Video Streaming Options at MDD

[MjrNuT]

Hi,

 

I didn't want to clog up the other thread anymore: http://forums.mddhosting.com/index.php?showtopic=140

 

I was hoping someone could to describe to me the Streaming Audio/Video features available per the hosting page? http://www.mddhosting.com/hosting.php

 

My purpose is a personal family/friends site. TO share photos and videos. Per the other thread, I just didn't understand what Mike was trying to say. So please give me a Dummy guide or something.

 

I'd really to own my content on our site, rather than use a host b/c of rights to that content (i.e., youtube, facebook, etc.). The short premise for own personal site.

 

Thanks for any input and feedback.

 

Btw, I'm using Drupal 6 with Gallery2 embedded.

[Michael D.]

Hi,

 

I didn't want to clog up the other thread anymore: http://forums.mddhosting.com/index.php?showtopic=140

 

I was hoping someone could to describe to me the Streaming Audio/Video features available per the hosting page? http://www.mddhosting.com/hosting.php

 

My purpose is a personal family/friends site. TO share photos and videos. Per the other thread, I just didn't understand what Mike was trying to say. So please give me a Dummy guide or something.

 

I'd really to own my content on our site, rather than use a host b/c of rights to that content (i.e., youtube, facebook, etc.). The short premise for own personal site.

 

Thanks for any input and feedback.

 

Btw, I'm using Drupal 6 with Gallery2 embedded.

You can simply upload the videos and then embed them using some sort of player or directly

 

You are welcome to store/stream audio/video as long as you have permission or you are the copyright owner

[MjrNuT]

Errr, you make it seem so easy. I think I found a topic that helps me understand the difference much better:

 

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/streaming/overview.html

 

Understood on your last point too.

[Michael D.]

Ah, yeah - for a "real on-the-fly stream" you would need a specialized piece of software on the server and then a player that could support it - this is really important when it comes to streaming something that is *LIVE*.

 

When it comes to streaming video that is pre-recorded it's not an issue. Even the above mentioned method still transfers the data to the end-user's computer and stores it temporarily and "buffers" (temporary storage/download of the data) so that any hiccups in the connection can be handled without stuttering.

 

Imho there's little difference between using a "streaming server" and then using a streamable video format such as WMV unless you are actually dealing with live broadcasts.

[MjrNuT]

I'm not at all interested in the streaming servers. I'm fine w/ the buffered, d/l, partial d/l, etc. type.

 

I'm just now determining how to do that.

[Michael D.]

I'm not at all interested in the streaming servers. I'm fine w/ the buffered, d/l, partial d/l, etc. type.

 

I'm just now determining how to do that.

You can embed the file into your site and then the visitors should be able to hit the Play button to stream it, I've always just uploaded .mov files and linked to them

[supernix]

How come there aint no information much at all about streaming video even though you support it? Trying to get the whole issue narrowed down to better understand it myself and what it means that you support it. Obviously a LIVE stream is certainly out of the question unless you have a dedicated box of course.

[Michael D.]

You are welcome to convert any file to a streamable format such as flv or wmv and upload/embed it :-)

 

We allow it but we don't necessarily enable it. We do offer ffmpeg on our semi-dedicated plans and upon request on our VPS and Dedicated line.

[supernix]

You have to have FFMPEG for just about all programs that will allow you to upload and work with a video. This is not talking about a live stream just basic upload and manipulation.

[Michael D.]

You have to have FFMPEG for just about all programs that will allow you to upload and work with a video. This is not talking about a live stream just basic upload and manipulation.

Well if you're wanting to run a video upload site then you would need a Semi-Dedicated plan or a VPS. If you just want to embed videos to stream to your visitors and you don't plan on offering a video upload for your visitors then you could just download the desktop version of FFMPEG and convert the files on your PC and then upload/embed them.

 

We offer solutions if you want to run a video upload type of site but it's not something you can do on a standard shared plan because of the cpu/resource usage of FFMPEG while it's actually converting a video.

 

If you've ever transcoded a video on your PC/Mac and watched the CPU/Ram usage during that process you would understand why we don't allow such a process in a standard shared environment.

 

If you want to offer video transcoding to your clients I would suggest a VPS where we would be more than happy to install FFMPEG/mplayer/mencoder/etc... and then you can host your clients and offer video transcoding as well.

 

You don't have to have FFMPEG to stream audio and/or video content but you do need it to convert the video on-server.

[supernix]

I was doing a file upload of a video on how to post to Joomla sites but couldn't find a alternative to be able to display the video. All the video players I found for Joomla just about all them require FFMPEG or something called Red5. I have found some extensions that allow you to embed the file into a Joomla page but I am not getting very much luck with them. I have a Gallery site installed on HostGator but they don't allow FFMPEG at all unless you have a dedicated or VPS account. It is kinda odd as the FFMPEG file is only a very small binary so it does not look like it would cause that much of a problem. I guess it is the fact that it would run for more than a few seconds at a time.

[Michael D.]

The size of the binary has absolutely nothing to do with how CPU intensive it is. I could write a binary that is 100kb and could crash a server in a heart beat or a 120mb binary that uses next to no cpu or ram to run.

 

Where the resource usage comes in is the intense calculations in the transcoding the audio and video streams from one format to another. I personally run a Quad Core Q8400 at home and whenever I am transcoding a video from one format to another - as long as that process takes - I am using 100% CPU on all 4 cores and unless I greatly reduce the priority of that process the entire system will become very sluggish. While this is fine on my home PC when I am transcoding it is not ok in a shared environment.

 

You may ask why don't we simply reduce the priority of transcoding processes and the answer is that there is no easy way to pick and choose which processes are going to get lower or higher priorities on an automated basis. Your script could launch the transcoding process at a reduced priority but most scripts aren't configured to be able to do this - especially not drop-in plugins for scripts such as Joomla.

 

If you really need FFMPEG for your gallery script, Joomla, etc... open a ticket with the sales department about upgrading to a VPS and we will see what we can do to get you onto a VPS that you can afford and will allow you and your clients to do what it is that you are trying to do.

 

Our Virtual Private Servers capable of FFMPEG transcoding start at $40.50/month fully managed with cPanel+WHM and have no hard set limits on the number of accounts that you can host.

 

While it may seem as though we are limiting you on the standard shared/reseller plans - in truth what we are doing is working to guarantee the performance and reliability of said services. If everybody in our shared and reseller environments was able to launch FFMPEG conversion processes the server could potentially bog down very quickly under the extreme load those processes cause not only resulting in slow and sub-standard service but potential downtime.

[supernix]

That is actually not something I am looking to do I have coded many videos on my PC for personal and professional reasons and it does take a long time and lots of CPU time. I am still at a loss as to why all the programs want to recode the video rather than just take it as it is and use it.

[Michael D.]

That is actually not something I am looking to do I have coded many videos on my PC for personal and professional reasons and it does take a long time and lots of CPU time. I am still at a loss as to why all the programs want to recode the video rather than just take it as it is and use it.

As for that, I wouldn't know... I could only assume it's because the average user of said software wouldn't know how to do the conversion themselves outside of the web server environment.

 

I would simply edit the "html" of a post/page if possible and embed the video manually. I know that in WordPress you can edit the "html" version of a post and insert custom code to include videos, YouTube videos, etc... into a post. I'm not sure about Joomla but if it's not possible I would think there would be some sort of plug-in to enable it.

[supernix]

I have actually never had anyone request a server with ability to stream live video broadcast so not sure about any of the life stuff. Not sure if I ever met any webhoster that did have a client that did such a thing not that I don't think that anyone has any clients like that I am sure they do somewhere but it is such a unlikely thing for someone to request that I guess it never comes up much.

I do know that you can configure HTML manually in Joomla so if you wanted to hard code a solution I am sure it is possible. I see a lot of mention about LightBox and such but nobody ever used that when I was learning HTML programming so not sure about all the bells and whistles.

[Michael D.]

There is a huge difference between streaming a video and live streaming. Doing a live stream requires a server daemon that will receive data and then prepare it to be streamed out to the viewers where as any video in a format that can be played before fully downloaded can be streamed to the viewer.

 

What it means to stream is to play the video as it transfers/before it's finished downloading. To live stream something is to stream a video as it's being made before the video is finished.