Capturing and Uploading to Server @ sametime

[mansgame]

Is capturing and uploading the same file at the same time possible? While I'm capturing I try to upload the file to a server I get,

The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

My goal: Is to capture something live and upload it at the same time to my server so people can start watching.


Any way around this?

[mats.hogberg]

Unlikely.

/Mats

[Nelson37]

1. Capture directly to the server. This still won't solve the problem, just eliminates a step.

2. Capture in small pieces and save those to the server. Still not a complete solution, but the steps are smaller.

3. Use a dedicated software, Window Vision is available as a demo, which allows this. Security type programs do this. Video Quality is not their main goal. SFAIK they both stream and capture at the same time, using dedicated hardware for the capture. What is streamed and what is saved have completely different parameters, they are two different files, though the stream is not saved unles the remote viewer does so on his/her PC.

[mansgame]

Thanks guy,
Nelson how would I upload directly to a server from capturing? I have a linux box, is it possible? or would I have to cough up some money for a Window server?

[mats.hogberg]

If you can mount a server HDD using NFS (linux-to-linux) or samba (windows-to-linux) and capture to that mount instead of a local hdd, you're home. But not many web hosts allow that. But if you host the server yourself, it shoul be no problem.

/Mats

[mansgame]

The box is mine (colocated), If I do this how capture onto the server? I tried with Windows Media Encoder with no luck.

[thecoalman]

or would I have to cough up some money for a Window server?

I believe that is one solution if you are using WME, a little beyond my knowledge but if you look in windows media encoder and go through the "live broadcast" steps the second or third selection is between "push to server"(encoder connects to server) or "pull" which allows clients to connect to the encoder. The first I would imagine would then allow the server to distribute the video and save it, even if it doesn't save it you could create local file for upload.

The other option would be to use the "pull" option but I believe that has a limit on the connections allowed and they would be connecting to your local machine instead of the server. Save the file as you're encoding and upload when you're done.

Having said that there must be a solution for a *nix box.

[Nelson37]

The basic error is that you can't load the same file twice.

There are apps which make a live stream available, I named one, there are many others. ALL that I know of limit maximum quality. Maximum Quality and Fast Downloading are two goals in direct conflict.

To capture to a server, designate the server drive as your save drive. Network performance must be maximized if hi-quality settings are used. The file will NOT be available until you stop the capture.

I would suggest researching softwares which have your desired goal as a design feature, as opposed to trying to get your current capture software to work.

REPEAT - Maximum Quality and Streaming Download are opposing goals. The software I mentioned does BOTH at the same time, with a hi-quality save and a lesser-quality stream, BUT this is done only thru dedicated hardware MPG capture boards. Two different video files are created for the same event. One for show and one for go.

A hi-quality file will be many times the size of a low-quality file, this is where the problem lies. Big files download slow. Progs designed to stream efficiently have as a basic parameter relatively low-quality files. Live feed means lower quality. Can your users download a full movie in real-time? With compression which can be applied in real-time? Have you seen a real-time XVID or WMV capture? Is this acceptable? Do you have the hardware necessary to create such a file, in real-time?

You could capture in hi-quality and then copy the file to your server at various intervals, feed would not be live but would be of high quality.

Or you could use some real-time streaming app, video will be dramatically lower in quality but would be live.