Windows Media Services, H.323 and Video streaming in general

[Lonewolf]

Hi everyone, pls forgive me for my lack of knowledge and skills if my
question sounds very stupid. I am trying to implement a video conferencing
software and I am currently looking at a few set of technologies, among them
WMP, RealMedia, H.323 and XviD (not sure if it is suitable for streaming
even) . I would like to seek the advice of those experts on the following
questions,
1) What is the best technologies to be used, in terms of transport media
independence, performance, ease of implementations and cost.
I have looked at WMP 9 services and codec, but I am not sure about the
licensing cost for using it in a commercial product.
2) How do I implement a video conferencing software usign H323?
I read through teh OpenH323 project and get more confused by it. there
seems to be no API that I can use to code a video conferencing software.
3) What does it mean to be compliant with the H323 specs?
Does it make my software compatible with netmeeting which uses H323?
4) What is the best way to grab video from the web cam? frame by frame
and express it into video? or is there a kind of streaming video interface
exposed by Win32 that I can use to grab video from the webcam?

I am very new to video conferencing and would welcome any enlightenment.
thank you so much for your time and enlightenment. :-)

[Tarundeep Singh Kalra]

Hi,

1) What is the best technologies to be used, in terms of transport media

independence, performance, ease of implementations and cost.
I have looked at WMP 9 services and codec, but I am not sure about the
licensing cost for using it in a commercial product.
well, according to time to market Windows Media Solution is best as there
are lots of code samples and ready made SDK's for that.
But yes, comercially it may prove slighly expensive.

2) How do I implement a video conferencing software usign H323?
I read through teh OpenH323 project and get more confused by it. there
seems to be no API that I can use to code a video conferencing software.
If you are making client for Windows( as i suppose)
then try to use RTC SDK from MSFT.
But you may have to use Live Communication Server backend.

You can use OpenH323 also look at vocal SDK.(search in google i forgot the
URL).

But in that case most of the implementations are in Linux.
YOu may have to port them or redo them on Windows
hence more time, effort and manpower.

Otherwise get hold of lot of third party SDK's like Radvision.
3) What does it mean to be compliant with the H323 specs?
Does it make my software compatible with netmeeting which uses H323?
Yes, compliang with H323 means your applications like netwmeeting will run.
4) What is the best way to grab video from the web cam? frame by frame
and express it into video? or is there a kind of streaming video interface
exposed by Win32 that I can use to grab video from the webcam?
I had uses Windows Media SDK ( best for Windows).

for linux also lot of solutions are there ( see freshmeat.net)

I am very new to video conferencing and would welcome any enlightenment.
thank you so much for your time and enlightenment. :-)
Well, what i think is for Video Conferencing Solutions it depends what is
your time frame and time to market.
If you are looking for really fast TTM i suggest go ahead with Windows RTC
and combination of Windows Media.

RTC doesnot support multiparty Video Conferencing but it does supports
multiparty messaging and lot of other added features like desktop sharing
and application sharing.

Windows Media broadcasting is little slow as compared to RTC but you can
manage to have layer of Windows Media Multicasting over RTC.

But there the speed is slow and time delay is there.

Also, take a look at Vocal SDK if you dont mind Linux.

Also, you can look at Direct X media Support , i have not tried it but i
guess Audio Brdging is there.

I will update you once i do that.

regards
Tarundeep Singh Kalra

visit www.tarunsadhana.com
--
Regards
Tarundeep Singh Kalra

www_dot_tarunsadhana_dot_com.

tarun_at_removeAT_tarunsadhana_dot_com.remove_dots

"Lonewolf" <ka*********@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:%2****************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl... Hi everyone, pls forgive me for my lack of knowledge and skills if my
question sounds very stupid. I am trying to implement a video conferencing
software and I am currently looking at a few set of technologies, among
them
WMP, RealMedia, H.323 and XviD (not sure if it is suitable for streaming
even) . I would like to seek the advice of those experts on the following
questions,
1) What is the best technologies to be used, in terms of transport
media
independence, performance, ease of implementations and cost.
I have looked at WMP 9 services and codec, but I am not sure about the
licensing cost for using it in a commercial product.
2) How do I implement a video conferencing software usign H323?
I read through teh OpenH323 project and get more confused by it. there
seems to be no API that I can use to code a video conferencing software.
3) What does it mean to be compliant with the H323 specs?
Does it make my software compatible with netmeeting which uses H323?
4) What is the best way to grab video from the web cam? frame by frame
and express it into video? or is there a kind of streaming video interface
exposed by Win32 that I can use to grab video from the webcam?

I am very new to video conferencing and would welcome any enlightenment.
thank you so much for your time and enlightenment. :-)