Streaming Media Player/Connection Speed Detection Tutorial

UPDATE!

This article has been updated and republished in a slimmed-down, more helpful version.  

The new working sample and complete article links can be found at
the new Detecting Streaming Media Player Plugins and Connection Speed Tutorial page linked from the eMedia Communications Streaming Media Tutorial page

The original page is available below for your convenience.

The following code and examples accompany the three-part article: "Detecting Streaming Media Players and Internet Connection Speed"

Quick Links


It's an unpleasant reality that there are several major, incompatible streaming media platforms. Many of us streaming content providers will have to make content available our users on several platforms.  And we want to do it as seamlessly and conveniently as possible. These examples teach you how to detect which streaming media players your users have installed, as well as detect their internet connection speed. You'll also learn how to use this information to allow your users to choose which streaming media player they'd like to use to view your content. Finally, we'll use their choice to generate the streaming media metafile (.ram, .asx, .smi) on the fly, automatically directing them to the server (or servers) that match their choice. You may wish to look at Figure One , a flowchart describing the approach used in this example.

It turns out that generating streaming media metafiles also sets the stage for you to offer advanced streaming media management features, such as load balancing, fault tolerance, video search and more. We may cover this in a future series.

©2002 Larry Bouthillier