Publish content in the Azure portal

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Overview

Note

To complete this tutorial, you need an Azure account. For details, see Azure free trial.

To provide your user with a URL that they can use to stream or download your content, first you must publish your asset by creating a locator. Locators provide access to asset files. Azure Media Services supports two types of locators:

  • Streaming (OnDemandOrigin) locators. Streaming locators are used for adaptive streaming. Examples of adaptive streaming include Apple HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), Microsoft Smooth Streaming, and Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH, also called MPEG-DASH). To create a streaming locator, your asset must include an .ism file. For example, http://amstest.streaming.mediaservices.windows.net/61b3da1d-96c7-489e-bd21-c5f8a7494b03/scott.ism/manifest.
  • Progressive (shared access signature) locators. Progressive locators are used to deliver video via progressive download.

To build an HLS streaming URL, append (format=m3u8-aapl) to the URL:

{streaming endpoint name-media services account name}/{locator ID}/{file name}.ism/Manifest(format=m3u8-aapl)

To build a streaming URL to play Smooth Streaming assets, use the following URL format:

{streaming endpoint name-media services account name}/{locator ID}/{file name}.ism/Manifest

To build an MPEG-DASH streaming URL, append (format=mpd-time-csf) to the URL:

{streaming endpoint name-media services account name}/{locator ID}/{file name}.ism/Manifest(format=mpd-time-csf)

A shared access signature URL has the following format:

{blob container name}/{asset name}/{file name}/{shared access signature}

For more information, see the delivering content overview.

Note

Locators that were created in the Azure portal before March 2015 have a two-year expiration date.

To update an expiration date on a locator, use can use a REST API or a .NET API.

Note

When you update the expiration date of a shared access signature locator, the URL changes.

To use the portal to publish an asset

  1. In the Azure portal, select your Azure Media Services account.

  2. Select Settings > Assets. Select the asset that you want to publish.

  3. Select the Publish button.

  4. Select the locator type.

  5. Select Add.

    Publish the video

The URL is added to the list of Published URLs.

Play content in the portal

You can test your video on a content player in the Azure portal.

Select the video, and then select the Play button.

Play the video in the Azure portal

Some considerations apply:

  • Make sure that the video has been published.
  • The Azure portal media player plays from the default streaming endpoint. If you want to play from a non-default streaming endpoint, select and copy the URL, and then paste it into another player. For example, you can test your video on the Azure Media Player.
  • The streaming endpoint from which you are streaming must be running.