I know all the films on this site are re-formatted to streaming by Chris when they are submitted, but how can I do that myself? What programs do I need? Is it difficult? Do I need anything special to host it? I can already get my firlms pretty well compressed using Quicktime Pro and shrinking it down in an mp4, but streaming would take it to the next level.

if you have quicktime pro then you can already do it. MOV files have options for streaming (so does MP4), look in your settings...try this:

open the file. export -> set it to Quicktime Movie -> click on options. The last option is prepare for internet streaming.


Do you need to know how to embed the file in html or do you know that already? Let me know if you need help with that too and i will post it.

Jeff, embedding would be helpful to know anyway.

-Elliott

I actually found out how to embed earlier today. Here's a link to some great stuff. http://smw.internet.com/video/tutor/
direct link to embedding: http://smw.internet.com/symm/tutor/qtime1/index9.html

Any idea on what kind of codec is best to stream with when not using quicktime? What does everyone think about Flash's new video player?

<EMBED SRC="yourmovie.mov" WIDTH=320 HEIGHT=240 AUTOPLAY=true CONTROLLER=true LOOP=false PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/">

That'll do it in most cases, size as needed.

Regarding flash video, i own flash pro 2004, and use streaming video on my website in both quicktime and flash video formats. The verdict? I'll tell you this much: it is exceptional in cdrom deployments. It definitely works for the web, but the problems i have seen are 1 - the rollout of flash player 7, needed for video, has still not reached full saturation. Subsuquently i have a sniffer script on my page forcing a download. Minor inconvenience. 2 - Video within flash seems to be a bit more processor intensive than standard QT files are of the same size.

It can definitely look cooler, being embedded in graphics and all, but it i think its still a year off from becoming the ubiquitous player we'd like it to be. Moreover, QT is a standard for a reason, hard to dismount the reigning champ. they'll coexist i think, depending on the user base and content.

Regarding other codecs, I hate real. The player is ugly and the codecs aren't very clean either in my opinion. If you are going to go other than QT or flash as you mentioned then windows media player is the only other format worth considering. Anything else and the odds of the average user having it pre-installed is low, reducing the likelihood of the content being viewed.

Damn, when did Flash actually have a video player?

-Elliott

technically its had capability since 5 via plugins but mx pro 2004 added true video functionality into the program. Videos must be encoded into FLV, or flash video, files. Sorenson does a good job at it.

Don't forget to mention Discreet Cleaner XL without it you won't be able to convert your processing hungry movie into streaming friendly computers worldwide. Plus with limited loss of video quality.

So I need Discreet Cleaner XL then? I was under the impression I could stream without it.

Jeff, thanks for the advice.

no, you dont need cleaner. If you do use cleaner, or sorenson squeeze (which i and and some others on this site think does a better job), you will get a cleaner video with better keyframing than dumping it straight into quicktime. The file will still work (and can be streamed) if you encode it straight in with quicktime, its your choice.

I have read a lot about streaming video,
but for real streaming video you need a special server for it... i know this is a old topic, but i want to know if i can use streaming video without buying a special server for it.

I think this website uses special servers.
But i cannot afford that, so can i use streaming video without needed to buy a server?

Thanks in advance,
Jerry

A streaming video file is just different from a regular video file--there's nothing different about the way it is hosted. You just need a lot of bandwidth. Instead of giving the video file to the computer all at once and playing it once it has finished, streaming video is encoded so it is sent in packets and played in succession while the download is in progress. The only "special" part about streaming video is the way it is encoded.

QuickTime is the only format worth using. Sorenson 3, MPEG4, and H.264 are the codecs to look into. If you have Sorenson Squeeze or a similar program look for multi-pass, variable-bit-rate compression.

Actually, true streaming files do need a special servers. And they use a protocol other than http which is RTSP. Many web hosts give you this option for free now. I pay $7 a month for a host that allows quicktime streaming and over 120 GB/month transfer. This type of streaming needs a server that's set up for streaming and there's no way around it. This is also fairly rare.

HTTP streaming (AKA pseudo streaming, fast-start, progressive download) is what studentfilms.com uses along with most others. Instead of streaming, there is a video file that gets downloaded to your computer. Only, you can start watching it before the file is completely downloaded. You don't need any special server because it is HTTP based and all the "streaming" qualities are handled 'client side' by quicktime and the quicktime browser plugin. It's amazingly robust and will allow for lots of customization. Unfortunately, as powerful as quicktime is, it has never been documented very well. I have learned many lessons through trial and error and tons of research. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. And in terms of embed/object tag coding, I suggest you steal from sites you like (or mine) with the "right-click > view source" trick.

Here's an example of some of the cool things you can do. Mac users can click this text link to see a neat video. This came off Al Gore's www.current.tv site.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: joren,

Thank you very much!
I shall come back to tell you how i did it,
but i think progressive streaming sounds good!