OSMF and Strobe Media Playback Walkthroughs

David Hassoun and RealEyes Media have put together a terrific series of release samples, walking you through in detail what you need to do to get up and running with OSMF and Strobe Media Playback. In addition to a series of white papers, there is also a full set of code samples that can be loaded into Flash Builder so that you can walk through the code as you read the papers.

Getting_Started_with_the_Strobe_Media_Playback.pdf

In this walkthrough we will download and configure and playback media with the Strobe Media Playback player. The Strobe Media Playback player is a pre-compiled, ready-to-deploy SWF file that is configured via the HTML source and the FlashVars.

Walk through 1_ The Simplest Player.pdf
In this walkthrough we will create a very simple media player using the OSMF and the MediaPlayerSprite. The purpose is to see how to create the simplest form of an OSMF player and playback progressive, streaming FLV and H.264 media.

Walk through 2_ Separating Control.pdf

In this walkthrough we will break out the main control objects of an OSMF media player. Using the different parts available to create an OSMF experience and how they can be managed independently instead of the all in one MediaPlayerSprite In the end it all works the same but now there is separate instances to control the connection, playback, and visual display.

Walk through 3_ Handling Different Media.pdf

In this walkthrough you will extend the media player so it can handle different types of media. This will show how with the use of a MediaFactory and the generic MediaElement so the player can handle any of the supported media types without having to know what kind of media is being loaded in. This way the player isn't tied to the VideoElement for instance that won't be able to play a SWF or a dynamic multi-bitrate stream.

Walk through 4_ UI Control bar and Layout Management.pdf

In this walkthrough we will see how to use the advanced layout controls offered by the OSMF components and how dynamically control the layout of interactive elements outside of the OSMF components conditionally based on the size of the content displayed by OSMF. Specifically we will use the MediaContainer advanced layout capabilities with MetaData for composite media loading and display, and see how to integrate custom graphical user interface controls to make a skinnable control bar, and make it functional by linking the user interactions with the MediaPlayer API, and adjusting the position of the control bar dynamically based off of the media content being displayed via events.

Walk through 5_ Basic Serial Elements.pdf

This walkthrough creates a sequence of media items to create an interactive move experience complete with a progressive video pre-roll, a dynamic streaming preview, a SWF based quiz and if passed, access to watch the whole clip via dynamic streaming. This is achieved by using the SerialElement to create the sequence of MediaElements, and the StreamingURLResouce to create a sub-clip of a streaming media item. Then based on user interaction we can completely overwrite the current media being displayed (the SerialElement) and play 'unlocked' content.

Walk through 6_ Basic Parallel Element Composition.pdf

In this walk through you will further your knowledge of composition elements with the use of the ParallelElement to display two MediaElement instances at the same time. A key area of focus when displaying multiple element at the same time is layout. Utilizing the versatile OSMF LayoutContainer and appropriate meta-data this task becomes easily manageable. The goal of this exercise is to play 2 media items generally in sync, and evenly displayed within the constraints of the LayoutContainer no matter what its size.

Walk through 7_ Working with Layout Containers.pdf

The purpose of this walkthrough is to get a solid understanding of real-world applications of composition based media elements, and how to display them via the layout features of the OSMF. This walkthrough builds on-top of the previous examples and your knowledge of SerialElement and ParallelElement, as well as basic layout meta-data.

Walk through 8_ Integrating Simple Plugins.pdf

This walkthrough illustrates how to dynamically load at runtime static (class-based) plug-ins that are compiled into the application. The plug-in is the Akamai Basic Streaming Plug-in, which is meant to help facilitate connections and streaming off the Akamai network.

Walk through 9_ Analytics Integration.pdf

This walkthrough will demonstrate how to load in dynamic plug-ins, which are plug-ins that are loaded at runtime in the form of a SWF. The walkthrough will illustrate some of the more difficult aspects of working with dynamic plug-ins, such as the need to test on a web server so that the plug-ins can be loaded appropriately.

Walk through 10_ Custom Plugin Development.pdf

This walkthrough provides some critical knowledge and steps for creating custom plug-ins. This walkthrough covers creating and implementing a custom, static plug-in that will apply a watermark, or bug, as a parallel element to all media being displayed and managed via the OSMF player.

Walkthrough 11_ Advertising Integration.pdf

This walk through shows how to use the MAST advertising plugin to manage ad insertion as per-roll or post-roll content. The key aspects of this walk through is the simplicity of integration and the control which can be achieved by using the industry standard MAST (or VAST) data format with external XML driven content and linking that data with OSMF and meta-data. .