Stream a Webcam with WME

By Mike | November 7, 2007

First things first.

Download and install Windows Media Encoder.

Now install and run the program. The first screen you will see is the “New Session” window. Click the wizard options tab. These are the different ways Windows Media Encoder can obtain a video and audio source. Since we want to broadcast a live event (your gig, show etc) choose this option…click ok.

The next windows lets you choose your video and audio sources. Assuming you have correctly installed your webcam and soundcard properly, Choose them from the drop down menus. (Don’t use the windows defaults. If you don’t no your webcam and soundcards name, double check them in the Windows Device Manager)…Click next.

The next screen will ask you to choose either to “push to a window media server” or “pull from the encode”. For most people, pick the pull from encoder option. (the other option is for people with dedicated “windows media servers” which we aint got).

Next you will see this window. Right. If you connect to the internet directly, i.e. your computer plugs directly into your cable or ADSL modem, your URL for Internet connections should be the one stated. You can double check by clicking here for your ip “internet IP“. Just make sure you open the port 8080 (or what ever free port you chose to use) in what ever firewall you are using so people on the internet can see your stream. If you use a router, see end of page…. Click next.

Here you need to choose the bit rate for your stream. The higher the bit rate the better the image and sound quality will be. Just rember though, the high your bit rate, less people can watch you stream. This all depends how fast your own Internet connection is. This is worth some experimenting with before your “real” first live broadcast. Get some friend to log on and see what your connection limit is. (WME is limited the 5 people max as default. This can be changed in the system registry though to a max of 50)… Click next.

You can now archive your stream if you so wish. self explanatory really… Click next.

Again, the next screen is self explanatory. Click Next.

All that is left to do now is title, date, etc your broadcast and click finish and start the broadcast!

type mms://”your WAN IP here“:8080 into internet explorer replacing the “your WAN IP here” with your WAN IP to see you stream.

Routers

If you are behind (your pc plugs into) a router or NAT system, it is a little more tricky. Windows Media Encoder will give you a LAN connection as well as your so called internet connection. This stream can only be seen over your local area network and not on the internet. And most of the time the URL it gives you for the Internet connection is something like http://192.168.1.2:8080, which is NOT you WAN IP. You will need to change the 192.168.1.1 with your real Internet IP found here!

So for example, my pc is behind a router and Windows Media Encoder tells me my Internet URL is http://193.168.1.2:8080

This will work fine on any pc connected to the local area network (load media player and open URL from the file menu) but not for a pc trying to connect from somewhere on the internet (outside the LAN). The real one would look something like,

http://”your WAN IP here“:8080

As before, you need to open your 8080 port in the router. This is called port forwarding or virtual servers in your router setup. For help with this, check your user manual as every router is slightly different.

Dont forget, if you have a software firewall on that PC too, you will also need to open port 8080 in that as well.

To view your stream type,

mms://”your WAN IP here“:8080

into Internet Explorer.