Real Audio / Real Video FAQ

Important: Make sure you have initiated RealAudio/Video for your account. To do so, login to your Web Control Panel (http://YourDomain.com/cgi-bin/plusmail), click on "Applications", and follow the directions provided. Activation takes place within 15 minutes.

1. Do you support smil and rtsp files?
2. Can I do live broadcasting on my account?
3. What is the first step in using Real Audio/Video?
4. What is RTSP protocol?

NOTE: More information on RealAudio / RealVideo is available in our Online Support Manual: Part 4 - Multimedia.

Do you support smil and rtsp files?
Yes, these are supported.

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Can I do live broadcasting on my account?
This is a feature of the Real Networks server, which we currently do not support on the shared hosting accounts. You would need to use a Dedicated Server.

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What is the first step in using Real Audio/Video?
The first step is to create the audio or video file which has an extension of .ra (RealAudio) or .rm (RealMedia). You create this file from your audio or video source using the RealEncoder or RealProducer.

The second step is creating the metafile with the extension .ram. The ram metafile is simply a text file containing a special url telling the Real server to send your audio or video clip to the browser. The call is as follows:

rtsp://machinename.host4u.net/your-userid/name-of-clip.ra
your-userid = your-domain with no extension like .com
The clip will either be a .rm or .ra depending on the media type.

If you want to automatically play several videos or audios one after another, list each file on a separate line in the metafile:

rtsp://machinename.host4u.net/your-userid/name-of-clip1.ra
rtsp://machinename.host4u.net/your-userid/name-of-clip2.ra
rtsp://machinename.host4u.net/your-userid/name-of-clip3.ra

Upload your .ram and .ra or .rm files to the /realaudio subdirectory in your web directory. When you ftp these files, it is important that the .ram files be transferred in ASCII mode, and the .ra or .rm files sent in BINARY mode.

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What is RTSP protocol?
RTSP, or Real-Time Streaming Protocol, is a protocol developed by Real Networks. Just as File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the best protocol for transferring large files, RTSP is the best protocol for streaming multimedia applications.

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