Help using QuickTime

All live and archived video streams on this site require Apple's QuickTime (version 4.1 or later) to be installed. You can download QuickTime free from Apple's website.

The latest version of QuickTime provides new streaming capabilities for users. In addition to streaming using RTSP/RTP standards-based transport, it can now also use HTTP as a transport for streaming.

While HTTP doesn’t always provide the best streaming performance, it does allow most users behind firewalls to receive QuickTime streams.

Firewalls are designed to protect corporate information, but they can also prevent you from viewing live QuickTime streams. This is because firewalls are frequently configured to block data protocols that QuickTime uses for streaming.

How to set up QuickTime for streaming

QuickTime 4.1 & later is designed to automatically configure your streaming connection the first time you try to play a streaming movie. If you are having trouble with streaming or have moved your machine from one network to another then you may want to manually configure your QuickTime streaming network settings to establish the best streaming connection possible.

1. Open the QuickTime Settings control panel.

2. Choose Streaming Transport from the pop-up.

3. Click Auto Configure. If QuickTime is able to establish a connection you will see a dialog: "The network connection has been successfully configured". If QuickTime is unable to establish a connection you will see a dialog: "The network connection could not be established". If QuickTime successfully configured your connection, you’re done.

If QuickTime could not configure your connection, then continue to step 4.

4. If your firewall is blocking direct network access, then you will need to use a proxy server. You can tell QuickTime about your proxy servers by opening the Streaming Proxy dialog from the QuickTime Settings control panel.

5. Check the Use System Settings check box to use the system settings you have already established with your web browser. If you uncheck this box, you may enter the name and port ID of any of your proxy servers.You will need to get this information from your system administrator.

6. After selecting a proxy server, you will need to manually set the correct transport in the Streaming Transport panel.

If you are using a SOCKS proxy server, you should first try setting "Use UDP, RTSP port 554." If that doesn’t work, try setting "Use HTTP, port 80".

If you are using an RTSP proxy server, you should set the Streaming Transport to "Use UDP, RTSP port 554."

If you are using an HTTP proxy server, you need to set the Streaming Transport to "Use HTTP, port 80."

For Network Address Translation (NAT) Server Users

If you have a home or small business network in which several computers are connected to the Internet through an ISDN, ADSL, cable modem, or other high speed connection, you may run into problems accessing QuickTime movies streamed with the RTP/RTSP protocol.

If your access device performs network address translation, allowing multiple computers at your site to share a single IP address, then you will either need that router to understand RTSP or you will have to use HTTP as a transport mechanism.

Recommendations for Firewall Administrators

QuickTime follows the conventions of the RTP and RTSP Internet standards to stream media over the web. To enable QuickTime 4.1 to work properly inside your firewall, please follow the following IETF recommendation:

Open port 554 for RTSP/TCP data.

Open ports 6970 through 6999 (inclusive) for RTP/UDP data.