Streaming Video Tutorials

[blastradius]

Any one know of any good tutorials out there for video streaming?

I am needing to stream a video file that is over an hour is legth and am wanting a degree of file download protection. I also am not wanting to deal with a lot of e-mail about how the file will not stream for people who don't have the right codec installed.

Any suggestions on file format is also welcome.

[kiumars]

Hello,

This is my cup of tea and pleased to help you with any question regarding video streaming. In order to avoid giving you useless information, need to know some basic information about your movies:
What editing software are you using; your current compressed and saved files if of any, the size and dimensions in pixel, the target bandwidth. Are you going to show your movies in a HTML page, Flash movie or Director movie? Did your client referred to a sample on Internet? If yes, please let me know.
Awaiting your response.
Best regards,
Kiumars

[deb03]

We recently added a streaming video clip to one of our web sites. We used Visual Communicator. Details are available at http://www.seriousmagic.com/presentation.cfm.

We purchased the Pro version and were able to put the entire program together at the office. It will also be worth your while to invest in a good microphone.

You can view our presentation at http://www.toolbutton.com/provider/ProviderProductOverview.aspx

[kiumars]

Dear Deb,

Sorry for delay. I was studying your work and the program you have purchased. Your sample was very nice, even better than the samples in Visual Communicator web site. I am sure that you already know a lot about publishing video on Internet. However, My favor tools are not the same as yours for the following reasons:
I use adobe premiere as my editing tool which is more a professional tool than Visual Communicator. However this is not the case here, because your program is much easier and faster to produce limited movies. As the codec and compression concerned, the best software to my knowledge is Sorenson Squeeze. You will be amazed of the result by reducing the size of your video, streaming performance, quality and variety of its output options. You should not be worried of e-mails asking for codec problems. I usually work with QuickTime, because both PC and Mac users take the best benefits of equally and performance. Your program saves movies in AVI, WMV, ASF and MPG. Not everyone can view those. Sorenson Squeeze can import AVI and then you can produce it as QuickTime for your browser or FLV for Flash if required. Samples that I have seen on Visual Communicator site have a noticeable delay at start, where you have a much faster start with Sorenson Squeeze. Please note that all those samples were “talking heads” which loads much faster than moving objects. On the other hand you should avoid too many transitions if possible. Transitions must be reduced as much as possible. Never use transition at the beginning of your movie. Let the music star at frame 5 or 10. Start with still image or text. I have noticed that actors on Visual Communication sample movies talk very fast, that might be on purpose. Because, video streaming should not run with 24 frames pr second but half. If an actor talks slow and carefully, you can easily see that the mouth and voice are not synchronized depending on bandwidth settings.
Now back to your question. You said having in mind to stream one hour video. I am sure that Visual Communication can not handle this, because you wouldn’t reach the half of the clip and the computer may freeze in middle of the show. You also said that your movie should be protected from downloading. To answer both questions in one answer, this is how I do.
I edit a nice long movie clip with adobe premiere and divide them in partial clip movies then, Squeeze them with Sorenson Squeeze and save them as FLV file format. I open my Flash program and put each movie clip on a separate level. Now every time a clip ends the next clip loads and removes the other clip from the memory. This way the computer works much stable and smooth. Movie clips on separate levels can not be traced or downloaded.
If you become interested in using my method, I can make a step by step tutorial following with a sample.

Best regards,
Kiumars

[blastradius]

kiumars

Currently the video is on a VCD, so I believe that is MPEG-1 it has a .dat extentsion.

Software I am using... um I have a variety of tools main ones I have been using are adobe premier and virual dub. I am experencing some difficulties getting the video off of the VCD. Error says it is missing a frame so I only get about 25 min of the file.(extraction using virtual dub)

Wanting to give the option of a dial-up or broadband stream.

[kiumars]

Hello Deb,

V-Dub imports MPEG-1 as well as MPEG-2, but it will export files in .AVI format. under the "Video" dropdown, you should change from "Full Processing Mode to "Direct Stream Copying. Is your V-DUB 1.4b or 1.4.8?

If you wish to EDIT an MPEG file, try using TMPGEnc instead. You can download your 30 days trial version from below:
http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/tmpgenc.html
If not satisfied, please let me know. I have used other compression methods and tools which worked fine. What version of Adobe premiere are you using?

Awaiting your reply,
Kiumars

[kiumars]

Hello again,

I have forgotten to tell you that VCD Cutter is also a good program to solve your problem:

Download VCD Cutter

VCD Cutter is licensed as Freeware. VCD Cutter is designed for the Windows operating system.

VCDCutter is a MPEG,VCD and Movie Player. This version can play MPG,VCD,or other movie files(such as MPG,DAT,AVI,MOV). Very friendly and menu driven with full featured control with movie file. VCDCutter can extract MPG,frame
from VCD or MPG file, cutting your favourite part or whole MPG file to disk when playing(now can extract system stream,or video,audio stream only).

Best regards,
Kiumars

[deb03]

Kuimars,

Thanks for your input. It is obvious, as mentioned earlier, that this is your “cup of tea”. I will definitely keep your suggestions on transitions in mind for our next video.

Regarding frame times, I agree, it is critical to consider all bandwidths. However, when we looked at our audience it was felt that a very high percentage would be using something higher than a 56K connection. The decision was to go with the majority. To accommodate those with a 56K connection or lower we provided a link to instructions on how to best view the tour.

Your expertise in this area far extends mine, Kuimars. Thanks for taking the time to submit your comments.

[kiumars]

Dear Deb,

Thanks, you are most welcome. However regarding choosing different bandwidths, I put all 3 options in one component in order enabling visitors to choose from. One for 56k, another for ISDN, the last one which also has two more options such as lower quality high-speed a best quality high-speed for ADSL and Cable.
Regarding compression tools as discussed before. Please check this out too:

VideoEdit Converter Pro
Description:
VideoEdit Converter Pro is a powerful, all in one video converter / editor
application: convert video/audio to MPEG1, MPEG2, VCD-PAL, VCD-NTSC,
SVCD-PAL, SVCD-NTSC, DVD-PAL, DVD-NTSC, Custom MPEG Size, avi
(uncompressed)/(compressed using any available codec) or wmv files.
Variable Bit Rate / Constant Bit Rate Selection

Video Quality configuration in MPEG file.

Resize video resolution, stretch mode selection.

Export video frames to separate image files and resize to specific size.

Export wave file from media file and save to specific number of channel,
sample rate, bit per sample.

Export wma file from media file and save to specific wma profile.

Add a Transition (over 20 transition) between any combination of video
clips, pictures.

Best regards,
Kiumars

[deb03]

Thanks for the info, Kiumars. I will check it out.