MMS streams

[NoOp]

On 07/17/2007 08:54 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:
> On 17/07/07, Lee Tambiah <leetambiah at ossgeeks.co.uk> wrote:
>> On 7/15/07, Dotan Cohen <dotancohen at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> At my university we watch lectures in Windows Media Player via
>>> MMS streams. The streams are over 2GB in size, so saving the
>>> entire stream is not an option. I need a player that will play
>>> the stream, including Fast Forward and Rewind functions. Is there
>>> a linux player that can do that? I have had no luck with mplayer
>>> or vlc.
>>> 
>>> This is the output of Mplayer: [dotancohen at localhost ~]$ mplayer
>>> 
>> mms://video9.technion.ac.il/Courses/Solid-Mech1/Solid%20Mechanics%201%20-01.wmv
>> 
>>> MPlayer 1.0rc1-4.1.1 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team CPU: Intel(R)
>>> Core(TM)2 CPU         T7200  @ 2.00GHz (Family: 6, Model: 15,
>>> Stepping: 6) CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1
>>> SSE2: 1 Can't open joystick device /dev/input/js0: No such file
>>> or directory Can't init input joystick mplayer: could not connect
>>> to socket mplayer: No such file or directory Failed to open LIRC
>>> support. You will not be able to use your remote
>> control.
>>> 
>>> Playing
>> mms://video9.technion.ac.il/Courses/Solid-Mech1/Solid%20Mechanics%201%20-
>>  01.wmv.
>>> STREAM_ASF, URL:
>>> 
>> mms://video9.technion.ac.il/Courses/Solid-Mech1/Solid%20Mechanics%201%20-01.wmv
>> 
>>> Resolving video9.technion.ac.il for AF_INET6... Couldn't resolve
>>> name for AF_INET6: video9.technion.ac.il Resolving
>>> video9.technion.ac.il for AF_INET... Connecting to server
>>> video9.technion.ac.il[ 132.68.1.27]: 1755... connection timeout 
>>> Resolving video9.technion.ac.il for AF_INET6... Couldn't resolve
>>> name for AF_INET6: video9.technion.ac.il Resolving
>>> video9.technion.ac.il for AF_INET... Connecting to server
>>> video9.technion.ac.il[132.68.1.27]: 80...
>>> 
>>> It seems as though it cannot find the server, however Windows
>>> Media Player 11 in VMWare loads and displays that video just
>>> fine. There is no AU sniffing at the server, I checked that with
>>> the university's computer department.
>>> 
>>> Dotan Cohen
>>> 
>>> http://lyricslist.com/ http://what-is-what.com/
>>> 
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>>> 
>> 
>> I have to say that the ideal solution is your university not using
>> Windows Media for this! Why? Well they are an education facility,
>> Students may use Linux (as you do) and Macs (alternative
>> platforms). It would make more sense for the university to deploy a
>> solution which runs on all Platforms, now OGG would be nice, but if
>> they want the proprietry route why the heck didn't they go for
>> realplayer.
>> 
> 
> Actually, after talking to the IT department, I am convinced that MMS
>  _is_ the right tool for the job. It is the only streaming media
> format that allows fast forward, rewind, and fast/slow playback, all
> as if the file were local. It really is amazing, and before I dug
> into the details I wondered how it was all done. It is an M$
> technology (and an abandoned technology! WMP 11 doesn't support it!),
> but it is very, very good.
> 
>> This is simular to the IBBC Player which is now being challenged by
>> the open source community, I would also complain to the university
>> too! Content is for all not just for Micorosft Windows Users.
>> Microsoft will not make it work on other platforms as it is there
>> way to create a lock in.
> 
> You are 100% correct. Unfortunately, no open source tool currently 
> supports the features that MMS provides. If you can suggest something
>  that supports FF, rewind, and fast/slow playback then I'll certainly
>  suggest it. I'm serious.
> 
>> You can get some Windows Media content to play using the VLC and
>> MPlayer, but much of it fails . Its a pain in the ass but the real
>> blame here is the University deploying a windows centric solution
>> in the first place! Typical.......
> 
> Well, if I download the whole 2 GB file to the drive I can play it in
>  anything. However, that is not practical. Hence the need for 
> streaming.
> 
> Dotan Cohen
> 
> http://lyricslist.com/ http://what-is-what.com/
> 

Interesting. Perhaps your university can convince Novell & MS to do an
opensource linux version.
Seriously; even Realmedia have an opensource version of their software
that works quite well. And given that Novell seems to be well in bed
with MS given their patent agreement, I suspect that they will come out
with something eventually.