Azure Media Services Explorer is a free Windows desktop client for managing Azure Media Services accounts, letting you upload, encode, protect and stream media assets through a graphical interface instead of SDK code.
Azure Media Services Explorer is an open-source Windows desktop application for running a media pipeline in Azure Media Services from a graphical interface. You connect to an account, upload source video, build an encoding job from a preset or custom transform, and then publish the finished asset through a streaming locator that returns HLS, DASH or Smooth URLs. The same window covers content protection, live events, storage association and job history, so the pieces of a streaming workflow stay in one place. Its purpose is verification and hands-on operation: developers, operators and testers who would otherwise write SDK calls can check exactly what a service account contains.
Azure Media Services Explorer is best understood as one of Microsoft's narrow administrative clients rather than a platform of its own. It talks to the Media Services API, so a task performed in the interface maps onto the same entities an SDK call would create: assets, transforms, jobs, streaming locators and content key policies. That makes it useful for confirming what code produced, but it is also practical on its own, which is why non-developers use it to test workflows. The wider pattern is familiar from other focused utilities, such as the AppLocker Policy Converter, where a single-purpose tool beats a general console. Since Microsoft retired the underlying service, the code now lives on as a fork for Ravnur Media Services.
The everyday value of Azure Media Services Explorer is that it turns a service account into something you can see. Instead of reading JSON responses, you get a list of assets with their encoding state, a job history that shows which transform produced what, and streaming URLs you can copy or play immediately. That visibility is what makes the tool useful for troubleshooting: when a published asset will not play, the same interface shows the locator, the streaming policy and the encryption settings side by side, which is where most failures are explained. Azure Media Services Explorer also removes a dependency on bespoke scripts for one-off tasks such as re-encoding a single file, downloading an archived source, or testing whether a live event ingests correctly. Bulk operations and asset filters handle the repetitive work, so large libraries can be managed without touching code.
Key capabilities and highlights.
Upload individual files or whole folders into a Media Services account, and pull an asset back down to local storage when you need the original source or the encoded output. Azure Media Services Explorer reports progress while transfers run, so ingesting a back catalogue does not lock up the interface or leave you guessing which files finished.
Create jobs from built-in adaptive streaming and audio presets, or define a custom transform when a delivery ladder needs specific bitrates and codecs. Queued and completed jobs are listed with their current state, so a failed encode is visible and can be resubmitted from the same screen without returning to the portal.
Configure content key policies and streaming policies for AES-128 encryption as well as DRM delivery, then use the resulting protected URLs. Building protection inside the tool keeps the key policy, the streaming policy and the asset it applies to in one view, which reduces the chance of publishing something less protected than intended.
Create streaming locators for on-demand content, start live events and their outputs, and copy the manifest URLs for HLS, DASH or Smooth playback. Azure Media Services Explorer can play a stream back inside the application, which shortens the loop between publishing an asset and confirming that viewers can watch it.
Sign in with an account or a service principal, switch between subscriptions and Media Services accounts, and see which storage account backs each one. Attaching additional storage or copying an asset between accounts happens through the interface rather than through separate command-line steps and credential juggling.
Asset filters publish a narrower view of one encoded asset, hiding specific tracks, quality levels or time ranges from a manifest. That avoids re-encoding a second version just to publish a trimmed clip or withhold one language track from part of an audience.
The job view keeps a record of previous encodes together with the settings and outcomes that produced them, which makes comparisons straightforward when output quality shifts. Bulk actions apply the same operation across many assets at once, a practical necessity once a library grows past the point where handling items individually is realistic.
Routine media tasks that normally require C# or REST calls are reachable through the desktop interface, which suits operators, support staff and testers who are not writing code. Options inside Azure Media Services Explorer also let administrators control whether telemetry is sent, so deployment policies can be respected in managed environments.
Browse historical releases and previous builds.
Common questions about Azure Media Services Explorer.
It is an open-source Windows desktop application from Microsoft for working with Azure Media Services. It uploads assets, creates encoding jobs from presets or custom transforms, configures protection policies, publishes streaming locators, and manages live events and storage accounts from a single interface.
No. The tool exists precisely so routine media operations can be performed without writing SDK calls. Developers still use SDKs for automation, but the GUI is faster for inspecting an account, testing a transform, or checking whether an asset actually streams.
It offers Microsoft's standard presets, including adaptive bitrate ladders for streaming and audio-only outputs, and you can define custom transforms when a preset does not match your delivery requirements. Resulting jobs can be monitored until they complete.
Yes. It supports content key policies and streaming policies for AES-128 encryption as well as DRM delivery, so protected assets can be published with the policy settings visible alongside them instead of being configured separately.
Both. Live events and their outputs can be created, started and stopped, with ingest details available for your encoder, while on-demand assets are published through streaming locators that return the playback URLs.
Microsoft retired the Media Services service and the original repository is no longer active. A fork maintained by Ravnur keeps the same application working against Ravnur Media Services, so the tool remains usable where that service is deployed.
Yes. You can connect with an interactive account or a service principal, switch between subscriptions and Media Services accounts, and see which storage account each one uses, which is convenient when separate projects each have their own service account.
It uses Application Insights for telemetry by default, and the setting can be switched off in the application options. Administrators in restricted environments can therefore run it without usage data leaving the machine.
Azure Media Services Explorer is a free Windows desktop client for managing Azure Media Services accounts, letting you upload, encode, protect and stream media assets through a graphical interface instead of SDK code.
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