Stream to the Internet

Ryuksapple84

Hey Guys,

I was wondering if some folks here could help me out. I want to create some videos and put them on a website so my coworkers may watch them over the net...

I would like to have them be able to visit a website and choose from about 10 videos and stream them on their browser... what would that look like on the server and development side?

Thanks guys.

Forsaken_GA

It's harder than you think, unfortunately. For starters, you have to decide what format you want to stream in. FLV? h264? Setting up a server to stream is a non trivial task. Your server side options are many, you could use Microsoft's solution (whos name escapes me at the moment), Adobe's Flash Media Server, or if you want to get your nerd on, setup lighttpd with mod_flv_streaming and/or mod_h264 streaming. Apache also has a streaming module, but I've never had good luck with it. This is all assuming the videos you have are in the correct format to begin with. If not, you get to have fun with ffmpeg, or whatever you want to use as an equivalent transcoder.

Then you have to set up a website to actually pull the content. Depending on what you want, that's almost going to certainly involve some coding involved, mostly in the player. The surrounding web page is whatever, you can do the player as a simple embed, but depending on what you want the player to do, you may need to do some custom coding. I've only ever personally used flowplayer, and couldn't even begin to tell you what's involved in customizing it.

Sadly, there's no easy drop in youtube like web apps. If you want easy, you're best off uploading the vids to youtube. Or, just drop em on a web server somewhere and let them download the entire video and play it locally. Otherwise, get ready to spend some time learning more than you ever cared to.

ehnde

I've never done this, I just know it's possible (and probably the easiest way to do this)...you can create your videos, youtube them, then embed the youtube videos on your website.

N2IT

ehnde wrote: »

I've never done this, I just know it's possible (and probably the easiest way to do this)...you can create your videos, youtube them, then embed the youtube videos on your website.

Think smarter not harder.

I would go with this. You see some nice sites out there using this format. Like the previous poster said, it's pretty damn challenging.

mattlee09

ehnde wrote: »

I've never done this, I just know it's possible (and probably the easiest way to do this)...you can create your videos, youtube them, then embed the youtube videos on your website.

Youtube does also have the option to make a video private, and share/invite up to (50?) people to view/access it. So it isn't like it'll just be out there for everyone if you don't want it to be.

So this, or letting them copy down the vids and play them locally. +1

We've got an in-house VBrick system for this type of stuff.

Ryuksapple84

Man... did not think it was gonna be that difficult... I am determined to acomplish this through. Any suggestions from folks with experience with this?

Thanks guys, I really am grateful for the feedback.

mikej412

Use Apache with mod_h264 and create web pages with an embedded player like flowplayer that points to local mp4 files on the server.

It works fine on Linux, but I've never tried it on any Windows Servers I have running Apache.

tribe_menx

Did something like this ... by downloading a content management system ( joomla) get some extension to play videos ( alot of modules and plugins to choose from ) whole process is faster and simpler whole thing can take a day or less ( all u need is lamp or wamp) and installing joomla

NB: u dont have to be a web developer to learn joomla ( just a simple web app u can use to set up and build some good intranet system or websites of any size ) check out joomla(dot)com there are also drupal and wordpress but i find joomla learning fast for none web developers and a good start to get into web development