Configuring streaming on mycast

 Choosing your default streaming format & reducing buffering  

This is where you set the default streaming format for the client PC you are currently using to stream media from your Orb PC. Of course, you should only select a format that can be read by the media player on this client PC.

So if, for example, you select Windows Media Format, Orb will encode whatever file you select (from your PC) to a Windows media format (i.e., .WMV, .WMA) and send it in an .ASX streaming format. When your browser receives the .ASX file, it will open whatever player is set to open .ASX files on that PC, whether it is Windows Media Player, Winamp Player, or any other Windows media-compatible player.

Note that if you select a streaming format which cannot be read by any media player on your client PC (example: you select 3GP format and you do not have Quicktime installed) then your browser will prompt you to save the file. So, if you do have a compatible player for the selected streaming format and your browser prompts you to “Save as...”, you should try to re-associate the file extension of that streaming format to your media player.

Both your Orb PC upstream speed and your client PC download (a.k.a. “Web”) speed are used (along with other parameters, i.e., your Orb PC CPU speed, the file type, bit rate, etc.) by Orb to determine how best to transcode your media for an optimal streaming experience.

These two speeds are displayed in this section and you can click either Recalculate to check if the readings seem accurate.

If you are experiencing too much buffering, you can lower your device Web speed, and try again. You may check the Remember this web speed checkbox to save a Web speed which produces minimal or no buffering at all, so Orb will skip the speed test performed for each stream request.

Before trying to configure streaming on your mobile device, make sure you first verify that its player has streaming capability and is compatible with Orb. To do so, point your device’s browser to http://test.orb.com, select your device’s media player, and then try to stream the audio and video sample files posted on this test site. We have provided files at different bit rates so you can still run the streamtest, even if you are in an area with poor signal and, therefore, your device has a low download speed.

See the example below in which we have selected Real Player:

Once you have confirmed that your device is compatible and streams in Orb, log on to your Orb account at the same URL you use when accessing your Orb account from another PC, a PDA or a game console – http://mycast.orb.com - then try to stream some audio and video files from your PC. If you experience too much buffering, Orb may not be correctly detecting your device speed. You can adjust your device speed as indicated below.

Adjusting your device speed

PDA and phones have a different Web interface but still provide the same configuration via the Settings link on the footer of your mycast page: Settings > Stream for the streaming formats; and Settings > Speed for the device Web speed. You will note, however, that those devices offer two more streaming formats: 3GP-AAC/RTSP format for players that support the higher audio quality AAC; and 3GP-AMR/RTSP format for legacy devices that only support the lower bit rate AMR audio format.

Here is an example of the Web interface for Windows Smartphones/PDAs.