What everybody ought to know about streaming video
First of all, I have to say to laity what streaming video is and what the purpose it serves. Sometimes video and media are understood like one and the same process of information transferring.
Streaming media, or streaming video, is multimedia that is continuously uploaded by, and normally displayed to, the audience whilst it is being delivered by the provider. Word 'streaming' comes from the verb 'stream', i.e. we realize the media\video delivering in such a way. Streaming is a technology for playing audio and video files from around the web. A user can get the audio or video files directly from the Web server.
Through the video sharing sites, that are springing up like mushrooms nowadays, we are able to watch video online. Streaming video allows you to stream your video over the Internet using streaming systems: inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television) or inherently non-streaming (e.g. books, video cassettes, audio CDs).
The process of downloading and playing files are shown below. As shown in the picture [via Cornell University], this process is based on the principle of streaming.
"When audio or video is streamed, a small buffer space is created on the user's computer, and data starts downloading into it. As soon as the buffer is full (usually just a matter of seconds), the file starts to play. As the file plays, it uses up information in the buffer, but while it is playing, more data is being downloaded. As long as the data can be downloaded as fast as it is used up in playback, the file will play smoothly.
Usually there is a delay of only 10-30 seconds before the audio or video starts to play. Streamed files also don't require much bandwidth, so they can be played on computers that use modems to connect to the Internet."
The majority of the video streaming websites resorts this kind of sharing files. It's easy to use and makes the best of watching web TV and TV channels non-stop.
Streaming Methods
There are two ways to view media on the web: downloading and streaming.
When you download a file the entire file is saved on your computer (usually in a temporary folder - easy way to find it). This has some advantages and disadvantages of having to wait for the whole file to download before any of it can be viewed.
The easiest way to provide downloadable video files is to use a simple hyperlink to the file. A slightly more advanced method is to embed the file in a web page using special HTML code.
Delivering video files this way is known as HTTP streaming or HTTP delivery. HTTP is used to deliver web pages.
Streaming media works a bit differently — the end user can start watching the file almost as soon as it begins downloading.
It's very convenient to use, almost every video sharing site uses it.
In effect, the file is sent to the user in a (more or less) constant stream, and the user watches it as it arrives. The obvious advantage with this method is that no waiting is involved. Streaming media has additional advantages such as being able to broadcast live events (sometimes referred to as a webcast or netcast).
True streaming video must be delivered from a specialized streaming server.
There is also a hybrid method known as progressive download. In this method the video clip is downloaded but begins playing as soon as a portion of the file has been received. This simulates true streaming, but doesn't have all the advantages.
Streaming media technologies. The people watching video resources should have a player to view the streamed files. The most of players are free for downloading.
- Adobe Flash - Adobe has partnered with leading content delivery network (CDN) providers to offer hosted services for delivering on-demand Flash Video across high-performance, reliable networks. Built with Adobe Flash Media Server and integrated directly into the delivery, tracking, and reporting infrastructure of the CDN network, Flash Video Streaming Service provides the most effective way to deliver Flash Video to the largest possible audience without the hassle of setting up and maintaining your own streaming server hardware and network.
- Ampache is a Web-based Audio file manager. Ampache is a PHP-based tool for managing, updating and playing your MP3 files via a web interface. It allows you to save playlists, create user accounts, and share your music catalogs with other Ampache servers. It uses a MySQL database.
- FORscene is an integrated internet video platform, covering non linear editing and publishing for broadcast, web and mobile.
- Matroska is a project to develop a free and open source software multimedia container format similar to Apple's QuickTime, MPEG's MP4 or Microsoft's Advanced Systems Format. It is named after the matryoshka. The official playback solution for the Windows operating system is the Combined Community Codec Pack.
- QuickTime - is a multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, media clips, sound, text, animation, music, and several types of interactive panoramic images. Download.
- SlimServer is a streaming audio server supported by Slim Devices, developed in particular to support their range of digital audio receivers. It is open source software.
- Winamp is a proprietary media player written by Nullsoft, a subsidiary of Time Warner. It is skinnable, multi-format freeware, sure thing you can download it.
Get to know more? Wanna record some meda files from the net? All streaming media recording software here. But be careful, the quality of streaming video is somewhat diminished, so that in return you can see the video clip almost immediately. Quality is dependent on the bandwidth, media content or the amount of data that needs to be moved per second across the network. It's recommended to use a minimum modem speed of 56Kbps, otherwise there may be "thinning" of the video during the playback.
How to create streaming video?
- There are five basic steps to creating streaming media [billstream]
Follow the next 5 steps and it inevitably affords ground to creating streaming video. Video is not the only media which can be streamed and shared. It's a hard work if there is no a clear idea of it.
* Planning
No planning - no success. Take into account your message, audience, basic method of conveying and transferring your message (tevee, video, web), so it will help you to create a good message.
* Shooting
Because streamed video needs to be highly compressed it is necessary to be very careful when filming. All the mistakes which are aggravating to an audience in large format video are simply magnified when you are streaming video. Codecs still have a hard time when compressing video with a lot of background or camera movement. Steady shots with very little background movement and very good lighting are needed. Zooms, fades,quick pans and jerky motions are trouble spots.
* Editing
Come on! Preparing video/media files for the web is an essential task. There are many opinions how the encoding process should be put into practise. Several issues to encoding your video for the web:
- Codec choice for each format
- Constant bitrate vs variable bitrate
- Multiple bitrate vs single bitrate
- Screen scaling and cropping
- Hinting vs Indexing vs progressive download
Follow the rules:
1. Titles or watermarks are usually better and easy to use than using special effects.
2. Keep filters to a minimum if used at all.
3. Transitions should be simple - cuts are best - swirls and twirls can create problems.
4. Sometimes using a simple blur filter will smooth out wild pixels and give your video a better overall visual quality.
* Encoding/Compression
Encoding the video is simply the process of preparing it to stream on a streaming video server. Encoding is the process by which this compression happens, and it is full of tough, over-lapping decisions. Some of these decisions include:
- Streaming media format (QuickTime vs. RealSystem vs. Windows Media)
- Supported playback platforms (Microsoft Windows vs. Macintosh)
- Delivery method (true real-time streaming vs HTTP streaming)
- Overall data rate (compression vs. quality vs. bandwidth required)
- Data rate distribution (audio vs. video)
- Video quality (smooth motion vs. image quality vs. image size)
- Audio quality (mono vs. stereo)
* Publishing
Come back to the first step and make your minds up about the target of your streaming? Answer: you wanna share your media files with some virtual comminities, or just upload it, watch it in the web. There are many video sharing websites, who will receive you with outstretched arms.
You will be awarded!
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