What do I need to watch and listen to the Webcast?

To view the Webcast you must have:

Active connection to the Internet.  If you are reading this, chances are pretty good you are currently on-line.  Video streaming generates from our servers and is transmitted over the Internet.  For best performance, the connection speed should be 56bps minimum.

A current version of RealOne Player.  To provide the latest advances in streaming technology, the Illinois State Board of Education uses the most current streaming servers. While this means you may need to download a free player, it only takes about 5- 10 minutes to download and install and would only be done once. (See below for download information.)

A functioning sound card and speakers.  While you will not require a sound card and speakers to see the video, you won't hear a thing without them. 

You only require the free version of RealOne Player.  You don't have to provide a credit card number or purchase anything.  There is a small link for the free version of RealOne Player on the download page labeled "RealPlayer Basic is our free player".

No video footage, but audio OK

Your Internet connection to the streaming server may be so poor as to reduce the video footage to a frame every few seconds.  However, please check on the event's Webcast page to see if this is a video Webcast, not an audio only or audio with slides Webcast.

No audio

Please confirm the computer's internal volume is on and speakers are plugged in.

The audio sounds like it is being played too fast or too slow, scratchy, or distorted.

If the audio sounds odd, you may change the performance setting in RealOne Player.

Select Preferences from the Options menu.

Click the Performance tab.

Click the Settings button.

Click either "Disable 16-bit sound" or "Disable custom sampling rates" to modify the way your player and sound card interface.  You may need to play with the settings to see which sounds best.

I have installed RealOne Player and I am not behind a firewall but cannot see the Webcast (the browser times out).

There may be instances where Internet network congestion is at such a level that you cannot connect to a stream.  Please try again in a few minutes.

When I try to play the RealOne Player Webcast, Quick Time tries to play it (and my browser crashes).

You need to change the MIME Type settings on the Quick Time plug-in so that it doesn't try to handle scalable multicast content.  To do this follow these steps:

1. Open Quick Time and go down to Preferences in the Edit menu.  Select Streaming Transport from the Preferences menu.
2. From the drop-down box in the top of the Quick Time settings window, select Browser Plug-in.
3. Click on the MIME settings button and scroll down the list until you see Session Description Protocol.  Double click it so that there is no plus sign (+) to the left of it.
4. You will have to close all of your browser windows and reopen them for the changes to take effect.
5. On Windows machines, you will also need to remove this registry entry if you use Internet Explorer:
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/InternetExplorer/Plugins/Extension/.sdp
6. If you try to play the video and it still tries to open with Quick Time, then you need to check the MIME types in your browser.  See question 5 (below) for help on how to do that.  It is important that both of the MIME types are there.

When I try

to play the video, my browser asks me what to do with the file.

You need to edit the MIME type settings in your browser.

For Netscape:

1. Select Preferences from the edit menu.
2. In the Navigator category select Applications.
3. Scroll down the list of applications and see if you find Scalable Multicast or sdp file.  If you don't, then you will need to add them.
4. First click the New Type button to the right of the applications.  For description, put Scalable Multicast.  For file extension, put sdp.  For MIME Type, put application/sdp. For Application, browse for the RealOne Player that you use.  Click OK, and it will create that entry.
5. You need to add one more type.  Put the same thing in all of the fields except for MIME Type. In the MIME Type field put application/x-sdp.  You will probably have to restart your browser to get the changes to take effect.

For Internet Explorer:

1. You need to open the Folder Options.  In Windows 95/98, you can do this from the Start Menu.  From the Start Menu, go up to Settings and then go to Folder Options.  In Windows NT (2000) open the Control Panel and double click on Folder Options.
2. In the window that opens, click on the File Types tab and scroll down to see if you can find Scalable Multicast or sdp file.  If not, then you need to add the file type.
3. Click on the New Type button.  Put Scalable Multicast as the Description.  Put sdp as the associated file extension.  Put application/sdp as the content type (MIME). Click the New button under the Actions box.  Put Open as the action, and browse for RealOne Player as the application to use.
4. You might have to restart your browser to get the changes to take effect.

Why does my RealOne Player say "Net Congestion"?

Net Congestion means there are high traffic loads on the data lines.  The more people online, the slower (more congested) the Internet is on a whole.  It causes packet loss and slow response time.

Why does

my RealOne Player say "Buffering"?

Buffering is a normal process of live streaming.  It is also a good thing.  What is happening is the video server is sending the stream to the player which in turn stores (buffers) the data for about five seconds.  This way, if Net Congestion occurs, the stream doesn't stop dead, it will continue to play for another five seconds.  This gives the video server and player time to reconnect with one another and start to re-send the data which was lost.

When you launch RealOne Player, and link to the video stream, the video will "buffer" for a short while.  A message tells you that this is happening.  During buffering RealOne Player detects the speed at which the video stream is being sent to your computer.

If problems occur with movement on the video, sound/video synchronization or other playback issues you might want to adjust the following:

• Click "View" on the RealOne Player tool bar
• Select "Preferences" from the menu
• Click on the "Connection" tab
• Select "Buffer at least ___ seconds before playing" and enter "15"
• Click "OK"
• Congestion on the Internet may affect or suspend your ability to access the video stream.  If this happens wait for a few seconds and the clip will begin playing again.  In extreme cases you may have to try a different time of day to access the files.

I still can't watch the Webcast.

RealOne Player is designed to detect the type of Internet connection you have, however you may need to set these options yourself.

• Click on "View" on the RealOne Player toolbar
• Select "Preferences" from the menu
• Click the "Connections" tab
• Look in the "Normal Bandwidth" pull-down menu and select your modem speed.
• Look in the "Maximum Bandwidth" pull-down menu and select the same speed as you selected for Normal Bandwidth in the previous step.
• Click "OK"

More:

I still can't watch the Webcast.

Are you behind a firewall?  Some organizations use firewalls for computer security.  If your computer is in such an environment, you may need to reconfigure the RealOne Player settings.

• Click on "View" on the RealOne Player tool bar
• Select "Preferences" from the menu
• Click on the "Transport" tab
• Select "Use specified transports"
• Click on "RTSP settings"
• Select "Use HTTP only" and then click "OK"
• Select "PNA settings"
• Select "Use HTTP only" and then click "OK"
• Click "OK"
• If you are still having problems contact your network administrator.  Some companies do not allow streaming video access, or require other computer settings to be changed.

C'mon...

I still can't watch the Webcast.

If you still can't figure out why your RealOne player isn't working, please contact Multimedia and Web Services and we'll try to help.

Phone: (217) 782-5844
Email: jhopper@isbe.net or rreddy@isbe.net