Ted On Flash: Flex and FLV in Microsoft "Streaming" Service as WMV files

Flex and FLV in Microsoft "Streaming" Service as WMV files

DIGG IT! 9 Comments Published Tuesday, September 11, 2007 at 12:38 PM .

I uploaded an FLV and SWF files as .WMV to the Microsoft Streaming Service to see if the service was looking at the contents within the WMV files. Typically with real streaming solutions the server understands the contents of the file it is asked to stream. In this case the service, using MS "Streaming" definition, streamed an SWF and FLV within the service.

This examples was posted at 12:47 PST on Tuesday Sept. 11. Lets see how long it takes for MS to take it down. The example "streams" a SWF and FLV as WMV files using MS Streaming Service.

View Source to see the URLS

DIRECT URL TO SWF (as WMV)
DIRECT URL TO FLV (as WMV)

DIRECT URL TO EXAMPLE

Cheers,

Ted :)

9 Responses to “ Flex and FLV in Microsoft "Streaming" Service as WMV files ”

# e.dolecki September 11, 2007 1:06 PM

:) Thats great :)
# Scott September 11, 2007 1:45 PM

Nice work!! I love it!
# Benjamin September 11, 2007 1:45 PM

That`s crazy. However it seems to me hip these days to mix up streaming and progressive. For example Youtube claimed to me that they are a streaming service and therefore can not allow me to publish my RichTube app i worked on because they have contracts with content providers that are based on the "streaming" part. I mean everyone knows that Youtube is in no way a streaming service but simply serves progressive flvs. Really strange if marketing people (mis)use technical terms. I mean were is the video revelution from Microsoft now? Flash has h264 and a revolutionary "streaming" service called progressive download build in ;-)
http://www.richapps.de
# vamapaull September 11, 2007 2:38 PM

@Benjamin - I have a website with flv files from google video and youtube servers... and they are not running any streaming service from what I know... (I'm not sure... but some video files from youtube are streamed... because I can't get the direct link to the flv file every time...)
my video site is www.vamapaull.com/video
# Nate Chatellier September 11, 2007 2:41 PM

Hilarious, nj
# Mike Huntington September 11, 2007 3:21 PM

Hahahaha looks like Microsoft took it down lol .. guess they don't want the word to get out on that one. Talk about a screw up.
# Tony September 11, 2007 3:51 PM

Well to be specific read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_media

It would suggest that "progressive download" is still a form of streaming.

And this is an excerpt from the Flash CS3 documentation:

"A streaming sound plays as soon as enough data for the first few frames downloads; it is synchronized to the Timeline. An event sound does not play until it downloads completely, and it continues to play until explicitly stopped."

We all know that the "stream" property of a Sound object in Flash just causes the sound that is progressively downloading, to start playing as soon as enough data has been received.

I am not trying to stick up for Microsoft here, but I know Adobe (Macromedia) has used the word stream to identify this type of behavior.

Note: You can use a NetStream object in Flash to progressively playback a video.
# phillip September 11, 2007 3:57 PM

amusing indeed--looks like it's down. Hey, did that demonstration abide by the terms-of-use?
# Ted Patrick September 11, 2007 4:13 PM

Seems I violated the terms of use. I just posted a how to on serving FLV from the service.

I completely agree the term "Streaming" is very confusing indeed. It means many things to different people. Problem is when folks sell people based on the term.

Cheers,

Ted