Save As saves link to WMV instead of video file

Hello,

I am new to Windows Media Services 9.5. We have set this up successfully,
and users are able to click a WMV link on a webpage and stream without any
issue to Windows Media Player on the desktop. But we would also like users
the ability to save the entire video to their hard disk for later viewing.
Right click and "Save Target As" in IE browser just saves a Windows Media wvx
playlist link, and if the video is streaming in WMP, the File > "Save As"
option is greyed out. I'm having a hard time finding anyone with a workaround
for this question in any online forums, technical documentation, or Google
searches. Any help is appreciated.

On Wed, 20 May 2009 09:51:01 -0700, mlichtel
<mlichtel@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Hello,
>
>I am new to Windows Media Services 9.5. We have set this up successfully,
>and users are able to click a WMV link on a webpage and stream without any
>issue to Windows Media Player on the desktop. But we would also like users
>the ability to save the entire video to their hard disk for later viewing.
>Right click and "Save Target As" in IE browser just saves a Windows Media wvx
>playlist link, and if the video is streaming in WMP, the File > "Save As"
>option is greyed out. I'm having a hard time finding anyone with a workaround
>for this question in any online forums, technical documentation, or Google
>searches. Any help is appreciated.

Windows media services only does streaming, that is, seekable parts of
a video - there's not a (useful) way to save parts of that video.

Instead, you would need to *also* put the video file onto a web server
which can then send the user the complete file as a download.

In theory, IIS on the same server can do this, referencing the WMSRoot
directory, but you will find some juggling needs to be done with IP
addresses if you want to run IIS and WMS with HTTP streaming on the
same server.

HTH
Cheers - Neil
------------------------------------------------
Digital Media MVP : 2004-2009
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs

Neil,

Thanks, this is very helpful. I'm not sure what you mean by juggling IPs,
though, unless both services wanted to piggyback on Port 80? With different
ports, wouldn't this mitigate issue? I might not be seeing the total picture
in terms of configuration, since I didn't setup the existing WMS server, so
hopefully this is not a dumb question.

Thanks much,
MLichtel

> On Wed, 20 May 2009 09:51:01 -0700, mlichtel
> <mlichtel@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >Hello,
> >
> >I am new to Windows Media Services 9.5. We have set this up successfully,
> >and users are able to click a WMV link on a webpage and stream without any
> >issue to Windows Media Player on the desktop. But we would also like users
> >the ability to save the entire video to their hard disk for later viewing.
> >Right click and "Save Target As" in IE browser just saves a Windows Media wvx
> >playlist link, and if the video is streaming in WMP, the File > "Save As"
> >option is greyed out. I'm having a hard time finding anyone with a workaround
> >for this question in any online forums, technical documentation, or Google
> >searches. Any help is appreciated.
>
> Windows media services only does streaming, that is, seekable parts of
> a video - there's not a (useful) way to save parts of that video.
>
> Instead, you would need to *also* put the video file onto a web server
> which can then send the user the complete file as a download.
>
> In theory, IIS on the same server can do this, referencing the WMSRoot
> directory, but you will find some juggling needs to be done with IP
> addresses if you want to run IIS and WMS with HTTP streaming on the
> same server.
>
> HTH
> Cheers - Neil
> ------------------------------------------------
> Digital Media MVP : 2004-2009
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs
>

You can either use 2 distinct IP addresses, or use a different port
for IIS HTTP to WMS HTTP on the same IP address.

Both services cannot share ['piggyback'] the same port and IP address
(I think you seem to know this) but how would the client "know" that
HTTP for IIS was moved to (for example) port 8080, or vice-versa ?

You'd have to append the port number to every link on the website
(IIS) or to every playlist (WMS) for that to work - a world of pain.

The documentation on how to approach this is over here
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328728 and applicable to any web
server (though IIS has specific configuration changes) when used with
another service using port 80 (e.g. WMS) on the same physical server.

The actual effect of this conflict if unresolved, would depend on the
load order of the services. Either IIS would not start, or WMS would
(probably) start but the HTTP streaming protocol would be disabled -
you'd need to check the windows Event log to see those issues.


PS there are no dumb questions, only dumb answers <g>

HTH
Cheers - Neil

On Wed, 20 May 2009 13:38:02 -0700, mlichtel
<mlichtel@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Neil,
>
>Thanks, this is very helpful. I'm not sure what you mean by juggling IPs,
>though, unless both services wanted to piggyback on Port 80? With different
>ports, wouldn't this mitigate issue? I might not be seeing the total picture
>in terms of configuration, since I didn't setup the existing WMS server, so
>hopefully this is not a dumb question.
>
>Thanks much,
>MLichtel
>
>> On Wed, 20 May 2009 09:51:01 -0700, mlichtel
>> <mlichtel@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>> >Hello,
>> >
>> >I am new to Windows Media Services 9.5. We have set this up successfully,
>> >and users are able to click a WMV link on a webpage and stream without any
>> >issue to Windows Media Player on the desktop. But we would also like users
>> >the ability to save the entire video to their hard disk for later viewing.
>> >Right click and "Save Target As" in IE browser just saves a Windows Media wvx
>> >playlist link, and if the video is streaming in WMP, the File > "Save As"
>> >option is greyed out. I'm having a hard time finding anyone with a workaround
>> >for this question in any online forums, technical documentation, or Google
>> >searches. Any help is appreciated.
>>
>> Windows media services only does streaming, that is, seekable parts of
>> a video - there's not a (useful) way to save parts of that video.
>>
>> Instead, you would need to *also* put the video file onto a web server
>> which can then send the user the complete file as a download.
>>
>> In theory, IIS on the same server can do this, referencing the WMSRoot
>> directory, but you will find some juggling needs to be done with IP
>> addresses if you want to run IIS and WMS with HTTP streaming on the
>> same server.
>>
>> HTH
>> Cheers - Neil
>> ------------------------------------------------
>> Digital Media MVP : 2004-2009
>> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs
>>
------------------------------------------------
Digital Media MVP : 2004-2009
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs