NetShow was Microsoft's original framework for Internet network broadcasting, intended to compete with

RealNetworks RealNetworks LLC is an American technology company and provider of Internet streaming media delivery software and services based in Seattle, Washington. The company also provides subscription-based online entertainment services and mobile enter ...

RealMedia RealMedia is a proprietary multimedia container format (digital), container format created by RealNetworks with the filename extension . RealMedia is used in conjunction with RealVideo and RealAudio, while also being used for Streaming media, st ...

& Vivo (''acquired in 1998 by RealNetworks''). It was later renamed and marketed under the

Windows Media Windows Media is a discontinued multimedia framework for media creation and distribution for Microsoft Windows. It consists of a software development kit (SDK) with several application programming interfaces (API) and a number of prebuilt technol ...

umbrella. NetShow 1.0 came out in 1996. A newer version, 2.0, was included in Windows NT 4.0 SP3 in 1997. Version 3.0 came out mid-1998. The whole product line was renamed ''Windows Media'' in October, 1999, four months before

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the server and business markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RT ...

appeared. The NetShow name is still carried on in the

user-agent In computing, the User-Agent header is an HTTP header intended to identify the user agent responsible for making a given HTTP request. Whereas the character sequence User-Agent comprises the name of the header itself, the header value that a giv ...

string in current versions of

Windows Media Player Windows Media Player (WMP, officially referred to as Windows Media Player Legacy to retronym, distinguish it from Windows Media Player (2022), the new Windows Media Player introduced with Windows 11) is the first media player (application soft ...

, which reports as "NSPlayer".

Components

NetShow Player 2.0 running in Windows XP *NetShow Player (version 2.0 was included with

Internet Explorer 4 Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 (IE4) is the fourth version of the Internet Explorer graphical web browser that Microsoft unveiled in Spring of 1997, and released on September 22, 1997, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but also with versions availa ...

March 10 1997, now incorporated into

) *NetShow Services (renamed

Windows Media Services __NOTOC__ Windows Media Services (WMS) is streaming media server software that allows a Windows Server administrator to generate streaming media (audio/video). Only Windows Media, JPEG, and MP3 formats are supported. WMS is the successor of NetS ...

) It was eventually incorporated into the media server functionality of Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). Netshow server and encoder functionality was also integrated into PowerPoint as part of the Online Broadcast functionality in Microsoft Windows 95. * NetShow Encoder (renamed

Windows Media Encoder Windows Media Encoder (WME) is a discontinued, freeware Multimedia, media codec, encoder developed by Microsoft which enables content developers to convert or capture both live and prerecorded audio, video, and computer screen images to Windows Me ...

) * NetShow Real-Time Encoder * ASF Editor * NetShow Presenter * VIDTOASF * WAVTOASF * ASFCHOP tp://ftp.microsoft.com/services/technet/samples/ps/win98/Reskit/APPS/NETSHOW/download.htm Microsoft Net Show 2.0 FTP Archive/ref> * NetShow Channel (renamed Windows Media Station) * NetShow Server (also known as Theater Server): A high bitrate, full frame, on-demand streaming media solution for closed-circuit networks (such as airplanes or hotels).

Related technologies

*Active Streaming Format (ASF) (later renamed ''Advanced Streaming Format'', then to ''

Advanced Systems Format Advanced Systems Format (formerly Advanced Streaming Format, Active Streaming Format) is Microsoft's proprietary digital audio/digital video container format, especially meant for streaming media Streaming media refers to multimedia de ...

'') *

Microsoft Media Server Microsoft Media Server (MMS), a Microsoft proprietary network-streaming protocol, serves to transfer unicast data in Windows Media Services (previously called NetShow Services). MMS can be transported via UDP or TCP. The MMS default port is U ...

(MMS)

References

Internet Explorer Microsoft Windows multimedia technology Windows communication and services {{microsoft-software-stub