Tips for streaming video from my server?

[dannybat]

Okay, so I was sent 2 VHS's with concerts on them. I successfully ripped all of them. There were 4 concerts in total, each were about 4gb in size. Now, I would *like* to stream them off my server, but I wouldn't have a problem with having a direct download to them off of my site. Only problem is:
I'd hate to do a stream / DL of 4gb files

With that said, I would like to know the best possible way to make these streamable / downloadable.

They are all MPEG2.

If someone could link me to any guides that'd help, or tell me the right tools to use / what codecs I could use, I'd be VERY greatful!

Please help a newb out

Thanks
Danny

[redwudz]

A couple of options. You could convert them to MPEG-1 or WMV. Or if you know your audience has the capability, you might think about the Xvid or Divx format. All these formats are much more compact than MPEG-2. You didn't mention your audio format, but if it's PCM audio, that takes a lot of space up by itself.

Also, dannybat, in the future please use a more descriptive subject title in your posts to allow others to search for similar topics. I will change yours this time. From our rules:

Try to choose a subject that describes your topic.
Please do not use topic subjects like Help me!!! or Problems.

Thanks, Moderator redwudz

And welcome to our forums.

[dannybat]

Sorry about that. And I DO believe it's PCM audio. I just installed Windows Media Encoder, which I was told by a friend is good. Any tips for using this?

[redwudz]

WME would probably be a good choice, as most users have Windows Media Player or equivalent on their computers. I don't use WMV format myself very often, but I would make up a representative clip of some of your present video, about ten minutes long and see how that looks when encoded to WMV at the standard settings. Try different settings or bitrates till you get a good balance of size versus quality, then use those settings to encode it all.

You can go to MS's site for more info: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

[dannybat]

Hmm, I can't seem to encode MPEG2 to WMV with WME. Is there any add-ons that will do the job? Or any alternatives?

[redwudz]

Do have a MPEG-2 codec installed? It doesn't come with Windows. As a alternative, if you don't have a program like PowerDVD that installs the codec, you can DL Stinkys MPEG2 Codec. Yes, it has a srange name, but works fine.