Supporting Multiple Bit Rate Files

Supporting Multiple Bit Rate Files

Several versions of the same audio or video content can be stored in separate streams, encoded at different bit rates, in a Windows Media file. When a Windows Media player connects to an origin server, it requests only one each of the possible audio and video streams, based upon the available bandwidth of the connection. However, if a distribution server or cache proxy server connects to download content, it requests all of the multiple bit rate streams. Because the origin server attempts to deliver all of the packets in real time, the download can fail if bandwidth limitations are exceeded. To address this problem, your plug-in can specify a download rate that is slower than real time when it calls the IWMSCacheProxyServer::DownloadContent method.

See Also

• IWMSCacheProxyServer::DownloadContent
• IWMSCacheProxyServer.DownloadContent (C#)
• IWMSCacheProxyServer.DownloadContent (Visual Basic .NET)
• Windows Media Server Cache Proxy Functionality