Streaming Video Using Flash

[Ian Briscoe]

Richard

I've been having a play with Flix Pro from On2. Not sure if this gives what you want but you can download the demo - it puts a pretty obvious watermark both visually and audibly.

Here is an example. No comments on the content please - it was an early one. This isn't streaming (I'm also with 1&1 UK) but it does play pretty much immediately on my 1mb ADSL connection.

Ian

[Tim Ribich]

Originally Posted by Richard Wakefield

Hi Ian,

any advice greatly received...can i make quick-loading wmv, mov files that are just as good as streaming?

If you could persuade viewers to view in Firefox, MOV files beging playing very quickly. Same file in IE? [tick] [tick] [tick]

[Ian Briscoe]

Speaking of Firefox - could anybody help with this...

In Internet Explorer - if I click on a link to a .wmv file, Media Player opens immediately, the file starts buffering and when it gets to 100% buffered it starts playing while continuing to download the rest of the file.

But in Firefox all I can ever do is download the ENTIRE file and then open it afterwards. Is there a setting/plug-in I'm missing?

Thanx

Ian

[Alastair Brown]

No...it does the same on mine as well ......agree it's annoying.

[Christopher Lefchik]

Originally Posted by Ian Briscoe

Speaking of Firefox - could anybody help with this...

In Internet Explorer - if I click on a link to a .wmv file, Media Player opens immediately, the file starts buffering and when it gets to 100% buffered it starts playing while continuing to download the rest of the file.

But in Firefox all I can ever do is download the ENTIRE file and then open it afterwards. Is there a setting/plug-in I'm missing?

Thanx

Ian

I'm afraid there is nothing you can do about that on your end. There can be multiple reasons for why the video would download first before playing, but the basic reason is that the browser doesn't know it should hand it off to WMP first. There are various ways that Webmasters and/or content producers can solve this. See this thread for more information: Rendering to WMV progressive download format

The reason IE will hand of WMV videos to WMP immediately before downloading it is because they are both Microsoft products, so Microsoft purposely designed IE to handle WMV files in that manner. I can't blame Microsoft for designing IE this way, though the end result is that many Webmasters and content producers do not use proper techniques that will enable all browsers to properly hand off WMV files to WMP for progressive download.

[Ian Briscoe]

Christopher

Thanx for the info. It really is a shame - spoils an otherwise great product.

Ian

[Christopher Lefchik]

Originally Posted by Richard Wakefield

This reply from 1and1:

"Unfortunately none of our shared hosting package support the media
streaming.
You can only upload your video or audio files to your webspace and
create hyperlinks to those files from your web pages and the users have
to download them before they can play them on their local pc.
IF you want the media streaming support, you have to go for the Windows
Server 3 package and it is the only package that support this."

That's correct in a technical sense. However, what they fail to tell you is that all HTTP servers can do progressive downloading. This isn't "true" streaming, which does require a special server, but for most people progressive download is sufficient. Hey, even Apple uses progressive download for all their trailers.

[Peter Chung]

Originally Posted by Patrick Moreau

I too have noticed that I cannot scrub through the video clips once they have loaded. It is a template that I am uploading the clips to and so I don't have much control over that. The upside is that once the clip is exported, it is very easy to get it onto our site.

Patrick,

This is because the flash encoder does not put any metadata into the file. If you want to be able to scrub the file, you have to manually inject the metadata. If you're on a Mac, do a search for flvtool2. If using Windows, I think the program is called flvmdi (flv meta data injector)?


Richard,

I, too, am using 1and1 for my hosting. You don't need a true streaming media server. Flash supports progressive downloads, which emulates streaming.

[Josh Chesarek]

I am also on 1and1 and use both WMVs, MOVs, and Flash on the sites I have hosted there all using progressive downloads which to most people act just like a streaming clip. As to making sure that the files are progressivly downloaded you can make a .htaccess file for your server if allowed which helps control such things for your viewers.

[Mark P. Stuart]

I can vouch for 1&1 Uk hosting - first class. Starts streaming within a few seconds.

The latest flash codec is so good. Less need nowadays to go doen the route of seperate wmv and mov files and complicate things for the average punter viewing our sites.

[Richard Wakefield]

finally cracked it!! (and I use 1and1 uk by the way)

thanks to some advice, and help from Alastair, I've managed to get a decent movie clip using a Flash8 file (rendered from Premiere Pro2) being played using a web-Flash player, with very little in terms of extra html code:

http://www.fxfilms.co.uk/croatiaflash.htm

cheers everyone...
(now i've just gotta go and do my wedding demos too!)

[William Osorio]

check my site flash samples and I will explain::

http://videoideasproductions.com/video_demo.htm

http://videoideasproductions.com/social_events_demo.htm

[Richard Wakefield]

hi william....ok, have checked them, v.good...now explain :)

did my test movie work ok for you??

cheers

[Alastair Brown]

Yes...I also demand an explanation!!!!!

Please;)

[William Osorio]

Ok Guys here is:::
Richard I saw your video, I think the window is too small, with that been said, just try Flash 8 Professional from Adobe Products.

1- output, make a document size of 320 x 248 (video will display on 320x213 the remaining of 248 will be 35 pixels this is used for video controls)
2- imported video can be a full screen 720x480
3- imported video can be @ 29.97 (30FPS)
4 - @ deployment stage use "progressive download from a web server"
5- in the encoding video settings use "400bps" Medium Quality"
6- in advenced options:: VIDEO CODEC: On2 VP6, Resize Video:: 320x213, Frame rate:: same as source, Audio data rate:: 128Kbps
7- pick any skin from selection (buttons etc)
8- Sit back and wait to render, depending of video TRT.
9- export video
10- go to html editor make page, link exported video to page
11- UPOLOAD TO WEB SERVER ! PRESTO.
in my case I use a Unix Web Server, I hate Windows Server, too many Holes.

IT WORKS,
William Osorio