man...
...[it's been so long since I launced my music site, I forgot why I thought it was necessary, but]...
my Hosting service (Hostway) offered Windows Media Server at the time. I wanted visitors to have the ability to quickly stream .wma's, so I went for the cost.
now...I'm unemployed; & money is real tight...so, I was thinking of dropping Hostway...going over to GoDaddy; & switching my means of musical delivery to .mp3's.
So:
1) How much slower is mp3 streaming from a conventional server than .wma from a dedicated server ?
2) Is there a way to speed it (mp3) up (save decreasing file size) ?
3) Will .wma's stream without the dedicated server; & if so...how is that implemented ?
I really need to save money in this economy...but I don't want my listeners to suffer. Is that possible ?
Thanks,
mark4man
UPDATE:
I remember now...fear of piracy (someone convinced me that it's impossible for an end user to save a streamed .wma on their PC). So by utilizing WMS, visitors to my site could hear an entire song...but not swipe it.
So...a follow up question:
If I find the html code to EMBED .wma's in a page...is that: A) just as fast (in terms of streaming...i.e., not having to use Windows Media Server) ? B) just as secure ?
how about embedding .mp3's as a solution...but the end user has to have the particular player installed on their system, correct ?
Thanks again,
mf
Comments
We use it as an audio player on our Church site. The audio qual
We use it as an audio player on our Church site.
The audio quality is ass because it's 48kbps mp3s but you can see the player [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.knightsw…"]here[/]="http://www.knightsw…"]here[/] (bottom of the page).
thanks, codemonkey... Decided to go w/ .wma's (streamed in a ty
thanks, codemonkey...
Decided to go w/ .wma's (streamed in a typical manner) as opposed to mp3 (I listened to both encoded at 320kbps; & liked .wma better).
anyway...when I tried it...much to my astonishment...they buffered & streamed just as fast as they did from my former dedicated windows media server. (I'm now w/ GoDaddy; & the media files are located in their own folder in the root directory...nice & simple).
But...
...they seem to hic-cup at the very beginning of playback...the music starts a second or so into the peice...not at the very beginning (cutting off a tiny bit of intro as a result).
So I'm thinking that it may be the way I have my meta file structured (the asx text file that points to the media file)...& the fact that things may be different now that the tunes are being streamed in a typical way (& not from a dedicated server).
I found two basic types on the web:
<asx version = "3.0">
<entry>
<ref href = "mms://myserver.com/mediafolder/mysong.wma" />
<ref href = "http://myserver.com…" />
</entry>
</asx>
<ASX version="3.0">
<TITLE>MySong</TITLE>
<ENTRY>
<REF HREF="mms://www.myserver.com/me…"/>
</ENTRY>
</ASX>
So:
Q1) Which one is the authentic deal ???
Q2) Why are the mms & http refs combined in the second section (& is that why www. has been added to the combined tag) ???
Q3) Am I right in assuming that my meta file is causing the music to jump-start ??
Q4) As a digital musician w/ only a meager knowledge of html coding...what the heck do I do now ???
Thanks a million,
mf
Mp3's can be played via a flash-plugin called [[url=http://[/URL
Mp3's can be played via a flash-plugin called [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.longtail…"]JWplayer[/]="http://www.longtail…"]JWplayer[/] and this only needs flash to be installed, nothing else.