Newbie - streaming video.

[zalek]

Hello,

I created some video clips in .AVI format (2 - 20MB) and put it on my
web site, but when I click on it - the site ask me to download first
the whole file before displaying it. Is there other way to do it, so
the video will start plaing before downloading the whole file? Where
can I find information about this process? Any good interenet sites or
books with information about streaming video?

Thanks,

Zalek

 

[Mark Burns]

Streaming video requires cooperating software on the WEB server and the
client computer. Macromedia Flash is a good example of this.

You will have to contact your ISP WEB host to see what software is
available for this, or run from your own WEB server. Those who wish to
view your clips would have to agree to have the same software on their
computers, genreally installed from server WEB page. One can generally
count on their ISP rent going up for this, as streaming video can use
much more bandwidth.

What you are doing now is pretty straight forward and standard HTML.
It would be the same for viewing a PDF file for that matter. For most
people this is best, with short clips that download quickly or maybe an
optional long clip for those who want to download the whole thing.

Cheers...

 

[Martin]

Hello,

I created some video clips in .AVI format (2 - 20MB) and put it on my
web site, but when I click on it - the site ask me to download first
the whole file before displaying it. Is there other way to do it, so
the video will start plaing before downloading the whole file? Where
can I find information about this process? Any good interenet sites or
books with information about streaming video?

Thanks,

Zalek

The term you need is 'progressive download' - where a media file plays as it
downloads instead of waiting for download to complete before playback can
begin.

Take a look at Windows Media Encoder - free from:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx

Windows Media Encoder produces Windows Media Video or Windows Media Audio
files which - if encoded with care - are perfect for being hosted on a
website.
The quality of the encodings versus the filesize is also very good.
And you should be able to host them on a webserver with nothing else needed
to make them progressive downloads - view as they download.

Martin.

 

[cwdjrxyz]

Hello,

I created some video clips in .AVI format (2 - 20MB) and put it on my
web site, but when I click on it - the site ask me to download first
the whole file before displaying it. Is there other way to do it, so
the video will start plaing before downloading the whole file? Where
can I find information about this process? Any good interenet sites or
books with information about streaming video?

See my pages concerning streaming media that can be reached at
http://www.cwdjr.info/media/playersRoot.php . Most of the video
examples can be reached at the broadband link at the top of the page,
although a few examples of low speed videos are given in other
sections. Some of the broadband examples require a connection with an
actual bitrate of over 2 Mbps to start in a reasonable time, although
most likely would play on dialup if you waited several minutes for
buffering to complete.

Media can be streamed(using progressive download) from an ordinary html
server if you want to stream individual cuts rather than a live event.
Very busy sites may require a special streaming server.

Although one can get media to stream on a 56 KB dialup connection, you
can not use a bit rate of more than about 30 kbps, and the videos
recorded at such a slow rate leave much to be desired. AVIs are very
demanding of bandwidth compared to some other formats. I suggest that a
Microsoft .wmv format or a Real video format be used instead. Both
Microsoft and Real have free encoders for their formats. Many
commercial sites use 3 different bit rates. One is for dialup, one is
for lower broadband, and another is for higher broadband. The user can
then select the speed best suited for their connection. On a streaming
server, this speed selection can sometimes be done automatically.

To stream, the player must first buffer enough download so that it can
keep up with the video without pause before it finishes. If you tried
to play a video that is perhaps 20 MB long and runs 5 minutes(this
would be at a high broadband speed) it would buffer only a very short
time and then start playing if you had perhaps a 2.5 Mbps broadband
connection. If you try to play the same video on dialup it will have to
buffer nearly as long as the download time for a 20 MB file, which
might be up to nearly 30 minutes. In other words, you have to consider
for what audience a video is aimed.

 

[ewinter]

That's great info. What about Flash? I see swf files on things like
http://thetotaltransformation.com/Testimonials.php . Are those videos
"Streaming"?

 

[Travis Newbury]

That's great info. What about Flash? I see swf files on things like
http://thetotaltransformation.com/Testimonials.php . Are those videos
"Streaming"?

Depends. If you have the Flash streaming server running then they are
streaming, otherwise you can either embed the video into the swf (makes
it very big) or you can progressively download it.

Other advantages of Flash video is it makes it through firewalls where
other video won't and you have much more control over it and it's
environment (even more so with Flash 8) Many of the big media outlets
are switching to Flash video. Fox news and espn come to mind right off
the top of my head.

Disadvantage is the server software (if you are streaming) is a little
pricier, as is the service from companies like Akamai (who we use)
Most professional video editing software has plug-ins to create Flash
video. There are also a few freeware encoders if you don't have one.
Big disadvantage of Flash video is "live". It is not as simple as
(say) using Microsoft Media encoder. But if you are serving either
streamed, or progressive download on demand content then Flash should
be looked at.

 

[ewinter]

Thanks Travis,
In the first paragraph you say there are 3 options: 1) Stream
(requires server software) 2) Embed in swf or 3) Progressive
download.

What does progressive download mean? What does production and
consumption look like. Let's say I have a website, a video in avi and
flash authoring skills. What do i do? How does a visitor to my site
experience the movie? They just click on a play button and see the
movie play? Is there any automatic assignment of the right sized file
based on bandwidth?

Also, when you say the downside of Flash is "live", you mean that Flash
is not good for broadcasting live events. yes?

Thanks for any clarification you can provide.

 

[decoder]

flash authoring skills. What do i do? How does a visitor to my site
experience the movie? They just click on a play button and see the
movie play? Is there any automatic assignment of the right sized file
based on bandwidth?

Yes, that is it in a nutshell.

Also, when you say the downside of Flash is "live", you mean that Flash
is not good for broadcasting live events. yes?

Well, it invariably means that the visitor to your site cannot do the norm
of Right-clicking a clip and selecting "Save target as"

 

[ewinter]

I don't follow you decoder. Part of the question was "What do I do?".
How does one get the video to a state where someone on either Mac or PC
or Linux can simply click on it and see the appropriate bandwidth
version?

 

[Travis Newbury]

Thanks Travis,
In the first paragraph you say there are 3 options: 1) Stream
(requires server software) 2) Embed in swf or 3) Progressive
download.
What does progressive download mean?

Progressive download means that the browser downloads the file just
like it would (say) a PDF file, or a large JPG. The player will start
playing the video as soon as it has enough to start playing. If their
internet connection is faster than it is playing, then the
use sees the video playing just like it was streaming. If the
connection is slower than the video playing, then the player will pause
ever time it runs out of stuff to play.

You can control a little of this by the size and speed you encode the
video at.

What does production and
consumption look like. Let's say I have a website, a video in avi and
flash authoring skills. What do i do?

You use the Flash encoder built into Flash (MX or better) The flash
help files will walk you through it. Flash 8 now comes with a stand
alone encoder.

How does a visitor to my site
experience the movie? They just click on a play button and see the
movie play?

That depends on how you have it on your site. If Flash video, you put
a Flash video component in your flash file. It comes with all the
needed buttons. If some other kind of file (wmv, mpg etc...) then you
can either have the player embedded in the HTML, or you can just
include a link to the file and let the user decide how they want to
deal with the video.

Is there any automatic assignment of the right sized file
based on bandwidth?

This depends on how you encode it. There is a thing called "Variable
Bit Rate" which allows you to encode a video at various speeds in the
same file. We have not had a lot of luck with this. We like providing
different links for different speeds. Let the user choose. If they
try one and it does not work well, then they will chose a slower one.

Also, when you say the downside of Flash is "live", you mean that Flash
is not good for broadcasting live events. yes?

Broadcasting live events is not one of Flashes strengths. But you can
do it. Microsoft Media encoder, or real is much simpler.

 

[\R&B\]

Hello,

I created some video clips in .AVI format (2 - 20MB) and put it on my
web site, but when I click on it - the site ask me to download first
the whole file before displaying it. Is there other way to do it, so
the video will start plaing before downloading the whole file? Where
can I find information about this process? Any good interenet sites or
books with information about streaming video?

Thanks,

Zalek

..avi is a poor choice for streaming video. Try something smaller, like a
compressed .wmv or .mov. Even Real Media (.rm), as much as I hate it, and
as much as it is being rendered obsolete (and thank God for that) is a
better choice than .avi. Nobody streams .avi files.

Most higher-end encoding software gives you the choice between presets that
will encode your file to either a "downloadable" media file (which has to be
fully downloaded before it'll start playing) or a "streaming" media file
(which will start playing once enough of it has downloaded to allow the
player to start playing it, then will continue downloading the rest while
the first part is playing).

Randy