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Windows Media Playlists

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

Playlists provide a way to organize different pieces of digital media content into a single user experience. You can use playlists on a publishing point to accomplish different goals such as adding advertisements, switching between live and stored streams, or responding dynamically to a user's demographic information. If you reference your content in a playlist, you can combine different Windows Media files into a single stream. Both client-side playlists and server-side playlists can be used with Windows Media-based content. For more information, see Sourcing from playlists.

Aspects

The following is a list of all aspects that are part of this managed entity:

Name Description

Windows Media Directory Playlist Delivery

Directory playlists are the contents of a folder that you can stream to clients much like a server-side playlist streams a sequence of content. You can configure an on-demand publishing point or a broadcast publishing point to stream files from a folder. For more information, see Sourcing from a directory.

Windows Media Server-side Playlist Delivery

When you use a server-side playlist, you can stream multiple pieces of digital media content as you would with a playlist created by using Windows Media Player (called a client-side playlist). However, in a server-side playlist, you can use additional attributes to further control the behavior of the content. Server-side playlists that are created by content producers, server administrators, or Web page scripts are saved as Windows Media metafiles with a .wsx file name extension.

Windows Media Services includes the Windows Media Playlist Editor, which can be used to create and edit server-side playlists. For more information, see Creating and editing playlists.

Windows Media Wrapper Playlist Delivery

Wrapper playlists are a special type of playlist that you can use to implement bumper advertisements on your publishing points. Wrapper playlists enable you to append content to the beginning and end of a unicast stream. You can easily use wrapper playlists to customize a stream with your own branding and message without having to change the content from the content creator. Additionally, wrapper playlists help ensure that users who connect to broadcast publishing points always receive certain content, such as a sponsor identification, disclaimer, or advertisement, regardless of when they connected to the broadcast. For more information, see About wrapper playlists.

Streaming Media Services