Real Audio Video > Streaming RealAudio and RealVideo

True streaming of Real Audio/Video will require you to install Real Audio/Video streaming software onto your hosting account on your web server.
The necessary software is available from: www.realnetworks.com/products/starterkit/index.html

However.... 

• (1) The purchase price of the Real streaming software is expensive approx $3,000 US
• (2) To cope with the bandwidth requirements of streaming audio/video your minimum hosting account needs to be Business Pro

There is an (unofficial!) alternate method of streaming audio/video by using http which is outlined below.

Please note, we do not undertake technical support for this mechanism, we have illustrated it for the sake of those of you who may be interested.

HTTP Streaming
TRUE streaming of audio/video files (using the Real A/V server software) means that the RealAudio and RealVideo files begin playing before the entire file is downloaded. 
However, you can also stream these files in a pseudo fashion without using the RealAudio/Video server. It isn't quite as nice as using the server, but it will won't cost you any money, and is known as HTTP Streaming.

Caution:
Please use caution if you are streaming RealAudio and RealVideo files from your hosting account because they can be quite large and can easily cause a 'low level' hosting account to quickly run out of it's available monthly bandwidth allocation.

Excess bandwidth is currently chargeable at £0.15p per Mb

If you think that A/V streaming (using the Real server, or by HTTP) will cause you to exceed your allocated bandwidth, then consider upgrading your account first.

Here's how to stream RealAudio and RealVideo content using HTTP

1. First, copy your encoded RealAudio and RealVideo files (files with the .rm and .ra extensions) to your Virtual Server using FTP. Be sure to FTP these files in Binary mode.

2. Second, create a metafile (ASCII text file) containing a RealAudio or RealVideo URL. For example, the contents of your file should be in the following form:

http://hostname/path/filename

where hostname is the name of your World Wide Web server. For example:

http://www.uktrading.net/1st-million/call.ra

3. Third, save the above metafile as a text file with the .ram extension. For example:

example.ram

Then FTP this file to your server in ASCII mode (because it is a text file).

4. Fourth, in your HTML document, reference the metafile in a hyperlink. For example:

<A HREF="example.ram">Click here to listen</A>

You can use relative or complete paths. If you use complete paths, you must include both the hostname and the complete path. For example:

<A HREF="http://www.uktrading.net/1st-million/call.ram">Click here to listen</A>


5. Last, when a user clicks on the link, the audio/video file(s) begin to download. The RealPlayer begins playing after a few seconds; it does not need to wait for the entire file to be downloaded.

If you got everything right, you will now be able to stream your audio/video files

Please remember... We don't offer technical support for Audio/Video streaming.