What is NetShow?

• Microsoft NetShow version 1.0

SUMMARY

Microsoft NetShow consists of two components:

• NetShow On-Demand, a streaming media server, player, content creation/conversion tools and SDK
• NetShow Live, a multicasting server (audio and file), player and SDK.

For complete information about the NetShow family of products, the concept of streaming versus downloading, multicasting, the NetShow SDKs, full user documentation, samples, and Frequently Asked Questions, see http://www.microsoft.com/netshow. All NetShow components are available for download free of charge.

MORE INFORMATION

NetShow On-Demand

NetShow On-Demand is the easiest, most cost-effective way to stream audio, illustrated audio and video across intranets and the Internet.

Streaming offers the ability for content to start playing immediately instead of downloading to the user's hard drive first. This allows developers to provide very long content that can start playing right away.

Normally, when you access networked multimedia content you have to wait for the entire file to be transferred before you can use the information. Streaming allows you to see or hear the information as it arrives without having to wait. Unlike most audio or video streaming products, NetShow also enables the content provider to generate compelling productions where audio, graphics, video, URLs, and script commands can be synchronized based on a timeline.

Microsoft NetShow On-Demand consists of the Player, the NetShow On-Demand Server, and several tools for easily creating or converting content.

• Microsoft NetShow On-Demand Player enables users equipped with Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows NT multimedia personal computers connected to a voice-grade telephone line or a corporate local area network (LAN) to play audio, illustrated audio, and video content on demand---with no download wait time.
• Microsoft NetShow On-Demand Server allows you to host audio, illustrated audio (images synchronized with an audio track), and video content on a Windows NT Server for fast streaming delivery over corporate intranets and the Internet. NetShow On-Demand uses the ActiveX Streaming Format (ASF) to efficiently store and synchronize multimedia content for delivery over the network. The NetShow On-Demand Server takes advantage of the security, reliability, and scalability of Windows NT Server, and adds the ability to stream multimedia over UDP-IP.
• Microsoft NetShow On-Demand Tools include the following:

  - ASF Editor. It allows you to create illustrated audio files

       from standard audio and images, and to create Web tours by adding
       URL calls at specific points in the audio track. The easy-to-use
       graphical user interface makes content creation simple.
  

  - VIDtoASF. A quick and easy tool for preparing AVI and QuickTime

       files into streaming format.
  

  - WAVtoASF. A quick and easy tool for preparing WAV audio files

       into streaming format.
  

NetShow Live

NetShow Live uses IP Multicast to efficiently deliver a stream of live audio information to intranet users. IP Multicast is an open, standards- based way to distribute identical information to many users simultaneously. This contrasts with regular TCP/IP (IP unicast) where the same information may be sent to many clients, but the sender must transmit an individual copy to each user. NetShow Live multicast file transfer provides another way for network managers to save bandwidth when large quantities of data need to be distributed to many users at the same time. NetShow Live uses Real Time Protocol (RTP) as its transport protocol.

The bulk of the traffic on networks today is unicast, meaning a separate copy of the data is sent from the source to each client that requests it.

Networks today also support broadcasting, which sends a single copy of the data to all clients on the network. However, multicasting sends a single copy of the data to those clients who request it.

NetShow Live features include Microsoft NetShow Live Player (ActiveX control), and Microsoft NetShow Live Server. The NetShow Live Server can be installed on Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 2.0 and is included in IIS 3.0.

Content Tools and Client Requirements

Hardware:

486/50 processor (minimum), Pentium recommended; PCI or EISA bus (PCI recommended); 8 MB RAM for Windows 95 (minimum), 16 MB recommended; 16 MB RAM for Windows NT (minimum), 32 MB suggested; any Ethernet client adapter; Sound card and speakers.

Software:

Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows NT version 3.51 or version 4.0 and Internet Explorer version 3.0.

Server Requirements

Hardware:

486/66MHz processor (minimum); PCI or EISA bus (PCI is recommended); 24 MB RAM (minimum), 48 MB suggested; Ethernet network interface card (NIC).

For NetShow Live, a Creative Labs Sound Blaster sound card is required for audio input.

Software:

Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0 only.