More Java Media Framework

Spent some time with Java Media Framework this past week. Biggest complaint: not enough documentation. At least there's not enough good documentation. I'll admit that I haven't bought a book on JMF, but I've poured over articles, newsgroup entries, etc. A lot of people are talking about it...mostly from the client side.

The link for the JMF API can be found here. If you try running some of the examples, there's a couple of things to keep in mind. The examples are set up to run RTP over UDP. This means that the program that is transmitting the audio, video, etc. is transmitting to a specific IP address on a specific port. Translation: you need to know the IP address of the computer receiving the stream. The receiving program needs to know the IP address and port of the sending program as well. I'm going to give you a big hint here: you will need 2 computers to run the examples. The reason: you can't transmit over a port and receive over that port at the same time.

JMF works well sending and receiving via RTP. But, I cannot get Windows Media Player to receive the transmissions (it does not like the RTP:// address). This is frustrating. My goal is to create streaming media server whose streams can be received by a generic player such as the Windows Media Player, not something requiring an applet I create or JMStudio from Sun.

When an opportunity arises, I'm going see if JMF allows for RTSP transmission. I think this will solve the problem. Unfortunately the docs are a little vague on this. More later. If you've worked with JMF, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on the subject.