Streaming YouTube videos into SL?

Has anybody found a way to do this? We'd like to stream some video into SL that my RL band has up on YouTube, but not sure how to go about it.

If it's not possible, what other options exist for streaming video? I presume that getting your own stream is expensive. We have space on our web server to host some video but not sure about the streaming part.

I don't believe that it is currently possible to get a YouTube video to play in SL. Almost any other format that will play in the Quicktime player will work, though.

You might give Blip.tv a try. They are similar to YouTube, but will host a Quicktime file in addition to the converted Flash-based video.

If you have access to your own web server then you could also host the Quicktime file on your own site. No need for any extra 'streaming' software of anything.

http://www.blip.tv/

Ahhh so if I convert the video on our server to a Quicktime instead of an AVI it will work? Trying that now... thanks.

yes - SL relies on Quicktime to play it's video . So usually anything that will play in Quciktime on your system will play in SL as well.

There are sometimes problems with different video Codecs not being compatible with older version of Quicktime. You may need to experiment with format that works for you and your viewers.

Personally, I use the Sorenson 3 compressor when I am trying to make the file as coimpatible as possible. If I want it smaller I use mpeg4 (.mp4), which may leave out some people with older versions of quicktime.

I believe there are a few other threads that discuss video codecs...

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Good luck and have fun!

You can use youtube urls in your profile / web, but it doesnt always work for whoever tries to watch it, but you can see the video , but its like 1 of 4 times for me they work.

OK, I did convert a short clip of a video to a .mov file and now it does work in SL having just uploaded it to our web server... BUT... it takes forever to start playing. I presume that's because it's being downloaded in its entirety before it starts playing. Any way to change this so that it starts playing while the download is in progress? And maybe I can compress the MOV file so that it's smaller?

keep in mind you don't have the rights to take a google video, youtube or any of there videos and copy them on your server if i remember...

Try encoding it to a smaller format, like .mp4. The lower quality isn't going to be obvious on a little SL tv screen!

When you are converting your movie to Quicktime, look for an option called 'Prepare for Internet Streaming or 'Fast start'. With that enabled your movie should begin playing before it finished downloading.

To make your video files smaller - and quicker to download - you'll need to experiment with different video Codecs. The best and most efficient is probably .mp4 or h.264. If you have a setting on your conversion software for iPod video, try that one.