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A Better
Server supports all Real Audio® and Real Video® files for our hosted
accounts, including streaming!
Real
Audio has recently (Jan 2002) released a new version of encoder
software, which is free and called Realproducer 8.5 which makes
creating audio and video files a breeze.
STEP 1: ACQUIRE THE REAL AUDIO SOFTWARE
In order to create and listen to Real Audio files, you will need
to download and install the FREE
RealAudio Player and FREE
Encoder "RealSystem Producer Basic" 8 from the Real Audio web
site. RealAudio offers a full version of all their software which
affords better quality control and playback and may include other
features for a fee. These steps will use a live example for illustration
purposes.
STEP 2: TURNING YOUR SOUND FILE INTO A REALAUDIO FILE
We
assume that you now have the RealPlayer and Encoder 8.0 installed
on your computer.
Follow theses steps to create a RealAudio file:
Open the Encoder Select Files and Select
Recording Wizard Follow the on screen
instructions. The newly installed RealPlayer will open automatically
and will ask you for the source of the recording, like a CD or other
source file. After you have used the wizard one or two times you
will not need it and can then enter the information directly. There
are 5 steps to follow using the wizard and we have not included
them on this page. Just take your time and read carefully it's quite
easy. When your done creating your new recording and selected the
finish button go to the next step.
STEP 3: CREATE HTML / WEB PAGE
After you are satisfied with your clip BE SURE to select TOOLS
from the Encoder 8.0 and then select Create
Web Page. The 8.0 realproducer actually creates all the necessary
html for your file. Next Select view Web Page at this point the
realproducer publishes the page to your browser of choice. Click
on the created link and presto the player pops up and the music
plays. Next Select "View Source" or "View Page Source"
from the browser and then cut and paste the html into your favorite
editor.
If
the source file is on your hard drive the source is going to be
different on the server. In your root directory, create a new directory
and call it "music"
STEP 4: UPLOAD THE FILES TO YOUR WEB SITE
The realproducer 8.0 will create two files for you automatically.
One is called RealMedia File which contains the actual music. This
file will be quite large.( Ours is 4,240,214 kb)
The
other file is called metafile (.rm or .ram or .rpm) this file is
is just a few lines of text.( 56 kb) This text file contains a URL
to the realaudio/ realvideo file. Open the metafile with notepad
and edit the source. Below is an example that was produced using
the realproducer 7.0
Realmedia
files: .rm .ra. rp. .rt .swf
Metafile: that launches the independent RealPlayer: ram
Metafile: that launches the RealPlayer plug-in .rpm
Original
file:
file:///C:/My
Music/RealMediaFiles/Jesus_is_the_Lamb.rm
Change
it to:
http://www.yourdomain.com/music/the
name of your file.rm
We
used:
http://www.abetterserver.com/music/Jesus_is_the_Lamb.rm
Save
the file and then up load both files to the server in your newly
created directory called "music". If you are using Cute
FTP this will automatically select BINARY as the transfer mode for
the RealMedia file ( the big one) and will select ASCII for the
metafile ( the small one you just edited) If you not using Cute
FTP be sure that the transfer modes are correct or your new recording
will not work properly.
Another
way to create a meta file that streams from our server is set it
up like this:
Instead of using the http://locator seen with most URL's, RealMedia
files address the RealServer with an rstp:// ( RealTimeStreaming-Protocol)
indicator. The contents of the file should take the following form:
rtsp://hostname/path/file
rtsp://www.abetterserver.com/music/Jesus_is_the_Lamb.rm
You
can include multiple video/audio clips by putting each one on it's
own line, separated by a single return. RealMedia plays each clip
in succession, and the user can skip from one clip to another.
STEP
6: CREATING THE HTML CODE FOR THE REALAUDIO FILE
OK here is fun part! The encoder created the html for you and you
have pasted it into your editor. We have to make a few changes,
below is the actual html that the encoded made for our song.
<html>
<head>
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="RealProducer G2">
<meta name="rnpagelayout" content="pop-up">
<meta name="rnserverpath" content="C:\My Music\RealMedia Files\">
<meta name="rnmediafile" content="Jesus_is_the_Lamb.rm">
<meta name="rnmetafile" content="Jesus_is_the_Lamb.ram">
<meta name="description" content="">
<meta name="keywords" content="">
<title>Jesus_is_the_Lamb</title>
</head>
<body BGCOLOR="FFFFFF">
<center>
<! HTML INSERT BEGIN /!>
<! RealPublisher -- Comment Text Created By RealProducer Web
Page Wizard - 5/3/2000 -- Caution: Do not make changes to this comment
section. Any local file references that appear here are automatically
updated when uploaded to a remote web server. Alterations to this
section or any file references listed below or contained in the
associated RAM or RPM metafiles may cause errors when publishing
your web page to a remote server. These values should not be altered.
-- pagelayout="pop-up"
-- serverpath="C:\My Music\RealMedia Files\"
-- mediafile="Jesus_is_the_Lamb.rm"
-- metafile="Jesus_is_the_Lamb.ram"
/!>
<a HREF="Jesus_is_the_Lamb.ram">
<h1>Jesus_is_the_Lamb</h1></a>
<a HREF="Jesus_is_the_Lamb.ram">
<img SRC="file:///C:/Program Files/Real/RealProducer/rprod_on.gif"
BORDER=0></a>
<! HTML INSERT END /!>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
<a HREF="http://www.real.com/products/player"><img
SRC="file:///C:/Program Files/Real/RealProducer/getfree.jpg" BORDER=0></a>
</center>
</body>
</html>
Edited
version:
<html>
<head>
<title>What
ever you want</title>
</head>
<body BGCOLOR="FFFFFF">
<center>
<! HTML INSERT BEGIN /!>
<! RealPublisher --
-- pagelayout="pop-up"
-- serverpath="music/"
-- mediafile="Jesus_is_the_Lamb.rm"
-- metafile="Jesus_is_the_Lamb.ram"
/!>
<a HREF="music/Jesus_is_the_Lamb.ram">
Jesus is the Lamb</a>
<!
HTML INSERT END /!>
</center>
</body>
</html>
For
Actual working example click here
Jesus is the Lamb Notice that the RealPlayer opens and its using
sure stream. This file should load and play in about 5 seconds at
28baud connection speed. By the way your all done now unless you
want to embed the file.
STEP 7: EMBEDDING A REALAUDIO FILE
This is a bit more tricky as the encoder produces
the html code using the object tag( for the explorer browser and
embed tag for Netscape). Using this option of the wizard allows
you to embed a RealAudio file so that the .ra file will begin playing
as soon as the html page loads. This way, the web visitor will not
have to click on a link to hear your sound file. You may also embed
controls so the web visitor can turn it on or off. The encoder gives
you all the options and the html. Just follow the instructions in
the wizard. You only have to edit one line and if your using our
example change to: -- serverpath="music/"
<! HTML INSERT BEGIN /!>
<! RealPublisher --
-- pagelayout="embedded"
-- serverpath="C:\My Music\RealMedia Files\" (Edit
this line)
-- mediafile="Jesus_is_the_Lamb.rm"
-- metafile="Jesus_is_the_Lamb.rpm"
/!>
Jesus_is_the_Lamb
<object ID=video1 CLASSID="clsid:CFCDAA03-8BE4-11cf-B84B-0020AFBBCCFA"
HEIGHT=25 WIDTH=45>
<param NAME="controls" VALUE="PlayButton">
<param NAME="console" VALUE="Clip1">
<param NAME="autostart" VALUE="true">
<param NAME="src" VALUE="Jesus_is_the_Lamb.rpm">
<embed SRC="Jesus_is_the_Lamb.rpm" type="audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin"
CONSOLE="Clip1" CONTROLS="PlayButton" HEIGHT=25 WIDTH=45 AUTOSTART=true>
</object>
<object ID=video1 CLASSID="clsid:CFCDAA03-8BE4-11cf-B84B-0020AFBBCCFA"
HEIGHT=25 WIDTH=35>
<param NAME="controls" VALUE="StopButton">
<param NAME="console" VALUE="Clip1">
<embed type="audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin"
CONSOLE="Clip1" CONTROLS="StopButton" HEIGHT=25 WIDTH=35 AUTOSTART=true>
</object>
<! HTML INSERT END /!>
More information on RealAudio files is available
at http://service.real.com/.
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