Cheap video servers?

Alrighty, where will we broadcast our multiple of course purely educational mature video streams from?

Does Shoutcast work with Second Life? Or is there something better?

What does it cost if 40 people watch the same video for one hour?

What equipment would we need to broadcast from RL club with good enough quality and how much would cost?

Hahahahahahaha, I needed a good laugh this morning!

I think we'll see the advent of streaming 'for sale' signs. Don't say I didn't warn you

Of course, the cheapest servers I've found are at tHTISERnsdfaew&r&R$(#&*@

Dang, silly DSL! Of course, I meant to say the best way to get cheapest video into SL is this wonderful sERV*$Y#(YFH#RHFLS

Hmm, I guess I can't tell you, the internet is preventing me for some reason.

I'll be offering video streaming to all, once I have properly assessed the market and what types of bandwidth strain streaming video brings.

How about 200 per month for unlimited use 10mbps?
http://www.ev1servers.net/english/10mbps_series.asp
I'm not sure how many simultaneous viewers you can have on that though. Maybe 20-25 if you don't have too high quality on it?

Or 2K per month if you want 100mbps That should definitely be able to push some serious video.

I have two dedicated servers from ev1.net, and am very happy with them. I don't have unlimited packages though. I have a couple of dual xeons with more 'normal' bandwidth for my websites.

I think if anyone wants to buy in the $200+ a month range they'd better deal with the people I get my supply from, not me

Hmmm, it seem they are sold out on the 10 MBit package. Hmmm....

Btw, if somebody with technical skill want help me bring best adult education video to Second Life feel free IM me In country where I live now there are too few baby, only one baby per couple. Lets all work together change that!

I can help you Anshe, just swing by my place after work

ROTFL!

As for streaming video services, because of the costs involved: hosting charges, license fee (or a copyright infringement lawsuist/settlement fund) or content creation costs, overhead for land, event administration, and (possibly) profit, there would be good reason for there to be admission fees for at least some of the video streams that will be found in SL.

I wonder what these costs will amount to, in various cases, and what SL users will be inclined to pay. One business model would involve letting avid stream viewers to buy admission to many streams at once, at a discount.

Another option is sponsorship, which is a key revenue source for television, and movie theaters even have ads before they let you see the movie.

I'm also curious about the specific pricing for video streaming. Can any decent web host be used to stream video from a regular web hosting account? (In other words, if a web host offers 100GB of transfer for $10/mo., can that be used to stream 500 200MB videos?)

For the Quicktime-supported formats, is there a difference between loading up a video that is a static file, vs. a properly "streamed" video? Is that the reason why some videos play right through and others continuously loop what they've buffered so far?

As an example of a "streaming video host", see http://www.streamhoster.com/streaming_services.html

If you just want to run a server, you can get Windows Media Server for free.
I have it. I've been using it since the dawn of time... it's what I used before MSN messenger was popular, and it's still handy for those poor MSN-deprived people.
It can broadcast your webcam, your screen, has shitloads of different codecs, etc...
You can also just do sound and run your own radio.

Shoutcast Server will not work - wrong stream formats. Also afaik Windows Media Server will not work - I know of no one who even bothered to try it with mpeg4/ mov

What DOES work is Darwin Streaming Server (DSS) which is FREE and UNLIMITED, and runs on Linux (I have it on V7.3) and FreeBSD (Friend runs it on that).

You need the server machine on a fat net connection - like a CoLo site. You need - for resonable video 200k * Number of viewers. = 8Megabit/second connect for 40 people! (Not your average DSL or Cable

I'll be demo-ing what 50kbit/sec video looks like during the evenings, but you still need
2Megabit/sec connect for 40 people on that.

As for the encoder - what will work is a Celeron 1 gig or better running Fedora core 2 + installed FAAC, ffmpeg and MPEG4IP. And A vid capture card of course.

Fremont Cunningham.

lol it used to be that everybody and thier brother had a club...now its gonna be everybody ahd thier mother has a porn theater.

http://streamguys.com/

Oh... duh. You can also stream viddies if you have a DreamHost account. It does not support "live" streaming (yet), so you couldn't do a telecast.

I would shop around and see who has the lowest cost/MB and who will ream you the most gently if you go over. DH seems cheaper than streamhost or streamguys but they can't do live streams.

I second the dreamhost. Their cheapest plan provides 120 gigabyte transfer per month and also 2400 megabytes of hard drive. Breaking that 120 gigs down into kbits/s, it would (at a constant load be): 120 GB = 960 Gb = 983040 Mb = 1006632960 Kb /month....
1006632960 Kb /month = 33554432 Kb/day (at 30 days/month) = 1398101 Kb/hour = 23301 Kb/minute = 388 Kb/sec ... Now it appears the streamguys will charge $16 for 16 x 24Kbit/s streams (which is approx what dreamhost will provide, constantly playing) and another $90! dollars for just 2 gigs of storage (dreamhost provides 2.4 gigs). Total is $7.95/month vs. $106/month. Not to mention dreamhost gives a free domain name and allows nifty RPC tricks.

Isn't there a difference between sharing video as a static file via http, vs. literally "streaming" it with special server software?

In particular, on the preview grid I've noticed that some movies loop with a progressively longer segment of the file, while others just play right through. Anyone know if this has to do with whether the source is a static file or a "streamed stream"?

Dreamhost is equipt with Darwin Streaming Server 4.1 (Quicktime 6) software so it is true streaming, not just download via http.

Ok, I'm going to ask a n00b question.

I currently do not want to pay $100 - $200 monthly for video streaming, is there any service or way I could stream something LIVE to say 5 people max for a reasionable price?

If there is, what would it require, and can you please point me in that direction, or offer any info?

Thanks -
Sam

Something to point out, unless your willing to pay about the range of US$300-500/month+ your Colo host is likely going to shut you down on contract technicalities if you actually use that much bandwidth. Unlimited transfer NEVER is (and even those that offer 2TB/transfer get pissed off if you get too close to that limit).

Your best bet would be do to it yourself, but you are going to be shelling out some serious cash, and your probably going to need to hire someone to setup the server and provide some interface for streaming (as well as do maintainence).

-Adam

Hi Anshe,


I've been working with this guys professionnally, in a corporate setting. Flawless service.

http://www.audiovideoweb.com/index.php

For the volume likely to get you return on investment though, my guess is you'd be better off hosting your own server somewhere on the net with dedicated bandwidth. More upfront cost but less ongoing ones, and a small Bi Pro PC with a lot of hard disk should be enough.

Don't hesitate to mail at [email]Stephanezugzwang@hotmail.com[/email] or catch me in world.

Best,

S

For those asking about static load versus streaming...

I have three viewers on three parcels on the 1.6 grid (last I looked anyway). Two are QT streams (Hitchhiker trailers), and the third is a static file that just downloads (the newscast about the exploding whale -- fitting really ).

From what I've seen there is no difference in either. So in theory if you have a static file available, it should download it and go. Not sure what will happen with larger files though, the example static file is small.

EDIT: The three parcels are near the center of Morris, owner is group 'Tavarua's Boardman.'

I havnt seen the 1.6 preview yet but the best way to stream video i would say use "Windows Media Encoder". Its a free program.

Just go to http://www.google.com/ and search for 'windows media encoder'.

It is complicated to set up but once it is running all the viewer needs to do is go to http://yourip: port and it should automatically open in Windows Media Player.

It doesnt require a server or anything because its all built in. You might need a fast internet connection to stream full quality (DVD Quality).

Hope this helps..Davy

I just downloaded this from the MS web site ... version 9.0, it's about 9.5M download.

Here is the link...

It seems straightforward to me but I can see how some might be confused.

--Jack Lambert

ROTATING streaming for sale signs. don't forget the rotating.

For those who may want to invest in equipment and forego the monthly fees, you may want to check out a network appliance called VBXcast by VBrick. Oh, it's not cheap.

VBrick VBXCast

Anshe,

In the future our organization and it's affiliates are working on several different ways of broadcasting streaming media. As of right now, it is a difficult task. I'm guessing that those who laughed at your question, do not understand what your company is trying to accomplish at all.

Not to bash anyone, but I've been working with Several media distributors across the US. Not just for streaming on Second Life, but across the board. Most even own there own codecs. Compression and high picture quality is the main issue.

Our goal has been to not only increase the speed of streaming across the web but also build a system that will simultaneously be able to broadcast a live stream in television, internet and cellular devices.

As newer developments arise I will attempt to keep you posted. There are some developments that will be discussed and demonstrated at N.A.B. in Vegas this year. Cost will be an issue once the new technology has been released.

Rico Warilla
(RL) HSMPTE Rep.