An Introduction to Microsoft NetShow Services and Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) By Huang Yi-Chin

Outline Part I : NetShow Services Part II : Advanced Streaming Format Introduction Streaming media components NetShow Server NetShow Tools Windows Media Player Part II : Advanced Streaming Format File Format Organization Sample Files 2018/11/19 CMLAB

Part I: NetShow Services NetShow is .. “…NetShow Services is a platform for streaming multimedia content over networks that range from low-bandwidth, dial-up Internet connections, to high-bandwidth local area networks (LANs).” [1] Streaming is .. “…data that is streamed is transmitted so that it is accessible without delay…” [2] not as the download-and-play technology. 2018/11/19 CMLAB

Introduction(1/2) How NetShow Services Work 2018/11/19 CMLAB

Introduction(2/2) Key Features Widest bandwidth range Intelligent streaming Build-in multicast service Codec independence 2018/11/19 CMLAB

Streaming media components(1/3) NetShow Server NetShow Administrator: A set of administrative tools to manage, configure and monitor NetShow Services. Publishing Point(unicast) On-demand Unicast p.p. Broadcast Unicast p.p. Station Content(multicast) 2018/11/19 CMLAB

Streaming media components(2/3) NetShow Tools NetShow Encoder NetShow T.A.G. Author (Digital Renaissance) Media On-Demand Producer (Sonic Foundry Inc.) NetShow Indexer Adobe Premiere plug-in Publish to ASF(PowerPoint plug-in) Other utility program: VidToAsf, WavToAsf... 2018/11/19 CMLAB

Streaming media components(3/3) Windows Media Player Based on DirectShow API architecture. An universal player. Automatic codec downloading. Supporting ASX (ASF Stream Redirector) files to enhanced content. Other features: Marker menu, Logo, Banner, Playlist … 2018/11/19 CMLAB

Part II: Advanced Streaming Format What is ASF? An extensible file format designed to store synchronized multimedia data. [4] 2018/11/19 CMLAB

ASF Features(1/2) Extensible Media Types Component Download easy to define new media types Component Download Stream-specific information (ie. Codec) is stored in the file header. Scalable Media Types It stores each “band” for a media as a distinct media stream. 2018/11/19 CMLAB

ASF Features(2/2) Multiple Languages supports multiple languages. Author-specified Stream Prioritization ex. Multiple streams for different bandwidth. Bibliographic Information Bibliographic Information can apply to either the whole file or a single media stream. 2018/11/19 CMLAB

File Format Organization(1/3) ASF Object the base unit of organization - ASF Object 16 Bytes Object ID Object Size 8 Bytes Object Data ?? Bytes 2018/11/19 CMLAB

File Format Organization(2/3) Index Object <Other Objects> Header Object Data Object File Properties Object Stream Properties Object 1 Stream Properties Object N ... <Other Header Objects> Data Unit High-level File Structure Three Top-level Objects Header Object Data Object Index Object Minimal Implementation 1 File Properties Object 1 Stream Properties Object 1 Language List Object 1 Data Object with only 1 Data unit 2018/11/19 CMLAB

File Format Organization(3/3) ASF Header Object is a container that can hold other ASF objects: File Properties Object Stream Properties Object Content Description Object Script Command Object Marker Object Component Download Object Scalable Object Prioritization Object Mutual Exclusion Object Inter-Media Dependency Object Rating Object Index Parameters Object Color Table Object Language List Object 2018/11/19 CMLAB

Stream Property Object 2018/11/19 CMLAB

Script Command Property Object 2018/11/19 CMLAB

Marker Object 2018/11/19 CMLAB

Index Parameter Object 2018/11/19 CMLAB

Data Object 2018/11/19 CMLAB

Index Object 2018/11/19 CMLAB

Sample files Sample1: Sample2: 2018/11/19 CMLAB

Reference [1] Windows NT Server NetShow Service Deployment Guild [2] Microsoft NetShow 3.0 Reviewer’s Guild [3] NetShow Overview White Paper [4] Advanced Streaming Format Specification Ver1.0 http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/mediaserv/default.asp http://www.microsoft.com/asf 2018/11/19 CMLAB