web space

[freedom]

Anybody care to share experiences with streaming high quality video over the net? Looking for good bargains in hosting with the capability of good looking video streaming without stuttering or other problems. Like to have up to 5 minute clips on the site. Not sure the bandwidth limits and what they mean to real world streaming of video.
Thanks

[Matt Box]

This may be a bit of a diversion from your post... But I was just reading a news blog that was about how more and more reporters are putting their reels on youtube and how the station managers love the idea over having to fumble through vhs tapes and dvd's.

Many sites now are able to put a direct linking playback screen on their site that shows the video they posted on youtube. The people browsing your site don't get re-directed over to the youtube site which is nice and you don't have to use up a lot of space on your domain to store the video's. Yes there are quality compromises but it may be something to look into.

[bottom_feeder]

For less than a hundred bucks a year you can get a dot mac account at apple. It gives you streaming servers that kick butt, ease of use, email, access from any computer that has web access and you don't have to bother with registering a domain name.
All for under a c note annually
I use it to post client videos online for their approval prior to air.

[freedom]

BF
Sounds good...
Do you need to own a mac?
Good, high res streaming?
Thanks

[Flaca Productions]

my site is from .mac - but i'm all mac, all the time.

i've been looking for a good way to stream video for a while now - i've switched over to converting all my video to Flash files - nice quality at a smaller file size - but the key is that you don't usually need a specific video player (quicktime, wmp, etc) to view them - flash is very cross-platform friendly.

i figure that anyone that is in this business and makes a habit of viewing video online, is going to have a pretty quick connection, so when i post a new video, i test it out on a couple of friends first to see if it plays/streams ok for them before i post it.

since i'm mac, i use iWeb as my website 'designer'....i like playing with it and there are a ton of templates...

[PHX Shooter]

Flash is the way to go. Especially when you use the On2 VP6 codec, which I think does a much better job than the standard Spark codec. Sorenson Squeeze has this in some of their packages as does Premier Pro 2.0. If you use Dreamweaver 8.0, there's an easy workflow that allows you to embed the Flash video into the Web page without having to muck about with any coding, I use it daily and it works GREAT. I typically set is for around 300-400Kb total data rate. Cable modems will support a higher rate, but if it's for wide distribution, I like to be safe.
As for a host, I use Network Solutions, about $19 a month with a decent amount of disk space and bandwidth. I'm hosting over 50 video files right now ranging from 1-5 minutes. You also get the benefit of setting up an ftp server to upload/download files with clients.
You can see an example here (http://www.lmgvideo.com/SVFF06). BTW, this is just a quick and dirty Web page for a client video review.

[BluesCam]

Go Daddy might be a decent low cost option for hosting (ignore their 9th grade commercials). I agree with using Flash for the video. I just encoded 6 videos for a client and they love the quality.

[Ruff]

I also use Apple's .Mac and iWeb. It is fast and easy and reliable.

Flash videos are a very good way of sharing files also.

Cheers,

Ben

[freedom]

Holy shiite batman! Flash 8 Pro is $700!
Short of piracy, is there a cheaper option? Flash Basic is stripped of most of the video tools.

[Baltimore Shooter]

Holy shiite batman! Flash 8 Pro is $700!
Short of piracy, is there a cheaper option? Flash Basic is stripped of most of the video tools.

It's a little less at pcmall.com, $694.

Warren

[PHX Shooter]

Freedom, Do you need to do Flash authoring? Are you the one responsible for embedding it into the Web page? If so, then you probably need to buy Flash, but if not, all you need to do is encode it. Check out Sorenson Squeeze for Flash, think it's $295. Dreamweaver will also make your life better if you need to do HTML, but it is on the more expensive side.

[Dan R.]

Swish Video is a flash video encoder that runs $30. I have had a few problems with its conversions being corrupt every once in a while, otherwise it is an inexpensive option.

Watch out for your bandwidth usage on your hosting account. Overages are usually $3/GB (500GB over is $1500 in overage charges).

Youtube/Google video is a bandwidth-free way to host video, but at low quality and the high risk of inappropriate videos being tacked onto the end or alongside of your videos.

[freedom]

I have my own website and have some ideas for another. So I'm the web designer, the web master and everything else. I don't do web design for others.
I'm currently using FrontPage but am considering a move since that is no longer being published. I can upgrade to Expression Web for under $100 for website design & creation.
Can I use Swish Video to encode flash into my EW website?
Dan, any suggestions on how to avoid the big hosting overages? How much bandwidth is a 5 minute video each time it's viewed?
I really don't have much of an understanding of how Flash works within any website design.
Any good tutorials for a web novice?
Thanks

[Dan R.]

Swish Video outputs html code with every video you convert, so you just copy and paste the code into the web page that you want to embed it on. As for bandwidth, there would only be two instances where you could go over the limit. One is if you upload lots of video (say, one hour or more), the other if you have a few clips that somehow get popular and get passed around (or worse, posted on Fark or Slashdot). Most hosting providers will just shut the site down if you reach your limit, the more shady ones will quietly let you go over and send you the big bill at the end of the month. If your host has a control panel (like Plesk) for your site, there should be a running bandwidth total that you can check periodically. The main thing is to check how much data transfer you have per month and how you can keep an eye on it.

Most of the time, it's not going to be a problem to have a few 5 minute clips on there. Unless one of them becomes 'viral' and gets linked around the web, you should be OK.

[freedom]

Hmmm, slashdot...I shot those guys. They better not crash my site!
Thanks Dan, got a swish URL?

[Canonman]

Hmmm, slashdot...I shot those guys. They better not crash my site!
Thanks Dan, got a swish URL?

Just Google for the title Swishmax or Swish Video. I used Swishmax as a Flash alternative and was very happy with it when I did some website stuff a while back. What I really liked is that it comes with some effects already whereas Flash had nothing but a blank timeline staring back at you and everything was roll your own.

cm

[Dan R.]

Here is the link:

http://www.swishzone.com/index.php?area=products&product=video

[freedom]

thanks Dan & C-man

[A Step Above Productions]

I use a provider called playstream.com all I have to do is drag the video into a file on their end and the video is there. I get a link and it is as easy as that. I can link the video on my website or send the link to a client to open.

It works for me.