NetShow Player for Unix This beta release of Microsoft NetShow includes executables for the following platforms: x86 Linux ELF "netshow_linux" SGI Irix 6.x "netshow_sgi" Sun Sparc SunOS 4.x "netshow_sunos" Sun Sparc SunOS 5.5+ "netshow_solaris" Sun Sparc Solaris 2.5+ "netshow_solaris" Table of Contents I) Installation. II) Configuring as Helper Application for a WWW Browser. III) Supported Features. IV) Platform Specific Notes. V) HTTP Proxy/Firewall Support I) Installation NetShow may be copied to any directory where you keep your other executables. Common places are "/usr/local/bin" or a "bin" directory in your home directory. For example if you wish to install the linux version of "netshow" into the directory "/usr/local/bin" you could type: "cp netshow_linux /usr/local/bin/netshow" NOTE: the executable was renamed from "netshow_linux" to "netshow" in the process shown above. In order to run NetShow, type at your prompt: "netshow" or "netshow file.asf" where "file.asf" is the name of an ASF file. II) Setting NetShow up as a Helper Application for a WWW Browser There are three things you need to do in order to get your WWW browser to properly call up NetShow to view ASF files. 1) Setting up your ".mime.types" file. This file maps files to a particular MIME type and subtype based on the extension of that file. Edit the ".mime.types" file in your home directory and add the following line at the top: video/x-ms-asf asf asx For example if this is what your ".mime.types" file looks like now: video/mpeg mpg mpeg video/quicktime qt mov video/avi avi video/fli fli flc audio/wav wav audio/au au You would change it to be (by adding the top line): video/x-ms-asf asf asx video/mpeg mpg mpeg video/quicktime qt mov video/avi avi video/fli fli flc audio/wav wav audio/au au 2) Setting up your ".mailcap" file. This file maps MIME types/subtypes to applications that can display or handle them. WWW browsers use this file to determine what program(Helper Application) should be called to for a file it has just downloaded. Edit the ".mailcap" file located in your home directory and add the following line at the top of it: video/x-ms-asf netshow %s; You may want to give the full path name to where you place the "netshow" executable. For example if you place "netshow" in the directory "/usr/local/bin" you would add the following line to the ".mailcap" instead of the one above: video/x-ms-asf /usr/local/bin/netshow %s; For example if you put "netshow" in "/usr/local/bin" and this is what your ".mailcap" file looks like now: video/mpeg; mpeg_play %s ; video/quicktime xanim %s video/avi xanim %s video/fli xanim %s audio/wav xanim %s audio/au xanim %s audio/x-mpeg maplay %s audio/x-pn-realaudio raplayer %s image/* xv %s You would change it to be(by adding the top line): video/x-ms-asf /usr/local/bin/netshow %s; video/mpeg; mpeg_play %s ; video/quicktime xanim %s video/avi xanim %s video/fli xanim %s audio/wav xanim %s audio/au xanim %s audio/x-mpeg maplay %s audio/x-pn-realaudio raplayer %s image/* xv %s 3) Configuring your WWW Browser Most WWW Browser's for Unix know about the ".mime.types" and ".mailcap" files located in your home directory and automatically look for them. There is also usually an "Options" menu that allows you to specify the location of these files. Consult the instructions, man pages, or help features that came with the WWW browser you wish to configure. III) Supported Features in this version of NetShow Playback Protocols and Features: Playback direct from a file. Playback via HTTP protocol. Playback via MMS protocol (both TCP and UDP) Playback via Multicast protocol (ASFM) Rollover support. HTTP proxy support. Seek to Markers. Striding (FF/RW) Video Codecs (by platform): Linux: MPEG 4, Vivo H263, Duck TrueMotion RT 2.0 SGI: MPEG 4, Vivo H263 SunOS & Sun Solaris: MPEG 4 Audio Codecs (by platform): Linux: PCM, MS ADPCM, MPEG Layer 3, Vivo G723.1, Vivo Siren SGI: PCM, MS ADPCM, MPEG Layer 3, Vivo G723.1, Vivo Siren SunOS & Sun Solaris: PCM, MS ADPCM, MPEG Layer 3 Bugs ------------------------ There are some known issues with mutlicast support that will be addressed in future releases. IV) Platform Specific Notes A) Linux Requirements ------------------------ - Configured with X11. - Configured with an audio card(ie kernel correctly compiled). - tcp/ip and multicast support compiled into kernel. Multicast support is only needed for the multicast features of NetShow. Notes ------------------------ - In order to successfully use multicast on Linux, you need to compile the kernel to enable multicast support. You may also have to do the following as superuser: 1) run the command "netstat -i". This will give you a list network devices(under the heading "Iface") currently configured on your system. You can ignore "lo" and "dummy". The rest of this example use "eth0" as the ethernet device. If yours is different, just substitue your inplace of eth0. 2) "route add -net 224.0.0.0 netmask 240.0.0.0 dev eth0" NOTE: you may get a list of current routes with "netstat -r" and may do a "man netstat" for more info on this command. 3) Some ethernet chips/cards require you to put them into "promiscuous" mode before they will capture multicast packets. The following command will turn this feature on: "ifconfig eth0 promisc" Bugs ------------------------ - XFree86 and Matrox Milleniums. At depth 24 XFree86 packs pixels into 3 bytes. This is nonstandard and not yet supported. You may run your Display at depth 16 or 32 or use commerical X11 servers from Metrox and Xinside(now TBD), both of which correctly implement depth 24 on Matrox Milleniums. B) SGI Irix 6.x Requirements ------------------------ - Most SGI systems support everything needed by NetShow. Nothing special is needed by the user. Notes ------------------------ Bugs ------------------------ C) Sun Sparc SunOS 4.x Requirements ------------------------ - With the exception of multicast support, the user shouldn't have to configure anything. Notes ------------------------ - SunOS 4.x does not have multicast support. There are patches available that allow an advanced user or sysadm to compile support into SunOS 4.1.3 or newer kernels. a) You may obtain kernal patches for SunOS 4.1.3+ from the following ftp site: ftp://parcftp.xerox.com/pub/net-research/ipmulti/ipmulti3.5-sunos* b) For information about Multicasting in general, see the site below(NOTE: MBone stands for IP Multicast Backbone): http://www.mbone.com/ Bugs ------------------------ - Some Sparc 5's require a patch in order to get audio working correctly. Please contact Sun for more information. D) Sun Sparc Solaris 2.5+ / SunOS 5.5+ Requirements ------------------------ - Multicast support wasn't added to Solaris until Rev 2.3. With Solaris 2.5+(same as SunOS 5.5+) the user shouldn't have to configure anything special to run netshow. V)HTTP Proxy/Firewall Support: If you access the Internet through a proxy server (through a firewall) you will need to make the following settings in order to get HTTP streaming to work. •Start the NetShow Player •Select File/Properties/Advanced •Verify that at the bottom of the page the HTTP option is checked. •Under HTTP, check the "Use a proxy for HTTP streaming" option •In the Server field enter the name of your proxy server (Note that the proxy server setting should match your browser's proxy server setting. For example, Proxy Server settings under Options or Network Options in your browser). •In the Port field enter 80. •Select OK and close the NetShow Player •NetShow HTTP streaming through your proxy is now enabled.