Acceptable download time for a video ?

[TSandM]

Who posts a 93 MB video online? The friend who videotaped me! I don't know if she did any compressing -- it is in Quicktime format. I think it's about ten minutes long. It wasn't something she was posting for general consumption. It was for me to be able to get some information about my technique.

 

[HowardE]

Who posts a 93 MB video online? The friend who videotaped me! I don't know if she did any compressing -- it is in Quicktime format. I think it's about ten minutes long. It wasn't something she was posting for general consumption. It was for me to be able to get some information about my technique.

Yeah... Quicktime can be compressed some... That was actually going to be my guess for the format... Generally QT videos are HUGE files. If they have a windows computer, Windows Movie Maker (comes with every xp version) can import video and save as WMV's which are much smaller files. A 10 minute HQ video would probaly only be about 30 MB's instead of 90, and they start streaming quickly.

It is nice to see your form on video... I must admit.

 

[ronrosa]

OK, my next video will have low and high resolution versions. That way, people can download the low res version 1st and then decide if they liked it enough to download the hi res version.

 

[meekal]

Why is STREAMING harder? WMV's stream automatically... you don't have to do anything special to make them stream. streaming allows the viewer to watch a 12MB movie and only wait 15-30 seconds for the movie to begin.

It may take 5 - 6 minutes for a 12 MB movie to download, whereas if it's streaming, they're watching a 5-6 minute video almost the whole time.

my bad.... i mean HARDER on the server.... see simonSpears comment.

 

[meekal]

Generally for videos to share online, I see them as being clips, rather than movies. I try to keep the "clips" to 5 minutes or so. This way, it stays interesting for the viewer, and the file sizes are more reasonable.

i agree with the 5 minute limit.... most folks will easily 'tolerate' that time frame - it's about the same length of time as a song on a radio..... that's what our MTV GENERATION is used to - welcome to the world of SHORT ATTENTION SPAN THEATRE!but nobody says you can't take the time and effort and make a 'movie' in that 5 minute time limit.

 

[HowardE]

my bad.... i mean HARDER on the server.... see simonSpears comment.

I don't think it's harder on the server either. It may sap a little bandwidth for a while... But even when I post a link to a video in MOF, and 10 people go watch it at once, it still streams relatively quickly.

Let me say that my server is MINE. I host about 15 websites on it, and it's only hosted on a DSL with a 1.2mbps Upstream. The server itself is a dell with a Xenon Processor, and a SCSI HD, and I have 1 GB of RAM in it. So really, it's nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.

If you have a cable modem, and know how to use DNS...and register a domain, you could easily host your own server at home even. No restrictions on anything.

 

[simonspear]

Howarde

The difference is that if people download they can watch again and again without any further bandwidth required from your server while if you stream when someone watches it again you get the same bandwidth hit as the first time they watched it.

While that does not make a difference to someone with an unlimited bandwidth server account or their own server with unlimited internet account it does make a huge difference for someone who is on a monthly or yearly limit - especially as video will eat it up very, very quickly.

Cheers, Simon

P.S. What's MOF?

 

[HowardE]

Howarde

The difference is that if people download they can watch again and again without any further bandwidth required from your server while if you stream when someone watches it again you get the same bandwidth hit as the first time they watched it.

While that does not make a difference to someone with an unlimited bandwidth server account or their own server with unlimited internet account it does make a huge difference for someone who is on a monthly or yearly limit - especially as video will eat it up very, very quickly.

Cheers, Simon

I understand your point where bandwidth is a factor in the charges that someone pays for their internet service. I have never been on a pay/bandwidth user account, so I never even thought of that.

My videos, as it says on my video download page is "right click on a title and click save as to save a copy of the video to your computer"

 

[meekal]

P.S. What's MOF?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=MOF

i dunno... NONE of those terms really fit either.... oh well..

ps: piddlefish is running in my spare bedroom on a old DELL pentium 350 with 128M ram..... (eeks!)

ps: another VOTE for download: what if the 'host' takes the video OFFLINE or the website disappears?

 

[HowardE]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=MOF

i dunno... NONE of those terms really fit either.... oh well..

ps: piddlefish is running in my spare bedroom on a old DELL pentium 350 with 128M ram..... (eeks!)

ps: another VOTE for download: what if the 'host' takes the video OFFLINE or the website disappears?

MOF = Mask on Forehead... We've been banished to the water cooler forum, and we're not supposed to talk about it in the regular forums.