Microsoft Media Platform Product News
November 7, 2012
Player Framework for Windows 8 version 1.0 has been released to Codeplex. Download it here.
The RTW version of the framework contains support for Smooth Streaming (via Smooth Streaming Client SDK) and advanced playback heuristics; closed captioning (SMPTE-TT, TTML); advertising (VAST, MAST, VPAID); DVR style playback; and robust skinning and styling.
October 26, 2012
Smooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows 8 has been released to Visual Studio Gallery. Download it here.
The release version of the Windows 8 SDK contains support for x86, x64 and ARM processor architectures; on-demand and live playback with seek/DVR function; support for H.264, VC-1, AAC, DD+ and WMA Pro codecs; multiple audio languages; track (bitrate) selection; offline playback; text and sparse tracks; closed captioning; trick play; and PlayReady DRM content protection and key rotation.
PlayReady Client SDK for Windows 8 is also now available through Visual Studio Gallery. Download it here.
This release of the PlayReady Client SDK supports online scenarios such as progressive download and streaming, as well as offline scenarios such as download-to-own, rental and subscription.
October 24, 2012
IIS Transform Manager version 1.1 has been released to Microsoft Download Center. Install it via the Web Platform Installer, or download it separately for x86 and x64 platforms.
The new version fixes a number of issues related to PlayReady protection, and adds support for transmuxing Dolby Digital Plus audio from MP4 to Smooth Streaming file format.
June 11, 2012
Smooth Streaming Client for Silverlight and Windows Phone version 2.0 has been released to Microsoft Download Center. Download it here.
The latest version of SSME adds support for linear ad insertion and playback, DRM key rotation, updated cache plug-in model and fragment download APIs.
Player Framework for Silverlight and Windows Phone version 2.7 has been released to Codeplex. Download it here.
This release of Player Framework adds support for SSME 2.0 and Silverlight progressive download video trick play, and fixes various bugs.
June 7, 2012
Windows Azure Media Services Preview is launched. See here for full setup instructions. The Preview is a limited release - all access requests must be approved by the WAMS product team.
The Spring Preview release of Media Services supports encoding in the cloud with Windows Azure Media Encoder (aka Expression Encoder 4 SP2), quick remuxing from MP4 to Smooth and from Smooth to Apple HLS, content protection with Microsoft PlayReady, on-demand Smooth Streaming and Apple HTTP Live Streaming, and scalable delivery with Windows Azure CDN or 3rd party CDNs.
All Windows Azure Media Services are controllable via REST APIs. Developers can refer to the how-to guide or refer to the MSDN documentation for details.
May 24, 2012
IIS Transform Manager version 1.0 is has been released to Microsoft Download Center. Install it via the Web Platform Installer, or download it separately for x86 and x64 platforms.
The long-awaited 1.0 release of IIS Transform Manager enables automated server-side transcoding via Expression Encoder or 3rd party encoders; quick remuxing (transmuxing) of MP4 files to Smooth Streaming, and of Smooth Streaming to Apple HTTP Live Streaming; PlayReady encryption of existing Smooth Streaming assets; watch-folder monitoring; HPC scale-out; task chaining; and creation of custom tasks.
May 8, 2012
Player Framework for HTML5 Browsers version 1.1 has been released to Codeplex. Download it here.
December 9, 2011
Silverlight 5 has been released to Microsoft Download Center. Download it here.
New media features include GPU-accelerated H.264 video decoding, low-latency sound effects, variable speed playback (trick play) support, and remote control and media keys support. For a complete list of new Silverlight 5 features check out this blog, the official features document or the list of breaking changes.
Silverlight 5 runtime is now also available as a native 64-bit plugin for 64-bit browsers on Windows and Mac operating systems.
November 8, 2011
IIS Media Services version 4.1 has been released to Microsoft Download Center. Install it via the Web Platform Installer, or download it separately for x86 and x64 platforms.
This release adds support for REST services APIs for management of publishing points as well as performance improvements for both on demand and live scenarios. The recently released Expression Encoder 4 SP2 makes use of the new APIs so that one can easily manage publishing points directly from within Expression Encoder. For more information on the new features visit https://blogs.iis.net/akucer/archive/2011/11/09/iis-media-services-4-1-released.aspx.
November 2, 2011
Expression Encoder 4 Service Pack 2 (SP2) has been released to Microsoft Download Center. Download it here.
New features include support for Intel QSV GPU-accelerated encoding, 1 and 2-pass VBR H.264 encoding, more AAC audio options, SRS audio encoding, built-in management of IIS publishing points, live video cropping, live multi-bitrate Windows Media encoding, etc. SP2 also removes the screen capture limit in the free version of the Encoder. You can find a detailed list of features in this blog post.
The Expression Encoder team has also updated their GPU encoding recommendations. Note that H.264 codec support is still only available in the commercial Pro edition of Expression Encoder.
October 26, 2011
Content Manager version 1.1 has been released to Microsoft Download Center. Download it here.
This release fixes compatibility issues with Windows Vista and Windows 7, and provides additional code samples.
The open-source Microsoft Media Platform Content Manager pulls together an end-to-end video workflow that allows you to create live streaming events, transcode on-demand content, manage and publish video, edit video, and insert mid-roll advertisements. Watch the MIX11 session on Content Manager for an overview.
October 17, 2011
Enhanced Movies 1.0 Beta is the latest addition to the Microsoft Media Platform family of frameworks. Download it here.
Microsoft Media Platform Enhanced Movies provides a framework for delivery of rich interactive movie experiences that go far beyond any streaming experience today. The “enhanced movies” feature set enables studios and distribution houses to package HD movies with special features, multiple languages, interactive games, social media, advertising and more — as complete, downloadable, rights-protected applications.
The beta release provides a plug-in for the Player Framework which enables offline playback of video by implementing a media downloader and Smooth Streaming cache.
October 6, 2011
Video Editor (f.k.a. Silverlight Rough Cut Editor) version 2.0 has been released to MSDN. Download it here.
The new version requires Silverlight 5.
New to MMP Video Editor? Take it for a test drive using our demo deployment hosted on Windows Azure: https://videoeditor.cloudapp.net/