Your opinion needed: Hosting LOTS of FLV files...

[Pixelrage]

I need to be pointed in the right direction here - I'm planning on releasing a site that will eventually be hosting hundreds (thousands?) of FLV videos. Right now, I'm still in the beta phase. Now is the time to make the decisions that will be followed out for years to come.

My main question is about making the FLVs: I have Riva Encoder and have done trial and error on making FLV's for months now. I know that bitrate drastically determines the filesize. I don't know if I should make all of these hundreds of videos at a large size (400x300 or 480x360) with a bitrate in the 700s, yielding a size of 5MB+ each, or go the Youtube route and make them thumbnail size, and just have the FLV player blow up the video to a 400x300 size. Is the bandwidth really going to be a killer for this project? This is something I need to prepare for, and really need your advice on.

My main fear is having 1,000 FLV's at 5-10MB each, and the bandwidth it will yield. I don't want to run myself into the ground, even though I have a dedicated server with 250GB bandwidth (which I can barely afford as it is, but it's an "investment" to me at this point).

Thanks in advance!!!

[EltonJohnBonJovi]

Are you trying to create your own YouTube??

[Pixelrage]

It's not quite Youtube, since nobody but admins would be able to add videos. I think a better comparison would be CollegeHumor.com or possibly break.com.

[EltonJohnBonJovi]

Oh
But I thought you were creating the site, so wouldn't you be the admin?

[Pixelrage]

yes

[Baldrick]

1000 flv x 5MB = around 5 GB and say that they are viewed about
50 views/month = 5GB x 50 = 250GB/month
100 views/month = 5GB x 100 = 500GB/month
1000 views/month = 5GB x 1000 = 5 TB/month

so you neeeeeed a lot of bandwidth if you get several hits/view.

[Pixelrage]

Thanks Baldrick- Do you think that would change if they were dynamic (rather than streaming)?

[celtic_druid]

Best way to save bandwidth would be to encode with VP62 instead of Sorenson Spark. That way you can use a lower bitrate and get the same quality.