Unreal Media Server can stream any type of multimedia file supported by Microsoft DirectX. Therefore, there is no need to re-encode your existing media content. However it makes sense to recompress some high-bitrate media files to fit lower bandwidth profiles. This results in deterioration of the media quality but speeds up the network content delivery. Optimizing the "Bitrate vs Quality" ratio for particular media content is not an easy task.

The bitrate of an average good quality DivX encoded AVI file is about 80-100 KByte/sec. MPEG1 files require even higher bandwidth: 100-200 KByte/sec. Only users with T1-T3 connections will be able to see such high-bitrate files with no substantial delay or interruptions. Users with lower bandwidth connections will experience frequent interruptions due to buffering during the playback. To avoid this, media content can be prepared to suit the needs of an audience with particular network connection.

The best "Bitrate vs Quality" ratio achieved in practice is Microsoft Windows Media (WMV) format. Microsoft offers free encoder tool that can re-encode your files to WMV format.

The second choice is DivX multi-pass encoder, the best MPEG-4 encoder existing today.

The client program, Streaming Media Player, is a simple container hosting our ActiveX control, that performs all actual network and play operations. People are encouraged to write their own containers for their specific applications. Hosting and communicating with the ActiveX control is a straightforward task. It can be done in c++, VB, c# and other languages. The source code avaliable for download, and shows how to use this control from different languages.

Download - Web page hosting one ActiveX control, VB application hosting 2 ActiveX controls, type library, c++ code.

Unreal Media Server is a completely free product. You have a right to freely redistribute it and use it for any commercial or non-commercial purpose provided it doesn't violate any law.

Supported operating systems: Microsoft Windows XP, 2003, 2000.

The mandatory prerequisite for all parts of the system is Microsoft DirectX 8.x or later.

1. Unreal Media Server. Download: Unreal Media Server. Install it on the computer that will serve as a media server. In order to stream media over public networks, this computer must have a public IP address. For streaming within the LAN, public IP address is not required. Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and 2003 Server are most recommended platforms for Media Server. We also recommend to run Microsoft IIS on this computer for HTTP access to Unreal Media Server. When installing HTTP extension for streaming, please do not change virtual folder name. After the installation please make sure that the IIS virtual folder UHTTPProxy allows anonymous access.

2. Streaming Media Player. Download: Streaming Media Player. This player is a simple desktop application that hosts our ActiveX control. People are encouraged to develop their own applications hosting this control. The source code page of the website provides sample code showing the use of this control, including parts of the c++ code for Streaming Media Player.

3. Unreal Live Server. Download: Unreal Live Server. Install it on the computer that has live media source(s) attached to it. Use Live source configuration tool to setup streaming sources.

No need to re-encode your existing media files! Unreal streams AVI, MPEG (MPEG-1), WMV, MP3, QuickTime, and any other format supported by Microsoft DirectX.

Unreal Streaming technologies group

Real-time streaming of live media sources: digital cameras, microphones, analog video sources (analog cameras, TV, radio, DVD-VHS players) connected to Video card or to FrameGrabber card that supports DirectShow interface.

Live video content is compressed with MPEG-4 codec in real time, MPEG Layer-3 or GSM formats are used for live audio compression.

Modem, DSL, T1, LAN compression profiles are supported.