File extension for WMV "streaming"

gordonwd · Post by **gordonwd** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 1:15 am

If I produce a WMV file and want to put it on my web site with a link so that when someone clicks on the link, the movie can start playing in Media Player as it is being downloaded, is .WMV the right extension to use? I thought I read on the forum a while back that there is another media extension for this purpose.

I know that this is not really what "streaming" is, but playing while downloading sort of gives the same effect, especially for a large size movie file.

-- Doug

THoff · Post by **THoff** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 3:34 am

Yes, WMV will get you the desired results. Provided the Internet connection speed of the client is greater or equal to the datarate that the file was encoded at, the video will start playing nearly immediately.

In the WMV profile you use, you can specify the number of seconds of video to buffer ahead. Once this much of the video has been loaded, it will start playing.

furballs · Post by **furballs** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 1:05 am

I use WMV to do what you're trying to accomplish. Your users may need to adjust their buffer size, but otherwise should work OK.