how to provide a quick time movie

[windandwaves]

Hi Folk

I have a 18Megabyte quicktime movie. What is the best way to make it
available to users as a streaming video, rather than an 18Megabyte
download?

I know this is a pretty broad question, so you would probably have to
ask me some more questions. Sorry - I am just not really sure what is
relevant here.

Thank you

Nicolaas

 

[dorayme]

Hi Folk

I have a 18Megabyte quicktime movie. What is the best way to make it
available to users as a streaming video, rather than an 18Megabyte
download?

I know this is a pretty broad question, so you would probably have to
ask me some more questions. Sorry - I am just not really sure what is
relevant here.

What platform do you work on?

 

[cwdjrxyz]

Hi Folk

I have a 18Megabyte quicktime movie. What is the best way to make it
available to users as a streaming video, rather than an 18Megabyte
download?

I know this is a pretty broad question, so you would probably have to
ask me some more questions. Sorry - I am just not really sure what is
relevant here.

Thank you

Nicolaas

QT movies usually are at a fairly high bit rate, so a viewer needs to
be on broadband for them to stream well. In addition, most .mov files
will not stream unless they are "hinted". To do this, the most simple
method is to take the QT .mov, open it in a premium QT player, and
then store it. The stored .mov will then be hinted so that it can be
made to stream. The basic QT player will not hint a move, but it will
stream a .mov on the web that someone else has hinted. You have to pay
for the premium QT player, and it costs in the US$ 30-40 range from
Apple, if I remember correctly.

I have a hinted QT movie at http://www.cwdjr.info/video_extreme/cancanMOV.php
.. When the player comes up and shows the control bar, you will notice
that the progress bar starts filling showing the movie is loading. You
can then click the start button, and the QT movie will start playing.
If you connection is fast enough, the movie will play through without
stopping. If your broadband is not fast enough, the movie will pause
when the play indicator overtakes the loading progress display. If the
movie is not hinted, it will not be able to play until the download is
complete.

If you want the page in html strict, just view the source code on an
IE browser. On more modern browsers that support true xhtml, you get
the source written in xhtml. Do not use this unless you can support
server side php code for routing html to IE and xhtml to other
browsers, as true xhtml serverd properly as application/xhtml+xml will
not display on any IE browser, IE7 included.

The code I use is working on IE6 and recent Firefox, Opera, Safari for
Windows, Seamonkey browsers.

 

[dorayme]

QT movies usually are at a fairly high bit rate, so a viewer needs to
be on broadband for them to stream well. In addition, most .mov files
will not stream unless they are "hinted". To do this, the most simple
method is to take the QT .mov, open it in a premium QT player, and
then store it. The stored .mov will then be hinted so that it can be
made to stream. The basic QT player will not hint a move, but it will
stream a .mov on the web that someone else has hinted. You have to pay
for the premium QT player, and it costs in the US$ 30-40 range from
Apple, if I remember correctly.

I have a hinted QT movie at http://www.cwdjr.info/video_extreme/cancanMOV.php
. When the player comes up and shows the control bar, you will notice
that the progress bar starts filling showing the movie is loading. You
can then click the start button, and the QT movie will start playing.
If you connection is fast enough, the movie will play through without
stopping. If your broadband is not fast enough, the movie will pause
when the play indicator overtakes the loading progress display. If the
movie is not hinted, it will not be able to play until the download is
complete.

On this machine I have this download speed according to FF
Bandwidth meter this morning: 5671 kbps. I get pausing with
streaming videos most times (including with your video) until
replayed from cache when all is available. I have QT Pro. I
thought I had a "fast" connection, ADSL 2. But all is relative!

(btw, I still like this clip of yours, saw it last time you
mentioned it. Good one.)

 

[cwdjrxyz]

On this machine I have this download speed according to FF
Bandwidth meter this morning: 5671 kbps. I get pausing with
streaming videos most times (including with your video) until
replayed from cache when all is available. I have QT Pro. I
thought I had a "fast" connection, ADSL 2. But all is relative!

(btw, I still like this clip of yours, saw it last time you
mentioned it. Good one.)

My server is in the central US. It usually can easily put out well
over a 4 Mbps stream, but on rare occasions it might be overloaded for
some reason. I have found that delivery speed outside of North America
often is much slower. For instance I can get a download rate of over
2Mbps from a London test site. However I get a download rate that is
much lower from much of Europe and other countries including
Australia. My computer is capable of over 5 Mbps, as measured, from a
test site. I am using ATT/ Yahoo DSL service which can give about 3 to
6 Mbps depending on how close you live to the local ATT phone company.
Of course slowdowns can occur anywhere between my server and your
browser, and there are lots of devices, cables, satellites, etc in the
link between my server and you. One reason that streaming .mov files
are not all that common, is that you require a really fast connection
all of the way to get the videos to stream well without partial or
complete download. The quality is very good, but .wmv or .rm files
often can work at much lower kbps speeds, with considerable loss of
quality and reduced image size.

What kind of QT player you have does not matter in playing .mov files,
be they regular ones or hinted ones for streaming. The QT PRO player
is one way to hint .mov files you wish to stream. There likely are
other programs that will create .mov files that will do this, but many
of these will be expensive pay programs that may include much that
many people do not need.

 

[dorayme]

My server is in the central US. It usually can easily put out well
over a 4 Mbps stream, but on rare occasions it might be overloaded for
some reason. I have found that delivery speed outside of North America
often is much slower. For instance I can get a download rate of over
2Mbps from a London test site. However I get a download rate that is
much lower from much of Europe and other countries including
Australia. My computer is capable of over 5 Mbps, as measured, from a
test site. I am using ATT/ Yahoo DSL service which can give about 3 to
6 Mbps depending on how close you live to the local ATT phone company.
Of course slowdowns can occur anywhere between my server and your
browser, and there are lots of devices, cables, satellites, etc in the
link between my server and you. One reason that streaming .mov files
are not all that common, is that you require a really fast connection
all of the way to get the videos to stream well without partial or
complete download. The quality is very good, but .wmv or .rm files
often can work at much lower kbps speeds, with considerable loss of
quality and reduced image size.

What kind of QT player you have does not matter in playing .mov files,
be they regular ones or hinted ones for streaming. The QT PRO player
is one way to hint .mov files you wish to stream. There likely are
other programs that will create .mov files that will do this, but many
of these will be expensive pay programs that may include much that
many people do not need.

Thank you for the explanation.