Receiving and viewing textual liveCaster announcements

(For information about receiving MPEG audio data, see here)

Using a multicast session browser

One way to receive and view textual liveCaster announcements is to use a general-purpose multicast session (SAP) browser.

In multikit, for example, you can view an announced directory using the "Open directory from parameters" command (in the "File" menu), or, equivalently, typing <Control>-o. You will then be prompted for the directory's id, multicast address, and port. You can fill these in from the values shown in liveCaster's window.

Using a special-purpose receiver/viewer

An alternative to using a general-purpose multicast browser is to develop a special-purpose receiver/viewer that is customized for a particular directory (or class of directories), and that makes special use of particular attributes.

Fortunately, the data format (MAFP) used by liveCaster is a simple, text-based format that is easy to process. For example, if you are familiar with the Tcl scripting language, you may find useful the customized multicast shells "groupsock_tclsh" and "groupsock_wish". (Live Networks (LIVE555.COM) can provide these shells upon request.)

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