Playing NetShow content is easy. However, to truly take advantage of the NetShow player and its capabilities, you might want some additional tips and tricks and troubleshooting advice.

• Installing the NetShow Player in Windows 98
• How to Play NetShow Content
• Using the NetShow Player
• Advanced Player Features
• Troubleshooting the NetShow Player

Installing the NetShow Player in Windows 98

If you choose the standard installation of Windows 98, the NetShow player will not be installed automatically. It is easy to install later, however. To install NetShow Player after installing Windows 98:

1. In the Control Panel, click Add/Remove Programs.
2. Click the Windows Setup tab.
3. If there is no check in the Multimedia check box, click it
   - Or -
   If there is a check, but the box is gray, select Multimedia and click the Details button.
4. Select the Microsoft NetShow Player 2.0 checkbox, and you will be guided through the installation process.

How to Play NetShow Content

There are two ways of using NetShow Player to play content, as follows:

• As a standalone player. When you use NetShow Player as a standalone application, you can decide how you want to have access to the NetShow content. If you play the NetShow content file locally, you are not streaming the file. NetShow Player reads the content file from the hard drive and then plays it. If you play a content file from a remote location, it streams to your computer. You can launch the standalone player from a link in a Web page. Example
• Embedded in a Web page, Visual Basic script application, or other ActiveX container application. An easy way of providing NetShow Player to people who do not already have it on their computers is to embed the player in a Web page. When a user gains access to the page, the player is optionally downloaded. The script commands used to embed the player can identify the NetShow content to play as well as show how to play it. The properties can be set to check the version of the player on the computer. If the player is outdated, the computer downloads the newest version.Example

Using the NetShow Player

Playing NetShow content is very straightforward. Normally, a user clicks on a link to the content, and it starts playing. This allows the user to listen to or watch the content and continue to browse the Web or run other applications.

Markers are like bookmarks in the file. They can allow you to quickly skip from one part of the content to another. This feature becomes very important to developers who wish to create interactive applications using NetShow because they can use VisualBasic Script or JavaScript to present questions to the user, and respond to the selection given by skipping directly to a particular part in the ASF file. For example, a developer writing an interactive training application could present material, and at a specific point in the file, insert a URL flip command in the stream that flips the user's browser to an HTML page with quiz questions on it. Based on the answer to the quiz question, the developer can automatically make the user repeat a section if he or she answers incorrectly or continue to the next section if the answer is wrong.

To see whether the person who created an ASF file used markers, look for the tick marks underneath the slider bar on the player. If you hover your mouse over the tick marks, you can see their description:

Notice the "Road Work Ahead" label that appears when the mouse hovers over the corresponding marker.

If you would like to see a marker list, right-click on the ASF while it is playing, and select Marker List. You will see a list such as the following:

You can skip to a specific marker by clicking on the marker number and clicking the Go To Marker button. This feature is especially convenient for content that is embedded in an HTML page with no controls showing. It allows you to see the marker list without the controls showing.

Advanced Player Features

After users learn that playing content over the Internet means compromises in the size of images, frame rate, or clarity of the images, they often become curious about the bandwidth the file uses for adequate playback. They also learn how to find out more about the ASF file in case they are having problems getting it to run. Here's how to find out the details of the ASF file, even if it is embedded in an HTML page. First, right-click on the content while it's playing. Then select Properties.

You will be presented with a separate window with multiple tabs to choose from. The General tab details the ASF title, author, copyright, rating and description. The Details tab gives you the following information:

The Buffering option can be used to decrease or increase the amount of time it takes before content begins to play. Normally the content developer sets the buffering time and users do not need to change it. However, if network conditions make play-back quality unacceptable, you can increase the buffer time to try to improve performance. Most content is set to buffer for between 5 and 10 seconds.

Shows what protocol is being used between the player and the NetShow server or HTTP server or file server running the content. Choices are File for play from a local drive or file server, MMS or HTTP for play from a NetShow server, or HTTP for play from an HTTP server like Microsoft's Internet Information Server or some other HTTP server (like a UNIX server).

Selections in the Protocol area:

• Multicast. Enables the client to receive multicast streams. Multicast allows the administrator to send one copy of the content to very many users on the network, as long as that network is multicast enabled. Networks that are not multicast-enabled, or ASF files not being streamed from a NetShow server are sent via unicast. Unicast means that one stream is sent for every request.
• UDP. Enables the client to receive streams via UDP. UDP is well-suited to audio because it - sends packets regardless of connection quality. Therefore, users hear fewer delays or pauses. The problem with UDP is that if a company's firewall does not accept UDP streams, the stream stops at the firewall and the user gets an error message. If the company's network administrator has set up their firewall to support UDP streams on a particular port, the user can specify that port. If UDP does not work, the stream automatically rolls over to TCP transmission.
• TCP. TCP transmission sends the stream through more firewalls. TCP forms a reliable stream-if packets are lost, the stream stops and lost packets are recovered. This means that users experience more delays and pauses over a network that is congested.
• HTTP. HTTP transmission sends the stream through almost all firewalls and proxy servers through port 80, using either the existing browser proxy settings or a customized setting.

Shows the server or share location for the file or stream. Bandwidth shows how much bandwidth the file will take up when playing back. In the example above, it takes 72,000 bps or a LAN connection or dual-channel ISDN connection. Error Correction shows whether the file was created with error correction features enabled.

If play back of a file is inconsistent or the picture or sound is poor, checking the Statistics tab can be helpful.

On networks like the Internet, where varying traffic conditions mean varying performance, you can see the reception quality and numbers of packets lost vary when the Internet gets busy. When the connection is poor, you see the red part of a pie chart that gets bigger and smaller with connection variances.

Troubleshooting the NetShow Player

If you encounter problems when playing back content, they are usually in one of these areas:

http://www.microsoft.com/netshow/download/player.htm

http://www.microsoft.com/netshow/firewall.htm

To check if you have the right codec installed:

1. Click the right mouse button on the player window and select Properties.
2. In the NetShow Player Properties dialog box, select the Codecs tab. The codecs used to compress the ASF information are displayed.
3. Verify that the video codec used to compress the ASF information is installed on your computer. If the codec is not installed, contact the person who created the ASF stream for information about how to get the proper codec. Most content creators either use standard NetShow codecs or provide a way for you to download the codec before watching the ASF information.

Distorted audio and video is usually caused by one of two things: large amounts of network traffic, or the audio and video were created that way.

To determine if network traffic is the problem:

1. Click the right mouse button on the Player window and select Statistics.
2. In the NetShow Player Properties dialog box, determine how many (or what percentage of) packets have been lost. If you are losing more than five percent of the packets, then network traffic is your problem.
3. If NetShow Player is losing only a few packets, check to see if Buffering appears in the Current Time/Total Time indicator. If NetShow Player must constantly buffer information, there is network traffic, and NetShow Player must wait to receive ASF information.

If you are not losing any packets and there is no significant network traffic, then the content was likely created that way. Take into consideration the type of ASF content you are watching. Video requires considerably more network bandwidth than image flipping, and the higher the audio quality, the more bandwidth is required.

When using dial-up networking to gain access to a network, you can encounter some problems. These problems are usually caused by incorrect settings for the proxy server the firewall is using.

To verify that your proxy settings are correct, on the Advanced tab of the NetShow Player Properties dialog box, for the HTTP protocol, select No proxy.

One possible reason that you may get this message is that your NetShow Player settings may conflict with your Internet Explorer settings. This occurs if you adjust the NetShow Player protocol settings in the Advanced Settings tab and do not restart NetShow Player. Clicking Apply does not cause these changes to take effect.

For more information, see the NetShow downloads page at http://www.microsoft.com/netshow/download.htm, which includes NetShow Software Development Kits, online documentation, and the Content Creation Authoring Guide. The Content Creation Authoring Guide is a detailed resource for people who want to understand how to create NetShow content for the highest quality and performance.

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