Support

Tech Note #2: Progressive Download of Kinoma Movies

• Initial version: June 2003

Beginning with version 2.0, Kinoma Player supports progressive download of Kinoma movies directly from the Internet.

What is progressive download?

Progressive download is a method of playing back video content from the Internet. Using progressive download it is possible to deliver the highest quality content regardless of the available connection speed. Depending on the connection speed and the data rate of the movie, the transfer may be faster or slower than real time. Using progressive download, the video is transferred as quickly as possible and while it is downloading, the user may play back the media that has arrived. Users may play back the video as many times as they like, but the video is only transferred from the web server to the Palm handheld once.

Adding Kinoma video to a web page

Adding Kinoma video to your web page is easy. A single link allows users to both download the video to their computer to HotSync to their handheld and to progressively download it directly to their Palm handheld.

An ordinary video link might look like this:

Watch this <a href="http://www.example.com/video.pdb" >video.</a>

Tapping this link would cause the video to be downloaded to the device. It would not be a progressive download: the entire file would be downloaded before the user could view the video.

An additional special step is required to perform a progressive download. Because there are many different web browsers in use on the Palm OS, this extra step involves using a CGI running on a web server. As a community service, Kinoma provides a CGI on its web servers that may be used by anyone who wants to deliver Kinoma video using progressive download. The modified video link looks like this:

Watch this <a href="http://stream.kinoma.com/stream.php/www.example.com/video.pdb" >video.</a>

The CGI required to make progressive download work resides at http://stream.kinoma.com/stream.php. The actual video link is appended to the path of this script as shown in the example above. When the user activates the link, the CGI determines which browser is being used and constructs an appropriate response. On a Macintosh or PC, the user will be immediately redirected back to the original video link (www.example.com/video.pdb) to download the entire movie. On a Palm Powered handheld, the user will receive a small file (about 200 bytes) which will allow Kinoma Player to connect directly to the original video file to begin the progressive download.

Note that the video is always downloaded directly from the original video link. The CGI is only performing a specialized redirect service.

Supported Palm OS web browsers

There are many different web browsers available for Palm OS and not all are compatible with progressive download. The following list describes the compatibility situation as of the writing of this note:

Blazer versions 1 & 2	does not support progressive download
Blazer version 3	supports progressive download
EudoraWeb	does not support progressive download
NetFront	supports progressive download, user must manually launch player
PocketLink	supports progressive download
Xiino	supports progressive download
WebPro	supports progressive download, user must manually launch player

If a user attempts to view a Kinoma movie file using a Palm OS web browser that does not support download, they will receive a web page explaining that the web browser does not support this capability.

Some web browsers will download the small file necessary to initiate the progressive download, but they do not launch Kinoma Player to perform the progressive download. In this case, the user must manually launch Kinoma Player and select the file to begin the progressive download.

Kinoma does its best to keep the CGI up to date with new and updated web browsers for Palm OS. If you encounter a problem with a specific web browser, please report it to Kinoma by sending an email to support@kinoma.com.

Legal

No license or other agreement with Kinoma, Inc. is necessary to use the information provided in this technical note.

Kinoma Player may not be redistributed without a license from Kinoma. For further information on licensing Kinoma Player for distribution, please send email to licensing@kinoma.com.

Kinoma operates the CGI at http://stream.kinoma.com/stream.php as a community service. Anyone may freely use it to initiate progressive downloads of Kinoma movies. While Kinoma will do its best to ensure availability of the service, however no guarantee of its availability is made. If you would like to run the CGI on your own web server, please send an email to streaming@kinoma.com.