I am managing a site where we stream around two-hundred 10-20 minute videos. The videos are not live, they are all prerecorded. Currently they are all MPEG4 or H.264 encoded ".mov" files. For the past several years I have used quicktime and the quicktime embed html component to show the videos. The files are just hosted on a cheap server as typical web files (i don't have a streaming server).
I want to find a better solution for video streaming? I would prefer to use a solution where not the videos are hosted on my own server (not youtube). I have looked into some really nice technologies such as Move Network's Move Plugin
http://www.movenetworks.co
http://www.movenetworks.co
However, their solution is very expensive and my budget is very low. I am looking for the best free or low cost solutions (less than $100).
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I have a simple shared HTTP file server account with scripting (PHP, JSP, Perl, and others). I pay about $80 per year for this shared account, i have no access to the server and i don't think i have administrative priveledges.
The videos are usually encoded for "Quicktime quick start".
I am now looking at flow player. What do you think?
http://flowplayer.org/
Flow Player is a great choice. I've used it before myself. However, this still doesn't solve the issue of you getting a streaming server. Though Flowplayer does have streaming abilities, you won't be able to use the streaming ability without a server that supports streaming video.
To be frank, there are no streaming server solutions that you can get for less than $50 a month, that would handle that amount of video. And there are no streaming solutions, that I know of and would recommend for you, for less than $80-$100 per month. Streaming servers are simply not cheap.
Unless you're willing to build your own streaming server and host it somewhere (maybe for $40-$50 per month) or pay for a streaming solution that will support all your content, your best bet may be to continue onward with progressive download as you have now.
What is your main goal for displaying the video?
You may want to consider Vimeo's Plus services:
- http://www.vimeo.com/plus
I am now looking into Microsoft IIS 7.0 smooth streaming.
http://www.iis.net/extensi
However, my shared server uses (IIS 7.0) but they don't have the extension installed. So i might end up just hosting the files from my home on a personal server. But then i have the problem of not having a static DNS.
Any suggestions?
You could request your current IIS 7.0 host to install the smooth streaming plugin - it's free.
Also, why would your DNS not be static? Do you mean your IP? You could request a static IP from your internet provider, sometimes they will do this for free, other times for a small additional monthly cost.
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by: pavyPosted on 2009-09-26 at 21:30:27ID: 25432784
Hi,
A few things:
1. Are your movies encoded to stream?
2. About how much bandwidth a month are you currently using? Have you ever thought about using the FLV (Flash video) format?
3. You said less than $100...did you mean less than $100 per month (for a hosting solution)? Or less than $100 per year...? If you meant per month, there are other solutions out there aside from Move Networks, which may fit your budget, but this largely depends on your bandwidth usage.
4. Have you thought about setting up your own streaming server? You could build one yourself on Apache, then just host the server (colocation) at a place that does that. Usually larger cities have such places. Again, bandwidth will be a factor.