Encoding .WMV files in Silverlight and Publishing to SharePoint 2010

Simply uploading a .WMV file to a SharePoint will not play via Silverlight. You will receive a ‘Media failed to load’ error message at the bottom of the Silverlight display window. The following post will walk you through the steps on how to encode your Windows Media Video and then how to publish that file to your SharePoint 2010 site.

What you’ll need:

1. Your .WMV file recording
2. Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 – download
3. Optional Service Pack 1 – download
4. Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 SharePoint 2010 plugin – download

Restrictions: .WMV files longer than 10 minutes. The reason for this is that the free version of Expression Encoder 4 limits video to 10 minutes; however, if you have the Encoder Pro version then there no time restrictions.

Once you have the downloads installed, it’s time to get started!

1. Start Expression Encoder. The default Load a new project screen will appear. Choose Silverlight Project.

   

2. Now to import your .WMV file. From Expression Encoder: File -> Import and browse to your .WMV file and then choose Open. Note: you can also drag and drop the file into Encoder.
3. At the bottom of Expression you’ll see a line item showing the name of your imported file and that Expression is Analyzing the file.
4. Once that is done you will see the details of your imported file.

   

5. Within the right hand columns find the Output section with a few categories below it.
6. Thumbnail: Here you can specify which frame to use as the thumbnail of the video. In my case it was simply the first slide in the PowerPoint deck.

   

7. Job Output: Here you will tell Encoder the local directory to save the encoded output and the option to preview the Silverlight video result in a browser.

   

8. Publish: In the Publish To section select SharePoint 2010 and check the box for Publish after encode. Now enter in your SharePoint Server address, Asset Library (this is the library name, not a URL address, took me forever to realize this part), and authentication method. Once you have done that simply click Authenticate and if all is well you’ll see a green dot. That is all for the Output section of Encoder.

   
   

9. Another handy section you might change is the Template section. This is where you can change the way the Silverlight controls display from the dropdown menu. By default there are 16, but you can get more online if you desire.

   

10. OK, now that we have all of our settings the way we want them, we are ready to finally Encode. (I say finally, but it’s really not that difficult).
11. Simply look down in the bottom left corner and click the Encode button

    

12. After that you’ll see the progress pie graph.

    

13. Once that is done you’ll have a local copy of the .WMV file and it will publish that file to the SharePoint destination that you defined earlier in Step #8. Also, if you flagged Preview in Browser in Step #7 then your default browser will open and display the Silverlight video.
14. Navigate to your Asset Library where you published the video, find your file and click play to view the Silverlight video.

    

15. Reward yourself with a coffee break, great job! J