Audio and Video Technologies for Web Developers
Microsoft Corporation
December 2001
Summary: This document discusses technologies that help Web and script developers enhance the content that they create. (3 printed pages)
Introduction
The following Microsoft software developer kits (SDKS) enable Web and script developers to deliver and display more compelling content:
Windows Media Encoder SDK
The Microsoft® Windows Media™ Encoder application compresses live or stored audio and video content into Windows Media files or streams. It enables users to create multimedia productions from devices attached to their computers, translate audio/visual files into Windows Media Format, and either save the Windows Media-based content to a local file or broadcast it to the Internet.
Web developers can create an HTML user interface and access the SDK through script commands. Script developers can use the Windows Media Encoder SDK and the Windows Scripting Host to automate the batch conversion process. The SDK can also be used with either the default user interface or a custom user interface through Microsoft Visual C++® or Microsoft Visual Basic®.
For more information, see the Windows Media Encoder SDK Web site.
Producer SDK
Microsoft Producer for PowerPoint® 2002, an add-on for PowerPoint 2002 in Microsoft Office XP, makes it easy for everyday business users and media professionals to create engaging rich-media presentations by synchronizing audio, video, slides, and images. These rich-media presentations can be viewed on demand in a browser across the Internet or an intranet.
The Microsoft Producer SDK, part of the Microsoft Producer download, provides an object model that you can use to create publishing e-services for Microsoft Producer. To publish a presentation, users normally must move through a series of wizard pages and individually specify publishing parameters, such as file paths or profile settings. Using the Producer object model, you can specify the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of an HTML document that functions as a custom user interface in the Publish Wizard, create registry keys that add your e-service to the Microsoft Producer Publish Wizard user interface, and specify profile information associated with your e-service.
For more information on the Producer SDK, please download Microsoft Producer from http://www.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/producer.
Windows Media Rights Manager SDK
Using the Windows Media Rights Manager SDK, developers can create applications that encrypt (package) digital media files and issue licenses for those digital media files. A packaged Windows Media file contains a version of the file that has been encrypted with a key so that only the person who has obtained a license for that file can play it. The license is separate from the packaged Windows Media file, which means that the content and license for that content can be acquired at different times. Encrypted files can be either streamed or downloaded to the consumer's computer. For more information, see the Windows Media Rights Manager SDK.
Windows Media Player SDK
The Windows Media Player SDK enables developers to create player applications with a custom look and feel using the Windows Media Player control in an HTML page. You can programmatically control and display playlists from a Web page, automatically stop or seek to specified markers in the stream, set bandwidth preferences for network reception, and add custom skins to the control's user interface.
Microsoft JScript® and Microsoft Visual Basic® Scripting Edition are supported. For more information, see the Windows Media Player SDK.
Video Control (DirectShow SDK)
The Video Control is a Microsoft ActiveX® control that enables developers to create HTML-based analog and digital TV applications and DVD applications that run on Microsoft Windows® XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional. Other related objects enable the creation of custom electronic program guides from script applications.
For more information, see Using the Video Control in the Microsoft DirectX SDK documentation.