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Saeroner
Participant
November 8, 2011
Question

Can someone help me with HTTP Dynamic Streaming?

  • November 8, 2011
  • 2 replies
  • 2464 views

I have been googling the crap out of this. I am a video producer for a Non-Profit and in the next couple of weeks we are launching an online training, half of which requires watching multiple different video clips – for this particular training around 50 deferent online videos. I’m a bit experienced with encoding video for the web (FLV, H.264) but would love to know more about HTTP Dynamic Streaming. As of now we just use a progressive download type of playing.  We recently hired a web dev and knows servers a bit but didn’t seem like he knew anything about HTTP Dynamic Streaming – said maybe we should search the internet for an auto detecting flash player? Anyways, is this something that I should be looking into for our organization if we do a lot of online video? If we purchased Flash Media Server would this be all we need? Is there like a Dummies book on this subject? Thanks for any help

-Pat

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    2 replies

    N
    nick_doyle
    Participating Frequently
    November 25, 2011

    Adrian they're talking about Adobe "HTTP Dynamic Streaming", you're talking about Apple's spec "HTTP Live Streaming" .... different protocols, though both for adaptive streaming video over HTTP ...

    N
    Adobe Employee
    NpComplete
    Adobe Employee
    November 9, 2011

    Hi Saeroner,

    There is big difference in progressive downloading the video on HTTP and streaming video via HTTP Dynamic streaming(HDS). You may like to check the FAQ section to know "why an how you should choose the HTTP dynamic streaming over progressive downloading" http://www.adobe.com/products/httpdynamicstreaming/faq/

    Moreover, HTTP dynmaic streaming allows you to protect your training content from being freely distributed. It can make use of HTTP caching technologies in place and hence allows you to scale.

    You may like to check out http://www.adobe.com/products/httpdynamicstreaming/features/

    Here you may get a whitepaper on the same http://www.adobe.com/products/httpdynamicstreaming/pdfs/httpdynamicstreaming_wp_ue.pdf

    For HTTP dynamic streaming, yes all you would require to purchase FMS. You may download the free developer version of the FMS and test out HDS yourself. This version restrict the viewing time but can give you the taste of HDS as starter.

    S
    SaeronerAuthor
    Participant
    November 9, 2011

    Thank you for that Nitin. That is very helpful. I have to say this all seems a little overwhelming. Is this something that would take a lot of work to get accomplished? I know nothing about flash but our organization does have a web developer -- I don't think he know much about flash though. He says right now, for video, he uses the flash player that comes with Dreamweaver.... I just want to know how to approach him and my CEO about turning to HDS and if it's something that will take a lot of work to get up and running. The FAQ and links definitely help though.

    N
    Adobe Employee
    NpComplete
    Adobe Employee
    November 10, 2011

    Thanks Saeroner for showing interest in HDS. This is definetely a new era technology.

    As I said in my earlier post, I would like you to encourage to download the developer version of the FMS. In case of HDS, this version restricts you to 30 minutes of viewing time.

    So for example, once you have installed the FMS, go to <installation-dir>/samples/videoPlayer/videoplayer.html. Open the player and yourself evaluate the HDS vs progressive HTTP

    For progressive HTTP, you may play http://localhost/vod/sample1_150kbps.f4v

    For HDS, you may play http://localhost/hds-vod/sample1_150kbps.f4v

    Though, video quality may not be different, but you may find buffering happening in case of progressive, while HDS will be instant delivery.

    Other than this, the main point that I feel you might be really interested as online training company is that you may not like to freely distribute the content to the subscribers.. In case you can win the trust of training content creater that his/her content will be completely protected and can be viewed only to those having rights to view it, it will encourage content creater to host their content on your solutions. Today when premium content creation is so expensive, one would not like it to be get pirated by progressive downloads..

    FMS within HDS provides you facility to completely protect your content. Though that's a bigger step..

    Other than this, in today's world.. Desktops are not the only medium to watch the content.. Tablets, mobiles are replacing the desktops for day to day purposes like video watching, social site browsing etc... Though tablets and devices may not be attached to high bandwidth network all the time, but HDS provides you flexibility to host streams with different bit-rates and do an adaptive bit rate switching... In such case, progressive download may not at all give you that seamless experience and would require hell lot of time for video to first completely download and start..

    You only need client side management in flash for the HDS. HDS requires OSMF player that you either download or build yourself as per your customisation.

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