Webcasting, Windows Media or Quicktime? 76
schlarbo asks: "I need to help produce a live webcast and was hoping to get some insight on the process from people with experience. We are a media house in Western Australia that uses Apple computers. We have the cameras, computers and a digital converter for the cameras. However, the big question is: should we use Quicktime Broadcaster, or rent a Windows XP laptop and use Windows Media Player to do the webcast?"
Re:to face the facts (Score:2)
I would go with QuickTime, if you have something that people like to watch then maybe it will make more people download it; and I believe that when installing iTunes on a PC that QuickTime is automatically downloaded so there may be mor
VLC (Score:2)
I have never broadcast video, but with the proper codecs VLC should be able to do what you're asking.
-Adam
Re:VLC (Score:1)
Missing Link - Re:VLC (Score:3, Informative)
Also worth mentioning:
If you already have the hardware/software (Score:4, Informative)
Honestly I am not sure you can create a broadcast using just Windows Media Player. You need Windows Media Encoder + Windows Server.
On a related note. I briefly provided some support to a India-based site.
Which provides video in Real, Quciktime & Windows Media.
75% choose to view in Windows Media.
Re:If you already have the hardware/software (Score:1)
Re:If you already have the hardware/software (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:If you already have the hardware/software (Score:1)
Really, if WMP was not pre-installed with windows, that figure would be around 30-50%.
Re:If you already have the hardware/software (Score:2)
But then for a novice user, for the most part that I have seen, they have less trouble using Quicktime (It's real-time searching in video is a lot better and faster than WMP).
Also the memory problem is mostly due to half of WMP actua
Re:If you already have the hardware/software (Score:2, Insightful)
Quicktime Broadcaster (Score:1)
If you can play WM, it's much more convenient. (Score:1, Interesting)
Then again, if you want to rewind etc. before the file is fully downloaded, QT is better at that than WM (unless the connection is fast enough, on both sides, or some specific media format is used, I don't know which, but I VERY rarely encounter it, and, mind you, I watch a lot of porn).
Players vs Formats (Score:3, Insightful)
With QuickTime Pro, you can even encode files for streaming that will work well on a regular web server, by pre-encoding them in a number of different sizes/quality, all hinted appropriately is ideal. QuickTime Broadcast
Re:If you can play WM, it's much more convenient. (Score:2)
That's just 'cause the quicktime player is crap. The codec, however, is just fine.
Just use some other player to play the quicktime files, and you'll have no problem. (My suggestion: Media Player Classic [sourceforge.net])
Who are your audience? (Score:3, Informative)
If you want to give Mac and Linux users the finger, go ahead and use Microsoft's tools.
Re:Who are your audience? (Score:2)
I've used Darwin Streaming Server, and it worked great. I highly recommend it.
Re:Who are your audience? (Score:3, Insightful)
Since Windows has
Re:Who are your audience? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Who is your legal audience? (Score:2)
Re:Who is your legal audience? (Score:2)
Quicktime avoids EUCD/DMCA problems (Score:1)
And the EUCD bans even talking about how to do that [theregister.co.uk]. That's circumvention and talking about it is illegal too, not just doing it., though that may also violate the license for the codecs.
Re:Who are your audience? (Score:2)
Re:Who are your audience? (Score:1)
M$'s WMV codecs are absolutely atrocious. Seeking in WMV encoded videos is problematic at best. I have been forced to re-encode some WMV encoded videos into MPG1/2 or DIVX formats in order to make them playable. Playing back a WMV file burned onto a CD or DVD is like playing Russian Roulette.
Re:Who are your audience? (Score:2)
Re:Who are your audience? (Score:2)
Neither.... (Score:3, Informative)
Great solution, but... (Score:2)
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:1)
Note that if you opt for Ogg/theora, there exist plugin for WindowsMedia player here
http://www.illiminable.com/ogg/ [illiminable.com]
Mplayer and vlc played them too.
If you don't want your user to download any player, they can use that java applet:
http://www.fluendo.com/products.php?product=applet [fluendo.com]
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:2)
Which virtually nobody has installed on the client side, and which most people will not bother to install simply to watch this thing. Really, you want to do this with a minimum of fuss to the end user, or they'll simply move on and do something else instead - "minimum fuss" meaning "no new codecs/players". Stick with what your audience already has available to them, trust me, and since it sounds like they're already set up for WMV/QT, why pay for something
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:2)
Apparently you're not reading the posts you're replying to. Both of the posts you replied to clearly stated that there is a JAVA APPLET which is used to view these streams -- no software installation required. It takes less than 5 seconds to load up on my system....
So the only client software is a web browser...
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:2)
False. Perhaps you should read the posts yourself.
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:2)
False. Perhaps you should read the posts yourself.
Umm, I don't know what you're smoking, but both posts you replied to do indeed state that there is a java applet, and provide a link.
Message: 13885583
If you don't want your user to download any player, they can use that java applet:
http://www.fluendo.com/products.php?product=applet [fluendo.com]
Message: 13885959
Additionally, you can just use the free free Java applet [fluendo.com]
Perhaps you need to work on
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:2)
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:2)
Did I say that? Read for content, my friend.
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:3, Informative)
Nice slam on Ogg/Vorbis+Ogg/Theora, but them's the facts. It depends on the budget. You can do it for free, if you have little/no budget, or you can pay them for it and use something that people have installed already [which, notably, you have to do for the other solutions already]. Quicktime, you will remember, requires a [free] download for Windows users (no love for anybody else) and Windows Media only wor
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:2)
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
The reason I said this was because budget is a constraint, and the Fluendo software lets you choose--free or not free. It has flexibility that the others do. I'm well aware of the fact that there are other considerations, as you can tell by the rest of my posts.
Problem is that it's the
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:2)
In any case, your suggestion that Flumotion is somehow "free" assumes facts not in evidence. Does Flum
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:2)
Your assertions to date are that:
Both were stated as what I'd categorize as "slams": the first a sarcastic comment masquerading as a quasi-joke that the submitter wants for people to actually use the streams (incorrectly implying that nobody uses the formats that Flumotion provides); the second
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:2)
* Flumotion is useless (first post)
* My post is useless (second post)
My assertions to date were firstly, that the penetration of the Ogg codec is rather limited. Secondly, that your post did not answer the question as asked. Now, I understand your burning need to turn a relatively simple question into a roundtable discussion, but the fact is that your post did not answer the question as asked. If you prefer not to have people point that out, I recommend you
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:2)
I wholeheartedly agree with this assertion.
I would also agree with this assertion. I did not weigh in on the relative merits and problems with QuickTime streaming server versus Windows Media streaming server.
Again with the mischaracterizations of
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:2)
Precious little point in continuing then. The last word is yours if you want it.
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:2)
EOT
Re:Great solution, but... (Score:2)
Re:Neither.... (Score:2)
Re:Neither.... (Score:2)
Synopsis of the stuff you seem to have "missed" (though you posted a couple of days late!):
Re:Neither.... (Score:2)
Re:Neither.... (Score:1)
Laptop? (Score:1)
I hear that you can also stream video with Flash, that could be a very good solution, too.
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/flash/articles/fl v_download_04.html [macromedia.com]
It wouldn't require an investment anything more than Windows Server (required for streaming video to Windows Media Player).
Google Video uses Flash streams. (Score:2)
Re: QT, I find the app. tremendously annoying in Windows. Also, a lot of people do not have it installed. Personally, I'd like to see QT die and go away for web streams.
Why is this an either/or question? (Score:4, Informative)
My favorite radio station [wdetfm.org] webcasts in Real, WMA, and two bitrates of MP3 simultaneously. You'd do well to follow that lead.
Go with what you're familiar with (Score:2)
If you're familar with Quicktime Broadcaster there's less chance of you looking like idiots in front of potential customers using that than on a rental XP box (no pressure if that breaks in the middle of a webcast...).
One thing though - make sure that you use an actual URL so that people don't have to rely on a poxy browser plugin that probably won't be ther
Re:Go with what you're familiar with (Score:2)
If your video is that important, give me DiVx/xViD avis and I'll be happy.
First, answer some questions (Score:4, Informative)
First of all, you can't stream live Flash video without a Flash Communication Server license, and it's one of the most expensive prospects in the entire streaming world right now, plus most of the world still only has the Flash 7 live codecs, which are a shitty subset of H.264, so skip that. Secondly, everyone who saying crap like VLC and ogg theora... please. Shut the fuck up. He's specifically asking about Windows Media and Quicktime.
Refreshingly, the post that asks about your audience is dead on. The choice of streaming format will be entirely driven by your audience (and also by your budget).
Some questions to consider:
- Do you have streaming servers? What formats do they handle? If not, you need to start learning their care and feeding right now.
- How many users do you expect? Do your streaming servers have adequate bandwidth? Do you know how to calculate adequate bandwidth? Are your end users all in australia, or are they international? Have you considered a CDN like Akamai, Playstream, VitalStream, etc.?
- Are you archiving on the server or on the encoder? Are you backing to tape, for the inevitable "I forgot to hit record" issues?
If this is your first webcast, you might do well to call a streaming expert (I recommend www.incitedmedia.com [incitedmedia.com], ask for Joe -- they did Live8 so they know what they're doing) and ask some questions.Keep in mind: Windows Media looks like crap on Macs. Quicktime is on lots more Windows machines nowadays thanks to iTunes. Quicktime Broadcaster isn't as rock-solid as Windows Media Encoder (and certainly isn't nearly as fully-featured) but will run on the machines you already have.
Re:First, answer some questions (Score:2)
That rules out H.264 for people with windows 98. Since we don't know their target audience, I don't know if that is an issue. My grandma still has 98, and I'm sure a lot of older people have it as well.
Re:First, answer some questions (Score:2)
It will also not work on my Amiga, or Atari ST!
Really Windows98 is seven years old. I guess if you want to make sure just about everyone can watch it it may be a concern but unless you know that it is required I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Frankly I are really interested in the streaming Ogg with a jav
No QT7 on 98? For good reason. (Score:2)
Granted, there are a few (insane) people who buy 3GHz machines and install 98
Quicktime all the way. (Score:3, Informative)
I'd personally use Quicktime Broadcaster and the Darwin Streaming Server all the way. You already have the hardware for it, both are completely free (as in beer, although DSS is also free as in speech), and you have a wide selection of compressors and packetizers.
Yes, I've heard the Windows users cry "but we don't want to use Quicktime!". My suggestion would be not to force them to by using a standard packetizer and compressor. If quality is your goal, use H.264 for both -- Mac and Linux users can view such streams easily, and Windows users only need either Quicktime or VLC. Or, if you want to sacrifice some quality, use standard MPEG-4 for both. Quicktime Broadcaster will happily handle such formats, and everyone should be able to play them with whatever player they want.
So broadcast using the free Quicktime solutions, but use a standard format, and everyone can be made happy.
Yaz.
If you don't own it, don't rely on it. (Score:1, Insightful)
darwin streaming server + quicktime broadcaster (Score:1)
If you choose h.264 over MPEG-4, encoding & decoding HW requirements will be higher. For playback, any system can play it back well:
Consider how many Windows users have iTunes installed nowadays, which means Q
Re:Windows Media? Over Corp LAN (Score:2)
If you are streaming live you save tremendous bandwidth by multicasting.
For non-streaming scenarios you can control the bandwidth by selecting the appropriate bitrate.
Windows Media Encoder will let you select the peak bitrate when encoding video.
If your clients are regular computers (no mobile devices),
you can dramatically improve quality of you streams by selecting 'Best Quality' under Tools->Options->Performance and using the 'Adva
Re:Windows Media? Over Corp LAN (Score:1)
Re:Windows Media? Over Corp LAN (Score:2)
If you have all Win computers, chances are you already have a licences for Window 2003 Enterprise server for domain management etc.
Window Media Encoder itself is free.
You can get great quality even with low bit rate if you choose the right encoder options. The defaults in Windows Media Encoder give less than satis
Re:Windows Media? Over Corp LAN (Score:1)
Re:Windows Media? Over Corp LAN (Score:2)
The new encoder will suposedly will have more accurate bitrate calculations and will introduce two pass encoding to Advanced codec profile.
Darwing Streaming Server (Score:1)