Streaming Media Metafiles Part Three: QuickTime

Our discussion of streaming media metafiles continues with a look at QuickTime reference movies. In Part 1 of this series Streaming Media Metafiles: When And How To Use Them, we saw that metafiles are small files linked on your Web page and served by your Web server. They contain a set of instructions that tell the streaming media player how to connect to the streaming server to play the requested file.

RealNetworks .ram files (see Part 1) and Microsoft .asx files (see Part 2) each have their own unique features, but the basic approach is the same. They are simple text files with simple syntax to describe all the ways you can control how your video plays. QuickTime, on the other hand, offers metafile-like features using a variety of different techniques. These include:

    the QTSRC parameter
    RTSPText
    QuickTime Media Links
    SMIL 1.0
    standard reference movies
    alternate reference movies

Some of these approaches can be used together so you can combine their unique features. For now, we'll concentrate on the first three – the text-based formats that are similar to the .ram and .asx metafile formats used by RealPlayer and Windows Media.