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Chapter 2 Preparing and Loading Content 2-5
2.4 Content Loading
The preferred method of storing content on a Sun MediaCenter server is to use the
Web-based CmTool. CmTool uses the Sun MediaCenter FTP daemon and the
Content Manager (CM), part of the Sun MediaCenter software, to store content. The
CM automatically extracts from MPEG content the information the server needs to
successfully store and play that content. See Chapter 4 for information on using the
CmTool interface.
The Sun MediaCenter software also offers the following alternatives for transferring
video files:
smc_tar
Can copy to or extract from a tape device. Takes a content package as input for
content loading. Copies between a tar device or a Unix File System (UFS) and
the MFS.
smc_copy
Takes a title name as input. Use from server to server. Can create a TOC file and
index files if none present. Copies between MFSs.
ftp in conjunction with the Sun MediaCenter FTP daemon
Requires only the smc: keyword. Works on any platform on which an ftp client
can run. Creates a TOC file and index files if none present. Copies between a local
file system and the MFS.
smc_tar and smc_copy are described in Chapter 5. See Chapter 6 for instructions
on the use of ftp with the Sun MediaCenter FTP daemon.
A file-transfer alternative beyond those listed here is to write a program to the
Content Manager (CM) API or CM Client API. These APIs are described in the Sun
MediaCenter Server Programmer’s Guide.
The Sun MediaCenter FTP daemon works with the most commonly-used MPEG
formats—MPEG-1 System Stream (MPEG1SYS) and MPEG-2 Transport Stream
(MPEGTS).
The following are circumstances in which you cannot use ftp to store content:
■ Your MPEG file is larger than 2.1 GB. Use smc_tar instead. With such large files,
you must create the correct segment clauses in the TOC file. See the description
of the TOC file in Appendix B. The 2.1 GB file size is a limitation of Solaris 2.4, not
the Sun MediaCenter server.
■ Your content is in a format other than MPEG1SYS or MPEGTS. If your stream is not
encoded in one of these formats, you must use smc_tar to load content.