media element

The media elements in a playlist provide the locations of digital media sources and can specify how the digital media content plays back or is presented to the client. A media element can refer to any digital media source that can be accessed by a data source plug-in and parsed by a media or playlist parser plug-in. The appropriate plug-ins are enabled by default.

Examples of digital media sources include files on a local computer, streams from a remote computer running Windows Media Encoder or Windows Media Services, other playlist files, Active Server Pages (ASP pages) on Web servers, or digital media files on third-party storage systems.

The following example shows a simple playlist that consists of three digital media types: an image file, a video file, and an audio file:

<?wsx version='1.0'?>
<smil>
	<media src="Title.jpg" dur="10s"/>
	<media src="Video.wmv"/>
	<media src="Audio.wma"/>
</smil>

The three files play in sequence, starting with the first listed media element. The first media element has a specified value for the dur attribute because image files do not have an implicit duration.

Attributes

Attributes modify the properties of a playlist element. You can use the following attributes with a media element. The src attribute is the only required attribute.

Name	Description
src	Specifies the name and location of the source of the digital media content. For more information, see src attribute.
begin	Specifies when the media element becomes active. For more information, see begin attribute.
clipBegin	Specifies the point in the digital media source at which playback begins. For more information, see clipBegin attribute.
clipEnd	Specifies the point in the digital media source at which playback ends. For more information, see clipEnd attribute.
dur	Specifies the length of time that the digital media source plays. For more information, see dur attribute.
end	Specifies when the media element becomes inactive. For more information, see end attribute.
syncEvent	Specifies a string used to trigger the beginning or end of an element in a wrapper playlist. For more information, see syncEvent attribute.
id	Specifies a name for the media element that can be referenced by other elements. For more information, see id attribute.
mediaName	Specifies a name for the media element to replace the src attribute value in the client log and the client content description list. For more information, see mediaName attribute.
noSkip	Specifies whether fast-forward, rewind, seek, or skip are enabled for the media element. For more information, see noSkip attribute.
repeatCount	Specifies the number of times the media element repeats before stopping. If no value is specified, the element is played once. For more information, see repeatCount attribute.
repeatDur	Specifies the length of time the media element repeats before stopping. For more information, see repeatDur attribute.
role	Specifies the role of the media element. For more information, see role attribute.

The following example playlist shows media elements with id, src, and dur attribute values:

<?wsx version="1.0"?>
<smil>
	<media id="Media1" src="C:\Wmpub\Wmroot\Clip1.wmv" dur="120s" />
	<media id="Media2" src="C:\Wmpub\Wmroot\Clip2.wmv" />
</smil>

In this example, Clip1.wmv plays for a duration of two minutes, followed by Clip2.wmv.

Note Image Notes

Do not use a JPEG image file as a child element of a priorityClass element if the image is to be paused using either the peers or higher attributes. Pausing the image in this manner can cause the player to enter a permanent wait state. If you must show a still image under these circumstances, create a video file of that image and then use the video file in the playlist instead.
If your playlist includes JPEG image files and you are using the playlist file with a broadcast publishing point, be aware that users who connect to the broadcast while the JPEG image is being streamed will not receive the image. They will instead see a black screen. Once the playlist continues on to the next item, playback will continue as expected. If you want a JPEG image to be displayed for a certain period of time, you should use the repeatCount attribute to repeat the image for short durations that together equal the amount of time that the image is to be displayed. That way, players that connect while the image is being streamed can receive the image when it repeats. For example, if a JPEG image is to be displayed for 60 seconds, you could set a dur attribute value of five seconds and a repeatCount attribute value of 12. If a user connects two seconds into the broadcast, the image would be displayed after three seconds. If the repeatCount and dur attribute values were not used, the user would see a black screen for 58 seconds.
If you are creating or editing server-side playlists by using either a text editor or an automated script, ensure that the media element is in the correct case. XML is a case-sensitive language, and Windows Media Services will not recognize playlist elements that are not listed properly.

media element

Attributes

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