Corporate Plan and higher virtual domain accounts include the
use of the popular RealAudioŽ server.
STEP 1: CREATE A SOUND FILE
If the sound file that you want to make into a RealAudio file is
already saved on your computer you can skip to step 2.
If you want to create a sound file from an external source (e.g.
your CD player, VCR, or Microphone), you can use a program
called Sound Recorder which comes with Windows95 (usually
located in the Windows directory as "Sndrec32.exe") or you
can download an audio editing program called Cool Edit which
is available in shareware and full release versions. You will
need to consult your sound card manual to learn how to send
audio from your source into the computer.
For best results, encode the audio in the highest possible setting
(16-bit 44.1MHz). Consult the software's documentation to
find out how to make these settings. The RealAudio Encoder
will eventually compress it down, so it is recommended to start
with the highest quality source.
Once you create the sound file, save it as either a .wav, .au, or
.pcm file.
STEP 2: ACQUIRE THE REALAUDIO SOFTWARE
In order to create and listen to RealAudio files, you will need to
download and install the following programs:
You can download shareware versions of the player and the
encoder from RealAudio web site as well. RealAudio offers a
full version of their software which affords better quality
playback and may include other features. This software package
is not necessary to create RealAudio files on your page.
STEP 3: TURNING YOUR SOUND FILE INTO A
REALAUDIO FILE
Follow theses steps to create a RealAudio file:
1.Open the RealAudio Encoder program.
2.Select the file that you want to encode by hitting the
"Browse" button.
3.Select the sound file (e.g. .wav, .au, .pcm).
4.Select the desired compression and file name on the
right side of the screen. (e.g. "14.4 Mono", "28.8
Mono", "28.8 Stereo", and "ISDN")
5.Select START ENCODING from the Encode menu at
the top of the screen.
The original sound file will be scanned and copied to a
compressed format. You have just created an RA file.
** Important **
Do NOT use underscore ("_") characters when naming RA files
as they will not be interpreted correctly by the .ram file.
STEP 4: UPLOAD THE .RA FILE TO YOUR WEB
SITE
Upload the .ra file to the root directory of your web site in
binary transfer mode.
STEP 5: CREATING THE .RAM FILE
You need to create a text file with a ".ram" extension. This text
file contains a URL to the realaudio file in the following format:
pnm:///~/audiofilename.ra
Note the "pnm:" prefix. Substitute your domain name and
userid above. There must be a tilde (~) before the userid. This
file can reside in the root directory of your account. The audio
file name must have a ".ra" extension.
Once the .ram text file is created, save it and upload it to your
web site in ASCII transfer mode. We suggest using the same
file naming convention. (e.g. "test.ram" will launch the
"test.ra" file)
STEP 6: CREATING THE HTML CODE FOR THE
REAL AUDIO FILE
The HTML document does NOT reference the .ra file itself; it
must call the .ram file which, in turn, launches the RealAudio
file as represented below.
If you reference the .ra file directly from your HTML code, the
audio file may play, but you will not benefit from the streaming
audio effect.
STEP 6b: EMBEDDING A REALAUDIO FILE
You will also have the option of embedding a RealAudio file so
that the .ra file will begin playing as soon as the html page
loads. This way, the web visitor will not have to click on a link
to hear your sound file.
To do this, make a copy of your .ram file and resave it as a
.rpm file and upload to the same directory as the .ram .
Then, reference the new .rpm within the page's html like this:
Corporate Plan and higher virtual domain accounts include the
use of the popular RealVideoŽ server.
STEP 1: CAPTURE THE VIDEO FILE
In order to to encode the RealVideo files, the video must first be
in a format that the RealVideo encoder can use. The video that
you have must be captured in the one of the following
formats.
AVI
QuickTime
VHS, Beta or Laser Disc can be the source for the actual video
content to capture. Consult your video capture card
documentation on how to capture video in to AVI or QuickTime
formats.
NOTE:
RealVideo supports any frame size with a height and width that
are multiples of 16. The RealVideo encoder will also accept a
160x120 image size. When creating content, it is recommend to
use a frame size of 176x144. Most video capture cards do not
support this size. Indeo drivers must be installed on your
machine for the encoder to be able to open the AVI. If the AVI
file was captured with the same machine there is usually no
problem. You can locate the INDEO drivers at this location;
ftp://ftp.intel.com/pub/IAL/multimedia/indeo/drivers/ivi_95nt.exe
STEP 2: CREATE THE REALVIDEO FILE
You must have the RealVideo encoder to encode Video for the
RealVideo server. You can download a copy of the encoder
from this link,
http://www.real.com/products/encoder/realvideo/index.html
You must set three Parameters when encoding the RealVideo
file: Audio codec,
video bit rate, and frame rate. The quality of the video file
depends on these three settings.
A.First choose the bit rate for the video. See table
below.
Targeted Modem Rate
Total Bit Rate
28.8 kbps
19
56.0 kbps
44
64.0 kbps
56
128.0 kbps
105
B.Choose the Audio codec. In order to figure out which
codec to use. Follow this formula.
Video Bit Rate = (Total Bit Rate) - (Bandwidth of
Audio Codec)
The RealVideo has discreet bandwidths. The video bit
rate will be the difference between the total bit rate and
the bit rate used by the chosen audio codec:
**Video Bit rate is calculated by the real video encoder
automatically.
C.Now choose the Frame Rate for the video. This
depends on the content type of the video. If you have
talking head type video The highest frame rate that can
be achieved at 19 kbps, will be 7.5 to 10 frames per
second (fps) for talking head type content with decent
quality. A sporting event may only support 1 fps or
maybe less. See the table below for a guidelines.
Content
type
Target
Bandwidth
Total
Bit
Rate
Audio
Codec
Audio
Bit
Rate
Frame
Rate
Talking
Heads
28.8
28.8
19
6.5 Kbps
voice
6.5
optimize
Talking
Heads
56
56.0
44
6.5 Kbps
voice
8.5
optimize
Music
Video
28.8,
Emphasize
Audio
28.8
20
RealMedia
12 kbps
12
.25
Music
Video 56,
Emphasize
Audio
56.0
44
RealAudio
3.0 -
28.8 Mono,
full
response
16
optimize
Music
Video
28.8,
Emphasize
Video
28.8
20
RealMedia
8
kbps
8
optimize
Music
Video 56,
Emphasize
Video
56
44
RealMedia
12 kbps
12
optimize
High
Action w/
Voice,
28.8
28.8
19
6.5 Kbps
voice
6.5
1
High
Action w/
Voice, 56
56
44
RealAudio
2.0 - 28.8
15.2
optimize
High
Action
w/Music,
28.8
28.8
19
RealMedia
8 kbps
8
1
High
Action w/
Music, 56
56
44
RealAudio
3.0 - 28.8
Mono, full
response
16
optimize
High
Action,
56,Fractal
56
44
RealAudio
3.0 - 28.8
Mono, full
response
8.5
10
High
Action,
112,
Fractal
112.0
44
RealAudio
3.0 - 28.8
Mono, full
response
8.5
10
D.After selecting the correct Audio codec, video bit rate,
and frame rate you can now encode the file. If you
have the Real Video Player you can test the video file
on your local system. You can download a copy of the
Real Video Player at this link,
http://www.real.com/products/player/playerdl.html .
Now save the Real Video File.
** Important **
Do NOT use underscore ("_") characters when naming RM
files as they will not be interpreted correctly by the .ram file.
STEP 3: CREATING THE .RAM FILE
You need to create a text file with a ".ram" extension. This text
file contains a URL to the RealAudio file in the following
format:
pnm:///~/audiofilename.rm
Note the "pnm:" prefix. Substitute your domain name and
userid above. There must be a tilde (~) before the userid. This
file can reside in the root directory of your account. The audio
file name must have a ".rm" extension.
Once the .ram text file is created, save it and upload it to your
web site in ASCII transfer mode. We suggest using the same
file naming convention. (e.g. "test.ram" will launch the
"test.rm" file)
STEP 4: UPLOAD THE .RM FILE TO YOUR WEB
SITE
Upload the .rm file to the root directory of your web site in
binary transfer mode.
STEP 5: CREATING THE HTML CODE FOR THE
REALAUDIO FILE
The HTML document does NOT reference the .ra file itself; it
must call the .ram file which, in turn, launches the RealAudio
file as represented below.
If you reference the .ra file directly from your HTML code, the
audio file may play, but you will not benefit from the streaming
audio effect.
EXTRA: TIPS AND TRICKS
More information on features and tricks for putting RealMedia
files on your page is available at the following link:
http://www.realaudio.com/products/ra3.0/features/plugin.html
If you already have a wav file that you wish to use, skip to step
2.
Create PCM-encoded WAV files at an 8KHz sampling rate with
16-bit resolution, mono.
Any multimedia board which is SoundBlaster(tm) 16
compatible will support this format. To achieve the best quality,
record with these settings. If your audio equipment does not
support this format, use a conversion utilities such as Cool Edit
or SoundForge for converting to the necessary format.
Step 2: Convert to TrueSpeech.
To convert PCM-encoded WAV files to TrueSpeech WAV
files, use the Microsoft Sound System in Windows 95 or NT.
In Sound Recorder:
1. Select Open from the File menu. Select the desired WAV
file, and click OK.
2. Select Save As from the File menu.
3. Click Change to display the Sound Selection dialog box.
4. Select DSP Group TrueSpeech(TM) from the Format list
box, and click OK.
5. Specify a new Filename, if desired, and click OK.
The new file is encoded in the TrueSpeech format with a
compression rate of 15x.
For those who are using Windows 3.11 or a Macintosh, a
TrueSpeech conversion utility may be downloaded from this
site. This conversion utility will accept PCM-encoded WAV
files only if sampled at 8KHz/16-bit PCM format.
Step 3: Create a Text File.
Use a standard text editor such as Notepad and give this file a
TSP extension. This is done so the browser launches the
TrueSpeech Player when a TrueSpeech-encoded WAV file is
about to be transmitted. The TSP file associated with a
TrueSpeech-encoded WAV file should contain the following
(case-sensitive) HTML line:
TSIP>>URL/*.wav
The URL above should not include the "http://" characters. For
example, www.dspg.com would be appropriate and
http://www.dspg.com would not.
Let's suppose you create a PCM-encoded WAV file and convert
it to TrueSpeech. Give this file the name test.wav. Next,
suppose that this file is located at your server in the directory
www.home.com/audio. It is now necessary to create a one line
.tsp text file. This file should contain the following line:
TSIP>>www.home.com/audio/test.wav
You can simply name this file test.tsp
Step 4: Link.
Link the *.tsp text file to any image or text you specify on your
page. When a visitor clicks on this link, the TrueSpeech Player
starts. Upon spawning the player, the TrueSpeech Player reads
the location of the TrueSpeech *.wav file from the *.tsp file.
The Player then accesses and plays the file as it is being
downloaded, in real time.
To Listen to TrueSpeech files you can download the player
from the TrueSpeech home page.
You can add sound or music to spice up your web site by
embedding a MIDI file in your page. MIDI files are typically
only about 15k to 25k in size, so they do not take very long to
load. You can use MIDI files as background music on your
page by adding the following code to the section of your html
file:
