Streaming Media

[djchuang]

I'm wondering what level of web hosting service is required, or if it's an additional option, to host streaming media (Real, Quicktime, WMV?) at a TCH server? Please reply with info & costs.

 

Thank you,

DJ Chuang

[LisaJill]

You would require dedicated hosting for streaming media. The details of the pricing can be located on the dedicated hosting page

 

Hope that helps! =)

[Munnin]

Would the:

 

Semi-Dedicated*

Fully Managed

account be sufficient?

[Munnin]

Oh I am only interseted in streaming Real Audio not vidio.

[MikeJ]

Only on dedicated servers do we allow you to run your own services (such as a streaming media server which would be required for a true streaming audio or video). Semi-dedicated are still shared with other users and therefore we don't allow user run services on them.

 

That doesn't mean you can't embed sound files in webpages for a psuedo streaming on shared servers (some sound files will start to play while they are downloading), you just don't get the true streaming capability.

[Munnin]

Got some better numbers, it looks like it would require a peak of 100 simultaneous connections of AM quality real audio. What is the difference between fully managed and not fully managed servers?

[thqh]

if streaming audio/video is not allowed on shared hosting plans, are downloadable media files allowed because I like to add music samples to my content.

[LisaJill]

Yes, you can have download links to them. You just can't do live streaming. =)

[TCH-Rick]

A point of clarification, you cannot stream using Real Time Streaming (RTSP) which requires server software. You can stream some file types using HTTP. I found a nice site at http://cit.ucsf.edu/embedmedia/step1.php that creates the code to do this. You can see an example I put up on my site at http://veazeys.com/rain.html. It is in wmv format and uses code from the site above. (I will not be leaving this up for long.) You can see if that is what you have in mind.

[thqh]

that is exactly what I meant.

You don't consider this kind of video/audio as "streaming"?

[TCH-Rick]

It is streaming but using html code rather than encoded on the server. Real Media, Quicktime, and Windows Media all have server-side software that encodes and streams in real-time which allows things like streaming a live performance or event in addition to digital files.

 

Basically you can stream using html. It is similar to providing the files as downloads but the files can actually begin playing before the download is complete. Some file formats will actually have to be completely downloaded before they will play while others will start before the download is complete. You can run a Google search on 'video streaming html' and get lots of links that discuss the advantages and characteristics of different file types.

 

So you can stream in this manner. It is worth mentioning that streaming video and audio files can use a lot of bandwidth, just as providing the files as downloads would use a lot of bandwidth. It is important to keep an eye on your stats if you have something like this on your site.

[thqh]

thanks for clearing this