Would you stream or progressive download given my needs??

[Remi T]

Hi guys and gals,

I've done my research, and now want some experts' opinions on what you would do if you were in my shoes! So please give me your best professional advice. Much appreciated.

My startup firm will create short video ads for clients (2 minutes long) and place them on their website (3 videos per client). I expect to get 2 new clients a month.
My clients are small to midsize law firms. Some are small local practitioners whose websites receive little traffic, and others are larger firms that may receive 20,000 visits a month.
Is streaming the only way to go to offer a reliable and professional service? Or can I host these videos on say a traditional ISP like comcast?

How would you set this up?
Thanks and Happy Holidays to you all!

[filmboss80]

You say you've done your research, but judging by the gobbledygook title of this thread ("stream or progressive download"....?), combined with your question near the end about streaming OR hosting, I'd say you're still a little confused on the actual execution of what is an otherwise nice idea for a startup firm. So, let's step back and see what we can do here.

First, do you have your own dedicated server, or will you be subscribing to a web hosting service? You need to know your storage limitations for video files.

How much expertise do you have with creating web pages? (For example, do you know basic html?) There are ways to easily embed videos onto a web page. I'm assuming you already know about how to encode videos to a size and format that won't hog bandwidth and freeze up web pages for visitors to the website. It would be helpful to know what web design and video encoding software you are using--or planning to use. I recommend .flv format video (small, easily streamable files), embedded on the web page. But you have to be careful. Many site visitors might not have Flash enabled, and you don't want the web page to just freeze up on you.

[Remi T]

First, do you have your own dedicated server, or will you be subscribing to a web hosting service? You need to know your storage limitations for video files.

How much expertise do you have with creating web pages? (For example, do you know basic html?) There are ways to easily embed videos onto a web page. I'm assuming you already know about how to encode videos to a size and format that won't hog bandwidth and freeze up web pages for visitors to the website. It would be helpful to know what web design and video encoding software you are using--or planning to use. I recommend .flv format video (small, easily streamable files), embedded on the web page. But you have to be careful. Many site visitors might not have Flash enabled, and you don't want the web page to just freeze up on you.

Thanks for the help filmboss80,

Well, keep in mind, I'm putting the videos on the clients' sites, not mine. I'm debating if an isp like GoDaddy (who hosts my site) can host my clients' videos and deliver a great user experience. Or should I go to a video streaming server like Brightcove. That's what I'm asking you guys...given the number of videos I mentioned (in 3 months I'll have 18 videoclips at 2 minutes a piece, in web ready format, likely swf or quicktime)...in 9 months I'll have 3x that...should I stream or not.
I know streaming only loads that which you need and so it won't freeze up like progressive download...but is that just a theoretical point, or does it occur often enough (on videos my size) that I should worry? I hear it takes time for a video to download if your using an http server...but is it a significant amount of time given a 2 minute swf clip, or does that onlyh matter if your publishing a half hour movie?

Which solution would you go with and why? Thanks

[Eye for Video]

First off I'd suggest you check the cost of streaming video compared to progressive download. Streaming video can easily be 20 X as expensive and cost even more if you exceed your bandwidth allotment.
Progressive download is cheap, cheap... with many hosting services offering unlimited storage as well as unlimited bandwidth.
As for the video freezing (or stopping to buffer during play), it can happen to streaming video exactly the same way as it can happen to progressive downloading. It's all dependent on the bitrate of the video and whether or not the particular viewers Internet connection speed is fast enough to download the data faster than the video requires (the video bitrate) to play uninteruppted.
As mentioned earlier, I'd go with the .flv (NOT the .swf you suggested). It's the most cross browser friendly video container format. But if you were really concerned about the very small % of viewers without Flash or you want to include visability on the iPhone, place your Flash player on the Web page using swfobject (Flash detedtion script) and use a QuickTime player as the alternate content.
But for short videos like that, which would download pretty quick.. the advantage of being able to "seek" to any part of the video, would come at a pretty high cost compared to progressive download.
Best wishes,
Eye for Video

[poisondeathray]

There is an intermediate choice, known as "pseudostreaming". Use google for more information & details. Basically it uses 'inexpensive' progressive http download, but you can seek anywhere before it's fully downloaded . Youtube uses a variant. You can use lighttpd for example . Here is info on how to use it with flowplayer
http://flowplayer.org/plugins/streaming/pseudostreaming.html

[Eye for Video]

poisondeathray makes a good point, that is another choice. Although the cost can be subtanially more than progressive download.
Not that the scripting for pseudostreaming is expensive... it's not. But depending on your host, they may require that you have a dedicated server if you want to install the script on the server. That could raise the cost of hosting conciderably. Just be sure to check with your hosting service during the planning phase of the project.
Best wishes,
Eye for Video