Media Player URL Format

When starting to play streaming media the location of the media and the parameters needed to correctly decode it needs to be passed to the media player. This information is passed using URLs. The following describes the format of these URLs for different types of servers.

RTSP

RTSP is a session management protocol for streaming and is implemented by many video servers including Kasenna MediaBase, Concurrent and NCUBE. RTSP URLs have the following syntax:

rtsp://<host>[:<port>]/<content path>[|<parameter>=value[&<parameter>=value]*]

where

• <host> is the video server IP number or host name
• <port> is the relevant port number for the server. If no port is specified, then 554 (the standard for RTSP) is used.
• <content path> is the path and file name for the content

Each parameter is separated by an ampersand (&). For details see the list of parameters.

Example:

rtsp://my-vod-server.com/movies/shrek

Multicast

Multicast streaming is in many ways similar to RTSP but sessions are managed with the standard IGMP multicast join and leave operations. Multicast URLs have the following simplified syntax:

igmp://<multicast address>:<port>[|<parameter>=value[&<parameter>=value]*]

where

• <multicast address> is the IP address of the multicast stream

Note! Address digits must be written without initial zeros to be treated as dotted decimal form. The following address is NOT in correct dotted decimal form: 0224.010.01.01 (it is actually in dotted octal form)

• <port> is the port number of the multicast stream

Note! Port number must be above 1024

For details see the list of parameters.

Example:

igmp://239.1.1.1:5201

RTP

Multicast streaming can also be done using the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP). For this to work the URL must start with rtp://. Other than that, everything that applies to multicast applies to RTP as well.

Example:

rtp://239.1.5.10:20000

HTTP

Standard HTTP URLs may be used to stream audio/video from a web server. The file is identified by its MIME type (audio/mpeg, video/mpeg):

http://<host>[:<port>]/<content path>[|<parameter>=value[&<parameter>=value]*]

where

• <host> is a domain name or an IP address
• <port> is the relevant port number for the server. If no port is specified, then 80 (the standard for HTTP) is used.
• <content path> is the path and file name for the media file.

Example:

http://myserver.mydomain.com/fun_movie.mpg

DVB

DVB-T sources are specified on the form:

dvb://<original-network-id>.<transport-stream-id>.<service-id>[|<parameter>=value[&<parameter>=value]*]

where

• <original-network-id> The original network id.
• <transport-stream-id> The transport stream id.
• <service-id> The service id.

These parameters can be obtained after performing a channel scan.

Example:

dvb://F7A7.5C24.43B1

Bitband

Bitband uses a proprietary ASX format. A standard HTTP URL is used to specify the file, which has to end with ".asx" or ".bbp".

http://<host>[:<port>]/<content path>[|<parameter>=value[&<parameter>=value]*]

where

• <host> is the video server IP number or host name
• <port> is the relevant port number for the server. If no port is specified, then 80 (the standard for HTTP) is used.
• <content path> is the path and file name for the .asx file or .bbp file.

For details see the list of parameters.

Example:

http://myserver.mydomain.com/forrest_gump.asx

http://myserver.mydomain.com/forrest_gump.bbp|STBID=00:1A:66:1A:B1:7C

DVR

The DVR URI is used to open recorded assets in the system. The preferred way to obtain the URI is to use the designated functions. They will return on the following form:

dvr://<asset path>

where the <asset path> is the path to the asset on the harddrive.

Example:

dvr:///dvr/storage/asset_bls558