ExpressionPlayer does not play Azure Smooth Streaming Source

Question

I'm writing a VOD solution. For some time I have been working with the SSME:SmoothStreamingMediaElement successfully for testing and now I would like to utilise one of the Expression Players.

I'm using Azure Media Services, specifically Smooth Streaming. While these work fine in SSME I can't get them to work with an ExpressionPlayer. I don't know why.

I'm now at a point where I'm hard coding a Uri to try and get this to work as below:

void dataConectorPopulatePlaylistDownloadComplete(MemoryStream returnData, EventArgs e)
            {                   
<snip>                            
        var myPlaylist = new ExpressionMediaPlayer.Playlist();
        var playlistItem = new PlaylistItem();
        playlistItem.MediaSource = new Uri("http://xxxxxms1.origin.mediaservices.windows.net/b78750fc-9e2f-448c-86e3-d5de084791ea/GOPR0009.MP4-b2d2b578-3560-42c6-9927-2a791f395e19.ism/manifest",UriKind.Absolute);
        playlistItem.IsAdaptiveStreaming = true;
        myPlaylist.Items.Add(playlistItem);
        SmoothPlayerStreaming.Playlist = myPlaylist;          

 <snip>

            }

Using the above returns 404 not found in the player video playback window.

This is a valid URL and a valid Smooth Streaming Uri. Using this exact same Uri in a SSME control works fine.

What have I done wrong?

Answer 1

The ExpressionMediaPlayer class makes a hidden call to the ClientBin/SmoothStreaming.xap file. If you don't have it there - you should add it.

Here is the link to the blog post where you can download the xap file and source code of the expression player. Direct link

After you download the archive above, you can find this file at this path: EE4SP1SilverlightDefaultWithAudioVolume.zip\Templates\Silverlight Default -- with Audio Volume On Start\SmoothStreaming.xap

If it still doesn't work, you should replace the MediaPlayer.dll by projects from the archive. You need to add (Add -> Existing Project) 3 projects from the SharedV4SP1 folder: MediaPlayer, OfflineShared, PlugInMSSCtrl.

I've already tested your code in my application and it started to work after I have copied the xap file and replaced the dll-reference by existing projects.