Video.Show updated for Visual Studio 2008

By Don Burnett

 

Vertigo has been doing some excellent reference quality samples for both the Silverlight and WPF communities lately proving that you can create very professional applications and websites with not a lot of work.  One of the most exciting reference web applications I have seen in a very long time is their Video.Show application. It supports end-to-end functionality and the code is very well written and is a great example of how you can create a "videos" type site, in the spirit of YouTube.com. Now having said that this sample doesn't support the sheer volume of videos that YouTube.com does every day, but it will get you on your way to your own video site.

You can download and install the source on CodePlex and then start delving into all the great functionality this site offers. One of the most exciting features about this site is that the site will let you encode videos using Expression Encoder for the site (if it's installed on your webserver).

It supports uploading videos to the Live Silverlight streaming site..

If you are trying to build such a site for yourself it gives you some great how-to code samples, including:

• Video is hosting at Silverlight Streaming, which gives you 4GB storage and 700 Kbps bandwidth via Microsoft's worldwide Content Delivery Network
• How to add user comments to the site that are time-based and are synchronized with video playback
• Demonstrates how to a data layer built using Linq To Sql
• Broad media format support (avi,mp4,asf,mpeg,dvr-ms,mpg,m2v,ts,m4v,vob,mov, and wmv) via Expression Encoder. That means you can upload quicktime movies, MPeg, DVD assets, and many more.
• It will show you how to leverage the AJAX Control Toolkit to add animations and interactivity.
• Encoding properties are configurable via standard Expression Encoder job files. This means you have total control of videos size and quality.
• How to create a Cross broswer (IE 6 and 7, Firefox 2, and Safari 3)  application.
• It's Open Source!!! And it will show you how to create a webservice based architecture.

 

Technorati tags: Silverlight 1.0, Silverlight Streaming Service for video hosting, Silverlight Streaming integration via REST API, Expression Encoder, AJAX Control Toolkit, Visual Studio 2008, Packaging API (for Zip file creation), ASP.NET / .NET 3.5, Linq To Sql