1.1 Glossary

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This document uses the following terms:

.nsc file: A file that serves as an announcement for, and contains information about, a media stream broadcast. This file allows a client to tune in to a broadcast. The .nsc file was originally known as a NetShow Station Configuration file. Because the NetShow protocol suite is now obsolete, the original nomenclature is no longer applicable and is not used. Also known as a Windows Media Station file or an NSC file.

Advanced Systems Format (ASF): An extensible file format that is designed to facilitate streaming digital media data over a network. This file format is used by Windows Media.

content: Multimedia data. content is always in ASF, for example, a single ASF music file or a single ASF video file.  Data in general. A file that an application accesses. Examples of content include web pages and documents stored on either web servers or SMB file servers.

globally unique identifier (GUID): A term used interchangeably with universally unique identifier (UUID) in Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the value. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] must be used for generating the GUID. See also universally unique identifier (UUID).

little-endian: Multiple-byte values that are byte-ordered with the least significant byte stored in the memory location with the lowest address.

playlist: One or more content items that are streamed sequentially.

session: The state maintained by the server when it is streaming content to a client. If a server-side playlist is used, the same session is used for all content in the playlist.

stream: (1) A flow of data from one host to another host, or the data that flows between two hosts.

(2) A sequence of ASF media objects ([ASF] section 5.2) that can be selected individually. For example, if a movie has an English and a Spanish soundtrack, each may be encoded in the ASF file as a separate stream. The video data would also be a separate stream.

streaming: The act of transferring content from a sender to a receiver.

Unicode: A character encoding standard developed by the Unicode Consortium that represents almost all of the written languages of the world. The Unicode standard [UNICODE5.0.0/2007] provides three forms (UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32) and seven schemes (UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-16 BE, UTF-16 LE, UTF-32, UTF-32 LE, and UTF-32 BE).

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.