Windows Server not streaming FLV videos

I’ve been working on adding videos to some of the theatre sites for Local Nights Out and ran in to a problem with the video files not streaming. I’m using .flv files which require a flash video player to be embedded in the page which then streams the video file from any location (depending on permissions of course).

For the video player I settled on JW FLV Media Player which does everything it needs to do and the default skin is clean and simple just like I wanted. The player is simple to install only requiring the downloaded files to be uploaded to your server and a few lines of code to be copied to the required page on your website. To help with the required code there is even a wizard where you enter your desired setting and address of the video file etc and it will give you the code to use e.g

<script type='text/javascript' src='/embed/swfobject.js'></script>

  <div id='mediaspace'>This div will be replaced</div>

  <script type='text/javascript'>
  var s1 = new SWFObject('/jw/embed/player.swf','ply','470','320','9','#ffffff');
  s1.addParam('allowfullscreen','true');
  s1.addParam('allowscriptaccess','always');
  s1.addParam('wmode','opaque');
  s1.addParam('flashvars','file=http://content.bitsontherun.com/videos/3ta6fhJQ.flv');
  s1.write('mediaspace');
</script>

By doing this the player loaded fine but was displaying a message saying that the video file could not be found even though I had uploaded it to our server and the filename was correct. On further investigation it turns out that with IIS 6.0 Microsoft changed the way streaming media is handled. Previous versions of IIS did not require any modification to stream Flash Video. Microsoft IIS 6.0, the default web server that ships with Windows 2003, requires a MIME type to recognize that FLV files are streamed media.

The Solution

1. On the Windows 2003 server, open the Internet Information Services Manager.
2. Expand the Local Computer Server.
3. Right-click the local computer server and select Properties.
4. Select the MIME Types tab.
5. Click New and enter the following information:
   • Associated Extension box: .flv
   • MIME Type box:flv-application/octet-stream
6. Click OK.
7. Restart the World Wide Web Publishing service.

After adding the .flv file type to the MIME types list the flash video player played the video fine.

I am running the videos in a javascript pop-up window and you can see one in action on the Wicked Tickets site.

Tagged as: flash, iis, javascript, video, windows