Streaming Video Questions (Real Player and other formats)

Factual Questions
1

I want to open a website that streams videos. I’ve looked around the net for information, but I’m still a bit foggy on some issues.

  1. Is there an ideal compression rate for cable/dsl? The videos I’ll be dealing with are quick moving, so I can’t have the stream lagging midway, lest it make it difficult to see what’s going on in the video.

  2. The sample streams I’ve put together have used RealPlayer. As many know, RealPlayer doesn’t seem to be a real popular program. What other streaming formats are available (I know a Windows Media Player file exists, but I can’t seem to find the name)? And what are the differences between the different formats?

  3. The sample RealPlayer stream I’ve been testing has an extension of .rmvb, but I’ve also seen .rm. What are the differences and do any other RealPlayer formats exist?

  4. To my understanding, a stream can’t be saved conventionally; however, when I put the url of my .rmvb movie into my browser window, it simply began downloading the entire file to my hard drive (which I don’t want to happen). How can I prevent this? When I tried doing this with a .rm at some other website, it simply launched Real Player and began the stream (as I had hoped mine would have).

Thanks for helping a poor, ignorant doper out. :slight_smile:

2

For the love of og, please do not use Real Player for your videos! This article explains why people hate it so much http://jogin.com/weblog/archives/2004/02/29/real_obnoxious

3

Hahaha, I hear ya. Thanks for that, it really drives the point home. Now I really need to know what formats besides Real Player’s I can use for streaming!

4

My not so subtle attempt at a bump, though I’ll add another question to make it worth while.

What’s the streaming video format that Windows Media Player uses? Often, I see websites offer a choice between Real Player and Windows Media Player, but I have no idea what format that actually is. What’s the extension? Thanks!

5

It uses .wma for streaming. Windows Media Audio is the format

Here is a link to a tutorial on converting .wav to .wma http://it.maconstate.edu/tutorials/AV/AV02/av02-02.htm

Slee

6

Great, thanks. But is that for video too (as the name implies otherwise)?

7

You can use Windows Media Encoder to create WMV files.

If you serve your stream from a HTTP (web) server, anyone will be able to download it directly like that. If you use a special streaming server, it’s a lot harder to do that, and the server can also tailor the stream to a client’s connection speed and network conditions. Windows Media Services is part of Windows Server 2003.

In any case, it’s still not impossible for someone who’s determined to save the stream. Anything that comes into your computer can be saved. The best you can hope to do is keep honest people honest.

I believe this is because a .rm file simply tells RealPlayer where to find the actual stream, like an .asx does for Windows Media Player.

8

Awesome thanks, I’ll be sure to check out that link. I presume WMV stands for Windows Media Video; is that a streaming format?

9

Yes. Technically, WMV only describes the video stream, which is then combined with a WMA stream and placed inside an ASF container (as Wikipedia explains), but the files are usually named .wmv instead of .asf these days. The files can be streamed or played from disk.

10

In order for streaming to work properly, you need a special dedicated streaming server set up, which you can then set rules to, as to how fast you will allow the stream to flow, and what permissions regarding downloadability to set - though as Mr2001 says if they really want to save it, they will.

Personally, I hate streaming as both a principle and as a practical method. But then, I’m not you.

11

Are you on dialk-up? I’m targeting broadband only, as streaming is a waste of time with 56k. I’m not a big fan of streaming either, but I can’t have people downloading my files and sharing them on some P2P network, as it would potentially destory my buisness model. Unless there’s some other way around this dilemma, I see no choice but to go with streaming.

12

Obvious correction: I hope no one’s on “dialk-up”, I meant “Dial-up” :wink:

13

I dislike streaming also. Why not give the option to download the video, allowing us to watch it without constant freezing, skipping and crashing? Wouldn’t this also save on the server’s bandwidth, since I won’t have to go to your site whenever I want to see it again? I guess I’ve never understood why sites don’t allow me to save streaming audio or video. It’s not like they are charging for this content.

14

As I mentioned several times before, I am charging for this content. Thus if mirrors of my files were to appear else where, I’d potentially be losing significant cashflow.

15

I presume Duderdude2 will be charging for it, since it’s part of his business model.

However, WMV has Digital Restrictions Management features that let you encrypt video files so only authorized users can play them. I don’t know how to do it, and I won’t give a cent to any site that uses DRM unless it can be trivially defeated, but it’s there.

16

Thanks, but I don’t want to go overboard :stuck_out_tongue:

I just need it to a point where the majority of users won’t save the file and redistribute it elsewhere. Hell, I really don’t care if they do save it, so long as it’s not posted on a website or found on a P2P program. Of course, if I easily allowed my vistors to save the file, I’m sure, over time, some would crop up on P2Ps, whether intentional or not, and that’s exactly what I can’t afford to happen.

17

Well, it only takes one person to figure out how to save the stream (e.g. by typing “save wmv stream” into Google ;)) and start sharing it.

18

No doubt. It’s a fine line, it seems. I don’t want to make it too much of a pain in the ass for my consumer… I can only hope most of them won’t even think of searching a p2p for the files. Hell, even if a few people share a couple files, there’s no gurantee that the person who’s searching will find what he wants in the search results.

I’m fairly certain providing a stream will cut-back on the amount of potential sharing/saving while keeping headaches to a minimum (or so I hope).

Note: I just did a search on a p2p for video files from the largest website that’s in the same industry as mine. 0 Results. That’s a pretty good sign :slight_smile:

Mod Note: I do not advocate or condone the usage of a p2p, I downloaded one for testing purposes only.

19

Okay, well after the browbeating I received, I think I’ve found an ideal middleground. How’s this sound?

As you guys have expressed, streaming video isn’t the most friendly format. So what if I embeded the video in the webpage? To my knowledge, you can’t right click on one and choose “Save As”, as the option doesn’t even exist. Sure, it wouldn’t be that tough to navigate to the temporary internet folder and copy it from there, but I think it would serve as a strong deterrent, to even those who know how. Plus the videos I’ll be providing aren’t ones people would care to watch more than once.

Are there any holes in my logic? It’s the best solution I can think of that would please both myself and my customers. Thanks!

20

That basically is streaming video. You put a link to the file in an <embed> or <object> tag, the browser hands it off to a plugin, and the plugin streams the file from your web server.

That’s an implementation detail of the video plugin you use. I wouldn’t rely on all your customers using the same version of the plugin. And besides, it’s trivial to view the page source and find the link to the video file, which you can then save with any web browser or download manager.