VMware Horizon – Multi Media Redirection (MMR)

Release date: June 26th 2022

Welcome to my VMware Horizon series. In this session I will describe how I configured Multi Media Redirection (MMR) for my Horizon Desktops. This is done by configuring the MMR Settings in the VMware Horizon Administrator Console. I will also have to open the firewall port 9427 between my UAG’s and the Horizon Desktops.

Using MMR is however not without caveats and limitations. For instance, only Windows Media Player, can be used to playback media from within the Horizon Desktop, using VLC for instance, won’t work. The only supported media formats are: M4V; MOV; MP4; MPEG-4 Part 2; WMV 7, 8, and 9; WMA; AVI; ACE; MP3. Also, MMR will only work for virtual desktops that run on single-user machines and for published desktops on RDS hosts. Make sure to check the system requirements before continuing: System Requirements for Multimedia Redirection (MMR)

MMR will deliver the multimedia directly to client, which means the multimedia is processed/decoded on the client pc. This will offload the workload from the ESXi hosts. Because the multimedia stream is sent across the network un-encrypted, it is important to utilize the Horizon Secure Tunnel, which will encrypt the stream between the clients and the UAG’s. However the data stream between the UAG’s and the Horizon Desktops, won’t be encrypted.

To configure the Secure Tunnel in the UAG’s, configure the Horizon Settings as show below.

The actual enabling of Multi Media Redirection is done from within the Horizon Administrator console.

Official VMware Documentation about this topic:

Managing Access to Windows Media Multimedia Redirection (MMR)

System Requirements for Windows Media MMR

Enabling Multimedia Redirection in Horizon

Use Windows Media MMR Based on Network Latency

VMware Horizon planning, deployment etc.

Official VMware Horizon 8 Documentation

Disclaimer: Every tips/tricks/posting I have published here, is tried and tested in different it-solutions. It is not guaranteed to work everywhere, but is meant as a tip for other users out there. Remember, Google is your friend and don’t be afraid to steal with pride! Feel free to comment below as needed.