Eli the Computer Guy

Archive for the ‘Creating Video’ Category

There are a lot of options available to web administrators looking to stream video content to their sites.  Options range from free hosted solutions like YouTube to running your own server and using a piece of software like Adobe Flash Media Server.

We were looking for a solution that would provide a number of features:

1. Our classes run up to 90 minutes so we needed a solution that did not limit the length of single videos.
2. We needed to ensure that we kept the copyright of the material we create.
3. The solution needs to reliable.
4. The solution should be simple enough that the job of maintenance and repair can be handed off to a contractor.
5. Due to the size and bandwidth requirements for streaming our videos we needed a solution that did not cost too much for storage and usage. (Our classes run in size from 500MB to 2.5GB and we plan to have hundreds)
6. We wanted dynamic bandwidth control, or bit rate switching, so that viewers are provided with video quality that corresponds to the speed of their Internet connection.

Flash Video

Our first decision was to encode and display our videos using Flash Video.  The reason for this is that it is the most common used type of web video encoding used.  Almost everyone who surfs the web has Flash installed and therefore we do not have to worry about visitors having to download and install software.  We briefly looked at QuickTime, but although we lose the iPod/ iPhone users by using Flash we feel that we would lose more regular PC/Laptop viewers by using QuickTime.

YouTube

We decided against YouTube due to their restriction to 10 minute videos and the hazy questions surrounding copyright if we are the ones to post our own videos to the site.

Pay For Content Hosting Services

There are numerous high quality Content Hosting companies that provide top notch service.  The issue is that most of the services max at 100GB size limits for their services.  We are looking at hosting Terabytes worth of video within the next year.  The overall cost for hosting this much video became exhorbenant when using a Hosting Service.

Free Pseudo streaming Software

Pseudo streaming scripts or servers such as Xmoov or Lighttpd allow for most of the capabilities that we need.  You can do dynamic bit rate switching and the software allows viewers to skip to any point in a video so long as the video has been encoded with key frames.

The issue is that pseudo streaming still pushes content at the same rate that progressive downloads do.  Since our servers are hosted at a Server Farm and we pay for our connection speed this massive uploading of video to our viewers could dramatically impact what we pay per month for our data connections (Currently $100 per 1 Mbps)

Red5

We looked at Red5 an Open Source true Streaming Video Server.  It seems very promising and we may switch over to it in the future.  Our concern is that there are enough bugs in the software that using it for a production site seems risky.  Especially considering we have a very low budget for maintenance and troubleshooting.  Frankly if something quirky happened there is too much of a risk that our entire site would be disabled indefinitely.

Wowza

Wowza seems to be a very robust competitor for Adobe Flash Media Server. Unfortunately our beta testing of the software did not provide faith imbuing results.  We were excited to use Wowza because it is available for far more operating systems then Adobe Flash Media Server.  Sadly once we installed Wowza we ran into a number of issues get it to run properly.  To be blunt the documentation was less the “wowza”.  This software may be robust, enterprise level software, but without in depth documentation it’s worthless to us.  (And it costs approx. $1000 per server licensing)

So We Decided on Adobe Flash Media Server 3.5

Adobe Flash Media Server was a snap to install on a Windows Server 200 Web Edition box.  Within an hour of the install everything was running like a top. It’s incredibly simple to install and maintain.  We also like it frankly because it is an Adobe product.  We use Adobe Creative Suites to develop our content and as IT professionals we know that software companies have a nasty habit of implementing updates that wreak havoc on competing systems.  Whether it’s right or wrong is not the argument. The question is whether a “security” update will disable something that a competitor such as Wowza needs in order to stream video.

Additionally by using Adobe FMS we provide a small amount of future proofing for the offerings that we may decide to offer our visitors.  Right now we only provide streaming video, but in the future we may decide to provide robust Flash based applications and Adobe Flash media Server seems best positioned to ensure that we can do that without having to reinvent our infrastructure.

The license per server is $1000, with an additional $350 for the Windows Server Web Edition license.  This cost is offset by the fact that just about any professional technician can troubleshoot the system. 

Also since this is a Per Server license, and Windows Server Web Edition can support up to 64GB of RAM  we know that it will be a long time before we have to worry about buying more licenses (1U Servers can now support up to 10TB of Storage, 2 6 Core Xeon Processors, and far more then 64GB of RAM)

Final Thoughts…

Depending on what you plan to do with your video content there are numerous viable solutions.  These are the reasons we went with the Flash Media Server, but your requirements may be met with free or very low cost solutions.

The Simple Flash Video plugin by Simple thought Productions is the best way to show your .flv and .f4v videos in a WordPress blog.

The plugin utilizes JW Player and Shadow Box to create a clean viewing experience. Your user clicks on the video they want to play and the video opens in a Shadow Box that hides the rest of the web page.  It’s very easy to install, and looks better then any other players that I have tried.

You can look at an example on EverymanIT.com by following this link: http://www.everymanit.com/2009/12/30/laptop-repair/

If you like what you see you can download the plugin from: http://www.simplethoughtproductions.com/sfv-plugin/

Since I began creating my video classes in Flash Video format one of the things that has really bugged me is that it is difficult to easily view the finished product.  You have to actually set it up on a web page, of there are a few desktop players around, but they are clunky and poor in video quality.

Adobe Media Player solves this problem.  It is a free download from Adobe that allows you to view Flash Video (.flv) files in all of their beauty.  It’s free, easy to use, and displays crisp video.

Check it out at http://www.adobe.com/products/mediaplayer/

After creating 4 30+ minute video training sessions I have come to realize that making simple movies is much harder then simply talking to a camera and editing the footage.  One of the biggest problems I have come to realize is lighting.  Lighting is a complete pain in the butt!

The biggest problem I am finding is that my camera auto adjusts for different lighting conditions. So in the beginning my videos looked decent even when there wasn’t a lot of light in the room because the camera auto adjusted for the lack of light.  When I decided to try to brighten the room with more lights I ended up with darker videos because when the camera saw there was more light it darkened the video it recorded.

The room I shoot my footage in has large, but frosted windows.  I thought this wouldn’t be a problem because although they add some light to the room they face an alley and so are pretty dark even at noon.  What I found when watching the videos I had shot was that when a cloud would pass over head, or the sun would brighten the camera would auto adjust and the scene would become automatically brighter or darker.

I picked up a book on videography and have found some solutions to my problems.  There’s a whole vocation just built around lighting for video footage.  I think I should be able to find some simple solutions that will serve my purposes.

If you are thinking about creating your own videos for the next viral sensation just keep in mind that proper lighting is more then adding a few more lamps to your room.

I found the Flowplayer for WordPress plug-in while trying to find a way to play Flash video files on my blog.  After downloading it I was able to watch .flv videos within a few minutes.  The plug-in is very easy to use and uses the exceptional Flowplayer Flash Video Player for it’s core.

The only issue I have is that you have to manually input the command to call to the plug-in, [FLOWPALYER=video.flv,450,600].  This is only really a problem because I have to figure out the math for the vertical and horizontal size of the display.

If you’re looking to display Flash Video files and don’t want to use YouTube you should take a look at this plug-in.  I like the fact that you can host videos of any length.  (My videos are over 30 minutes and would have to be chopped into 10 minute chucks to be put on YouTube)

Take a look at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/word-press-flow-player/