Audio Stream Programs for E-mails & Web Sites

[ep2012]

Hi all,

I hope everyone is having a great Holiday Season.

Question...

I need to get one of those audio thingies for e-mails, not just for on my site. I have neither so far, but the e-mail one is the most important, as I have a set of instructions & the customers aren't reading them which is causing problems. I guess I could put the audio thingy on my web page too.

Which do you think is better, on the web page, in the e-mail & what companies do you recommend? I know some actually track how long the customer listens to the audio file & does other things too.

Can you list the best features & which one isn't terribly expensive.

Thanks so much & have a great night !


Michelle

[mikmik]

I haven't used streaming media in e-mails, but on a website I use the Windows Media Encoder to make streaming files.

These can then be imported into Flash to further reduce file size.

I don't know much about this stuff, just to put some music and video up on my website. But the encoder is really very easy to use. You get it here:
Windows Media Encoder 9 Series (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx)

There is help and instruction available on that page, eg:


Extensibility and Automation
Extend the Encoders functionality. Fully automate the encoding process. Includes 4 new utilities.

An example of how customers are benefiting today, the Inscriber Instream Plug-in for Windows Media Encoder 9 Series offers content creators professional graphics and text integration.
Learn more and download the plug-in Leave this Web site
How-to for Content Producers
Find technical articles and rich media presentations to help you use the encoder to create Windows Media-formatted content.

You do have to be carefull with bandwidth. A video with sound can get big, 10 or more megabytes a minute, easy.

I am not sure how to deliver in e-mails. You might have a problem with your customers e-mail programs filtering or blocking content because to play media you have to us plug-ins - script controls - to load and play stuff.
This type of activity is very dangerous to allow in emails (bad guys take advantage of it to hijack computers), so it might be best to just have a link to your website, or the media file, so they can play it that way.

[mikmik]

Ha! Guess I could tell you how it works!

after you install the encoder, you go into your 'Start/All Programs/Windows Media Encoder' and start it up.

(I haven't done it for a while, but this is the gist of what I remember)
You click 'Encode media' and then use the browse thing to get your sound file. Then you choose what you want to make, 'Streaming server', Multiple Bit Rate Stream', and another couple of options.

I pick multiple bit rate streaming, but not streaming server, although they both seem to work the same. So, next you select what 'rate', or quality you want. I pick for a low and medium rate combination, like 35 and 96 kb/sec. That way if someone is on a dial-up, they get a smaller one (35 kb/sec) and they don't have to wait for so long to load enough of the file to start it playing.

There are a few more fields to fill in, name, copyright, description - just the stuff that appears at the bottom of the media player when something is playing. It is kind of neat, actually!

You pick a 'target directory', usually just the same folder the file is already in. Click start, and it encodes/converts your audio file.

Then you are done. You can upload that to your website and link right to it, but the best is to embed it in a webpage so that the users browser will play it on that page instead of opening up Windows Media Player over top of everything.

It sounds complicated, but it is really pretty easy once you do it a couple of times.

Hope this is what you are looking for, if not, we try something else!

[ep2012]

Thanks, I'll have to try & do this with a programmer.

It sounds kind of complicated.

Happy New Year :)


Michelle


Ha! Guess I could tell you how it works!

after you install the encoder, you go into your 'Start/All Programs/Windows Media Encoder' and start it up.

(I haven't done it for a while, but this is the gist of what I remember)
You click 'Encode media' and then use the browse thing to get your sound file. Then you choose what you want to make, 'Streaming server', Multiple Bit Rate Stream', and another couple of options.

I pick multiple bit rate streaming, but not streaming server, although they both seem to work the same. So, next you select what 'rate', or quality you want. I pick for a low and medium rate combination, like 35 and 96 kb/sec. That way if someone is on a dial-up, they get a smaller one (35 kb/sec) and they don't have to wait for so long to load enough of the file to start it playing.

There are a few more fields to fill in, name, copyright, description - just the stuff that appears at the bottom of the media player when something is playing. It is kind of neat, actually!

You pick a 'target directory', usually just the same folder the file is already in. Click start, and it encodes/converts your audio file.

Then you are done. You can upload that to your website and link right to it, but the best is to embed it in a webpage so that the users browser will play it on that page instead of opening up Windows Media Player over top of everything.

It sounds complicated, but it is really pretty easy once you do it a couple of times.

Hope this is what you are looking for, if not, we try something else!

[ep2012]

Although I'm not sure I want to use an MS product LOL

Thanks


Michelle

[mikmik]

Ya, there are other alternatives. It is just that most people already have Windows Media player already, and don't have to download anything to play other file types.

If you are going to get someone to help, I really suggest doing it with Flash. That will work on every operating system, more even than windows edia.

I am not sure about file sizes with Flash, but they are good for video.

I converted a 20 Megabyte product demo video for a client. It was a '.mov' file - Apple QuickTime player.

It went to about 4 Megabytes with Windows Media Format.
I then imported into Flash (easy to do) and it resulted in a file only 1 Megabyte in size!

The video had sound, so I am assuming that for just audio, in your case, it would work similarily.

HTH, if you need a recommendation for a Flash person, let me know, or I am sure there are people around that will be able to do it.

[ezdropshipper_webmaster]

We're researching doing "video email" right now, and in the process I came across a good product called "SwishVideo" that seems to work really well.

http://www.swishzone.com/index.php?product=video