I guess not. Also of note: there is also an option to play the clip in Quicktime, but no Real or WMP. AOL is weird.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Tue, 26 Apr 2005
The Things They Do To Obscure URLs
This is getting stupid.
On this page, which is about video game music (you can hear some classic video game music on Webjay), there is a link to a video from the Beastie Boys, who have a song in an upcoming game. They want you to play the video in a pop-up window, presumably so you can look at ads. Here's the URL one sees if one right-clicks on the embedded Windows Media Player on the pop-up page and selects 'Properties':
Stupid looking, right? But a simple search/replace operation yields this:
Remove this part (http://www.mp3.com/stream_asx.html?path=) and voila, you have an mms link, suitable for playlisting.
Here's my question. Why bother with all of this nonsense? Wouldn't it be a better overall experience for the user if it were easier for them to play the video? This particular method probably excludes Mac and Linux users, although maybe not. The use of Windows Media Player is meant to keep people from downloading the video, which I guess is understandable, although not really, since the quality isn't really good enough for broadcast, and most music videos can be watched online anytime, so why not let us download it for offline viewing? The point is that there is clearly some effort being made to hide the actual URL from the user, and there's no point. In this case, they're not even doing a very good job of hiding it, you can't easily save an mms file, and it only makes it harder to watch the video. So what's the point?
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Sun, 17 Apr 2005This playlist has a link to this ASX file, which is itself a playlist. Contained in that playlist is a link to a streaming version of the Green Day song Boulevard of Broken Dreams from American Idiot. The asx file is at a Geocities site, and is unauthorized. But the file it points to (an asf file, which is not easily downloadable) is (I think). So does that make the asx file okay? A minor issue, but I think it shows that the legalities of online music and video are not that easy to figure out.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Wed, 29 Dec 2004This file popped up on SingingFish.com (yes, I was searching for Rush videos to post to Webjay, partly to torment Lucas). What's interesting is the .rpm file, which contains a long list of .rm and .ram files, along with comments about each one.
The first few lines:
# Rush videos
#
# URLs, including filenames, are CASE SENSITIVE.
# 2112.net Apache server makes all filenames lower case, and appends long filenames to 8 characters.
#
# Play will be random, except the first file will always play first
# All are encoded at 90Kbps (Real "112K Dual ISDN" setting) unless otherwise noted
# Files are indexed in the following 5 categories:
# Rush TV station identification(s)
# Very high bandwidth videos
# 90 Kbps Performance Videos
# Miscellaneous 90 Kbps Rush-related videos
# Lower bandwidth videos
# 30 files, 84.5 MB total
# Rush TV station identification
http://www.2112.net/vertigo/rtvecho.jpg
# Very high bandwidth videos
# "Spirit of Radio" live, handheld amateur video, Fresno 2/8/94, 5:03, 8.19 MB, 225 Kbps (180.8 Kbps video + 44.1 Kbps audio)(Real "256 Kbps DSL/Cable" setting)
http://www.2112.net/vertigo/rushhbtv/spirit.rm
# 90 Kbps Performance Videos
# "A Farewell To Kings" (4.0mb) 90Kbps
http://www.2112.net/vertigo/rushhbtv/aftk.rm
Worth noting is the "Play will be random, except the first file will always play first" line. So I guess .rpm is a kind of playlist file. Does RealPlayer recognize .rpm and always play a random selection? Or is this a server setting? Will companies EVER stop making new playlist formats?
Here's the file as text for those who want to see it in its full Rushian glory.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Mon, 20 Dec 2004
Content Server - Looks Like Webjay
Stumbled onto this while looking for crap on singingfish:
Look at the various choices for what I imagine are playlist formats, or at least just different ways to serve up an audio file.
The company is LoudEye,
who just did a deal with AT&T Wireless (AT&T Wireless Debuts First-Ever Mobile Music Store in the U.S.)
The slogan is "Business to Business Digital Media Solutions"
aka, "makin' playlists for corporate types".
Screenshot in case the page disappears.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Tue, 14 Dec 2004
How to play only part of a video (RealPlayer) using SMIL commands
Here is the syntax to play only part of a video clip in RealPlayer:
clipurl?start=min:sec.sec&end=min:sec.sec
A specific example:
rtsp://demand1cnn.stream.aol.com/cnn/politics/2004/11/24/johns.old.guard.democrats.affl.300k.rm?start=0:14.0&end=0:31.0
Cut and paste that into RealPlayer and you'll see the result.
For a live video feed that you only want to play for a specific period of time:
clipurl?end=3:00.0
And for basic start and end times:
rtsp:/66.150.15.112:554/webactive/demnow/dn20001108.ra?cloakport=80,554,7070&end=1:40.0
will end the clip after 1 min. and 40 seconds.
rtsp:/66.150.15.112:554/webactive/demnow/dn20001108.ra?cloakport=80,554,7070&start=1:40.0
will start the clip at the 1 min. 40 second mark.
Examples of the above can be found on Webjay:
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Thu, 09 Dec 2004
Make iPodder Do Your Bidding
This article tells you how to make iPodder download more than just the most recent track in a playlist. Via Lucas. Also from Gonze: some links about videoblogging. Part of my problem with these new forms of blogging is that I don't really want to see most of the people who blog, or hear them. I'm not saying there aren't good people doing audio/videoblogging, but I haven't found any yet. That said, I think it's great that the idea of blogging via audio and video is creating interest in audio and video playlists, and advancements in the delivery of web audio and video.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Fri, 26 Nov 2004
WiMP freakin' out
This playlist file freaked Windows Media Player out so badly that I had to close it, my browser, and everything else. Nothing would stop it. It was like the monster that ate my screen. Stop, start, stop, start... Ouch. Here's the direct link to the video, which is Bob by Weird Al Yankovic. Not really worth all that much trouble, but it's kinda funny.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Tue, 23 Nov 2004
I Don't Care = Windows Media Player?
So StreamingCulture acknowledges that some people don't care what format web video is in, they just want to see it. Fair enough.
HOWEVER, when you click 'I don't care' (see below), it plays in Windows Media Player, at least on my machine. Dumb.
Here's the screenshots so you can see for yerself.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Mon, 22 Nov 2004
ASX3
A google search for 'asx3 playlist' has, as of today, only 6 matches. It does lead to some interesting pages, including this one, which seems to have a ton of info about joining video clips and making playlist files.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
This playlist (Le Tigre, New Kicks) (view it here) is an ASX file downloaded from here, via Singing Fish. I just did right-click, file->save as to save the asx file locally. In trying to find the actual direct link to the video file for the purposes of Webjay playlisting, I started with this part:
mms:gcrod9.streamos.com/2/universalmotown...
Note: Right click and copy the link to view the full URL.
But that gave me an 'Access Denied' message in Windows Media Player (aka WiMP). So I tried this:
mms:gcrod9.streamos.com/2/universalmotown...
Note: Right click and copy the link to view the full URL.
That's the full URL of the MMS link (MMS is Microsoft's streaming protocal, or one of them anyway). Sometimes with RealPlayer, you need to include the ugly numbers and letters after the URL for authentication (I think). That didn't do it either.
So I just double-clicked the downloaded ASF file and played the video (which, for what it's worth, reminds me of Deee-Lite, if they got all political). Tried looked at File->Properties, but that doesn't usually have much info (in RealPlayer, you can view the 'source' of the clip, which is usually a SMIL file, and sometimes use that to dig out the actual URL of the video or audio, but in WiMP, this method doesn't work). So okay, now what?
I noticed something I'd never seen before (this is in WiMP version 8): File -> Export Playlist to File. That gave me this ASX file view the file here. Lo and behold, contained in there is this URL:
http://locus.geo.advection.net/003/wmsclients/...
Note: Right click and copy the link to view the full URL.
And that works. Soooooo complicated.
Aside: Why do I find this so interesting?
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Sun, 21 Nov 2004
Potkasting and such
Three new playlisty things from Lucas' blog. Interesting thing about Gigadial is that it has content from AirAmerica, which is (debatably) commercial radio. Easily downloadable mp3 files. Not fresh content, but better than trying to record it yourself.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Wed, 10 Nov 2004
Survey of Playlist Formats
From Lucas Gonze, a survey of playlist formats. Very cool.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Tue, 09 Nov 2004
More On Amazon's Movie
Amazon's movie can be downloaded or watched on the page via Flash - but no playlisting. Why not? Too complicated for primetime?
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Amazon has this movie available for free download, other format options are here. I don't know what the hell it is, but it's interesting that they are doing this. Why would they bother? I guess it's a commercial, but again - why bother? The Real version is 'Real Audio / Real Video VBR' which has a .rmvb extension. Just what we need! More formats!
Why not mpeg? Poor mpeg, the forgotten child (parent?) of web video. Yes, the files are larger, but the compatibility is way better.
They also eschewed divx, which I think is a good thing, although the reason they skipped is probably because it's the primary format for ripped movies.
[/playlist_research] permanent link
Mon, 01 Nov 2004
New method of hiding the Real URL
This link generates a PHP file which contains nothing except for this: rtsp://195.157.101.65/videos/skalpel.rm
So weird.
I'm going to try and post all of the various knowledge I've acquired about playlists here.
[/playlist_research] permanent link