# Requirements for streaming flash video? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 24, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/requirements-for-streaming-flash-video/572510 "2011-02-24T22:19:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/requirements-for-streaming-flash-video/572510/1 "2011-02-24T22:19:55Z")
What exactly are the requirements for streaming Flash video? Assume a windows based server running the latest .net and IIS. I know I can write and a then embed a flash movie player on my site and essentially run a progressive download from the site, but that’s not streaming. Do I need some sort of specialized software to stream the video to a flash player? Is this something I can write up in .net? ---
**Author:** ![lexi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lexi/32/6806_2.png) [@lexi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lexi)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/requirements-for-streaming-flash-video/572510/2 "2011-02-24T22:23:03Z")
You’ll need a streaming media server installed on your machine. [http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934518](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934518) Edit… Looks like microsoft does not support streaming FLV’s - hmmm - look around for a streaming media server. There may be a work around though - perhaps a simple one, but no support by default. Anything you write in .NET would be just handling a progressive download on the server side & not true streaming. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/requirements-for-streaming-flash-video/572510/3 "2011-02-24T22:31:09Z")
What about h.264 content? ---
**Author:** ![lexi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lexi/32/6806_2.png) [@lexi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lexi)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/requirements-for-streaming-flash-video/572510/4 "2011-02-25T21:33:22Z")
Regardless, if you want to stream content, you need to install a streaming server. Google some info on Microsoft’s streaming media server & see what you will need to install & configure it either to stream flv video files or H.264 vids - it is probably as easy as adding a MIME type to the server so that it sends the correct headers for the files. ---
**Author:** ![MobiusStripes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@MobiusStripes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MobiusStripes)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/requirements-for-streaming-flash-video/572510/5 "2011-02-26T23:19:03Z")
I imagine you’re looking for Adobe’s Flash Media Streaming Server. That’s what it does: stream FLVs. You can buy it ($1000 if I recall), or use one of their long list of hosting partners. (I’m not affiliated, nor do I stream FLVs) Adobe has a whole bunch of “Media Server” apps for serving up different kind of things. I imagine you can find an open source version of the Flash Media Streaming Server as well. Random google hit shows: [http://mammothserver.org/](http://mammothserver.org/) ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/requirements-for-streaming-flash-video/572510/6 "2011-02-27T00:48:54Z")
The big question is whether you need to encode to flash in real-time or not, followed by the resolution of your stream.