 Well, needed to find out how this video streaming actually works… so had to do some research. Well, as usual, I consulted one of my favorite weskits, How Stuff Works. Yeap.. it is one of my favorite as it explains to you things in lay man terms… and we all know how difficult it is… to explain geeky stuff in non-geeky language.
Anyway, for those of you who are wondering, here is the link:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/streaming-video-and-audio5.htm
Anyway, after quite a bit of research, decided to come out with a flow diagram to explain the entire process of playing your vide on the web… Basically, broadcasting your video online involves 3 simple steps:
Step 1: Capturing the Video
Step 2: Converting the Video
Step 3: Hosting the Video on the Server
Step 4: Delivery of Video to client PC (automatically done)
Step 1: Capturing the Video
Depending on the type of video capturing device you have, the output format of the video will be different. High end camcorders with minimum data loss will have the video stored in DV/HDV format. These formats are space intensive. 1GB of space is needed to record between 4 - 4.6 minutes of video.
Lower end models like my Casio Exilim will have their output in formats which supoprt video streaming, i.e. MOV, mpg1, mpg2, wmv, etc… These formats not only consume less space, i.e. 1GB translates to almost 40 minutes of recording time. More importantly, they can be easily hosted on the internet and viewed by the computers with the right player/decoder.
Step 2: Converting the Video
If your files are in DV/HDV format, you will need to convert it to a format that supports video streaming, i.e. mov, wmv, etc..
There are currently 4 primary players on the net and their corresponding video formats:
File Extension
(Formats which support video streaming) |
Player |
| .mov |
QuickTime, from Apple |
| .rm |
RealNetworks RealMedia |
| .wma, .wmv, .asf |
Microsoft Windows Media |
| .swf |
Adobe Flash Player |
Most popular sites, YouTube and Google Video, choose to play their videos in the swf format. I guess there must be certain advantages in that… so just did a quick research:
Advantages of streaming video using Flash (swf format)
Ripped entirely from Adobe Website on Flash Video Benefits
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Video playback starts sooner than it does using other methods of incorporating video.
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Streaming uses less of the client’s memory and disk space, because the clients don’t need to download the entire file.
-
Network resources are used more efficiently, because only the parts of the video that are viewed are sent to the client.
-
Delivery of media is more secure, because media is not saved to the client’s cache when streamed.
-
Streaming video provides better tracking, reporting, and logging ability.
-
Streaming lets you deliver live video and audio presentations, or capture video from a web cam or digital video camera.
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Flash Media Server enables multiway and multiuser streaming for video chat, video messaging, and video conferencing applications.
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By using server-side scripting to control video and audio streams, you can create server-side play lists, synchronized streams, and more intelligent delivery options based on the client’s connection speed.
Not sure if its true…..In my opinion, I feel that the main reason why everybody uses flash is because flash does away with all the necessary codecs for decoding the encoded video.
Step 3: Hosting it on your server
Once you have gotten this far, streaming the video is just about pointing to the video resource on your website with the relevant html tags!
SWF
WMV
|
