5 Tips to Build an Affordable Video on Demand Website

Author: LTS Media Ltd.

Setting up a Video On Demand website requires a technical understanding of the streaming technology involved and having dealt with the old school ways of doing distribution, rest assured that a natural resistance towards technology will arise. Aspects such as streaming technology, content delivery network, media file encoding, encryption, digital rights management, payment solution, online royalty reporting, streaming costs (welcome to the world of megabytes and megabits) and different technical parts of the website - all this seems to turn your project into rocket science. Many have given up half way through. As a result, most companies entrusts specialist providers to lead the sophisticated task of providing streaming technology to their services. In this article, we list some important aspects of what to do in order cut costs.

1. Finding the right Streaming Provider

In order to run a highly sophisticated streaming website with full business integrity you will have to team up with a specialist streaming provider who operates a Content Delivery Network. This is, in short terms, server rack space combined with Windows Media Streaming software ensuring that your content is being delivered to the end consumer as well as hosting your content. If you do your research properly, you will realise a huge pricing difference in streaming and hosting costs offered by various providers. In addition, a lot of companies do charge set-up costs as well as insisting that you also use their media file encoding service which can come as a very high cost. Avoid this. In addition, the development and programming of the website and the connectors can turn into a very costly affair when leaving this to a streaming specialist provider. Parts of it are unavoidable; a lot can be done for much less costs if you are willing to source this in-house.

2. Media File Encoding

Speaking from experience in dealing with clients, the encoding of a media file seems to cause a great deal of confusion. If you are, for example, a medium sized film production/film distribution company eyeing the prospect of setting up a Video On Demand site, take control of the file conversation in-house. It is anything but rocket science. Depending on the volume of titles you wish to offer, all it needs is a few PCs, enough DVD drives and affordable software which enables you to convert your movies into any file you want at any bit rate you want plus the possibility to set scene selections plus much more. Supply your streaming provider with all files in the format requested and you can safe a lot of money.

3. Digital Rights Management

DRM is already pre-provided in most server solutions but be aware that a lot of companies charge you extra for this and make it sound a bigger deal than it actually is. For example: Windows media server has DRM build in and all you need is a third party script or a VB.net script that sits between your web application and your Windows Media server to check if a client has paid and if the session is still valid. A good solution for this is a combination between Windows Media server, Hoyasoft and Aqua CMS. Do your research, it will pay off.

4. Web Development & Payment Solutions

Does your streaming provider offer the payment solutions you wish to offer your customers, such as Pay Per View and Pay Per Minute? Don't be surprised to find specialist providers who offer you the best content deliver network and streaming services but cannot provide the payment solution you desire. Some might only be able to offer downloads and Pay Per View but you also want Pay Per Minute. Some are not in a position to offer any payment solution but offer to develop this for you for costs which can easily exceed your budged. Again, look at content management solutions such as PHP Nuke, Aqua CMS and Mumbo. You will often find that they have these payment modules (Pay Per View, Pay Per Minute) pre-build.

5. Last but not least - Are you brave enough to build it all?

If you are lucky and you have a very experienced friend/colleque from the web development world with enough time and enthusiasm at hand, you can go all the way on your own. Before you start, look at content management solutions, they are often overlooked and often supply pre-built expansions that can meet your requirements. This can reduce your development costs dramatically. If you are willing to invest, you can buy your own streaming servers and just get rack space with hosting companies that offer streaming bandwidth (Do your research and you will realise that most streaming providers use third party facilities which you can perfectly use as well). You can safe tens of thousands of pounds as well as reducing your running costs to a minimum.

About the Author:

LTS Media Ltd. is a London based company offering complete consultancy services for online projects. Our aim is to simplify your online projects by helping you to find the right outsourcing solution in order to improve the development timeline, quality and cost of your projects.

For more information:
Ben Recknagel
Managing Director
LTS Media Ltd.
6 Water Lane
London NW1 8NZ
Ph: 0845 257 0778
info@thestreamingmonkey.com
http://www.thestreamingmonkey.com
http://www.aquacms.net

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/video-articles/
5-tips-to-build-an-affordable-video-on-demand-website-391772.html

The You Tube Internet Video Phenomenon

Founded in 2005, YouTube quickly became one of the hottest sites on the internet. Today the site serves up over one hundred million videos a day. According to the research site HitWise, YouTube can claim over 46 percent of the entire online video market. Considering that site was started by three twenty something techies in silicon valley, and then sold to Google for $1.65bln in late 2006, it is easy to see how the site has started a revolution in the world of online video.

Originally thought up as a video version of the website HotorNot (a pioneer in websites that allowed a user to upload content) YouTube's founders quickly realized that users were uploading whatever videos they wanted. People were uploading videos and linking to them from their MySpace sites. YouTube piggybacked on the explosive growth of the social networking site to become the biggest online video site on the web today; MySpace continues to be the greatest source of hits for YouTube according to HitWise.

It was probably a number of factors, and smart decisions by it's founders that allowed YouTube such explosive growth. It was one of the first sites that allowed viewers to watch video from the site with no special software. The decision not to place ads before videos also contributed to the sites success. Probably the largest factor though was how easy the site is to use. A user can register, upload their videos, and it is so easy your grandmother could do it. The combination of the easy and edgy feel to the site fueled it's growth to where it is today.

Today the site serves up 100 million videos to users worldwide each and every day. From simple messages uploaded by users, to professionally produced videos, you can find almost anything on YouTube. Some users have found fame from their crazy antics in amateur skits. A couple of users have even garnered professional television contracts from their YouTube videos. The site really has become a phenomenon in the world of online video, and social networking.

What is it that really made YouTube different from other online video sharing websites?

It was the right site, at the right time. At a time when broadband internet is the norm and social networking was beginning to explode on the internet, YouTube gave users a new way to communicate. People now have an outlet for their creativity, any message they want to share, and a way to share information through video online. Combine that with the social networking sites like myspace or facebook -- that allow users to link to YouTube videos -- and YouTube is becoming a pioneer in the way people share information. For the first time, with a simple video camera, anyone can post videos of whatever they want for free.

It will be interesting to see how YouTube, and other sites like it, continue to change the way we communicate, the way we advertise, and mostly the way we share ourselves.

Article Source: ArticlesMaker.com

About the Author: Tyler Ellison is a successful entrepreneur who teaches free internet traffic secrets and black hat internet video marketing tricks

Movie Downloads Demystified And The Jargon Busted!

Haven't movies changed in 100 years? First silent films with a man playing music live, then the 'talkies' and then color movies. Movies have been delivered to us differently over time too, movie theaters, drive in movies, then Multiplexes and then home cinema arrived. Then it got complicated. From Betamax through VHS. From VHS onto DVD. And now digital and HDTV! We all know the story so far - but may find it confusing!

But are you up to date with the latest? Are you new to the Internet and totally bemused by all the jargon? Have you got an ipod or PSP and don't know what to do with it?

Do you know your P2P from your DVD? Do you confuse your MP3 and MPEG-4? Have you got your codecs and plug-ins set up correctly and not exceeded your download quota or bandwidth? What does it all mean and does it matter if all you want to do is watch some movies?

The terms get longer, the speed of change is faster, confusion increases. Whilst I watch a downloaded film on my laptop my uncle needs to help to program his old VHS recorder! This speed of change is opening up a huge gulf between different users and this gap seems to continue to grow.

You can now easily download movies and films to watch when you want, with perfect digital quality. You can even watch them where you want - perhaps download some movies to you ipod or burn films to DVD and watch on any laptop or on the TV as normal.

But to do so it helps to learn the new language and if you are interested in joining in the movie downloading revolution then some basic knowledge of the essential terminology will help.

So where to start? Let's start with something we think we know:

DVD: "Digital Versatile Disc" or "Digital Video Disc" - these discs look like CDs (compact discs) but hold more data and are now used for storing digital movies. A DVD can be used for storing your music and computer files if it is rewriteable. There is no space here to explain the difference between all these permutations - DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and the rest - that would be a separate article in itself!

So when a movie is downloaded what do you actually download? It is quite simply a computer file - but of course they come in many types! Here are the main bits of movie file jargon that you may come across.

MPEG-4: this is a standard for a file for video and audio, compiled by the "Moving Picture Experts Group" (hence MPEG) and it is their 4th version of the standard. So you can now download movies in MPEG-4 format - but this can take time as the files are so large!

DivX: created by DivXNetworks, this is a file that enables fast movie downloads without losing any picture quality - and DivX is also based on the MPEG4 file standard that we mentioned above.

Codec: although it sounds mysterious, this is a piece of software that enables file COmpression and DECompression to transfer it across the internet.

MP3: short for "MPEG Audio Layer 3" - from MPEG again. This is for digital audio only, it uses a compression method that means smaller file sizes. You lose some information but most people can't hear the reduction in quality. So it's great for music downloading and playing audio on an MP3 player. But this is only for music, not for movies.

P2P: short for peer to peer. This is a method of sharing and downloading billions of movie and music files. Peer-to-peer is simply a form of computer network that does not rely on a server and client, but each computer is connected to several others - great for downloading and sharing home video and audio content between them. Even when files are compressed it can take time and sharing the load amongst several computers is a great way to harness the power of the internet.

So when you've downloaded movie files - how do you watch them?

On Windows PCs these files will usually play without a problem on the standard Windows Media Player, particularly if you have the latest version.

For Macs, QuickTime is both a file format and a player. QuickTime has been around a while. You can download the player from the Apple website and you can run it on a windows PC.

The next step is to get all these movies on your PSP, iPod or Zune - but that's for another article!

Article Source: ArticlesMaker.com

About the Author: Andrew Castlewood is content editor at http://www.WhatMovieDownload.com Andrew can provide you with more information about free movie download sites on his website. (c) 2007 WhatMovieDownload.com

Streaming Video Simplified

Streaming video, or audio, is media that is being continuously received by, and displayed to, the end-user while it is being delivered by the provider. These, grouped together are known as streaming media. The name refers to the delivery method of the media rather than to the actual media itself. Television and radio are streaming media but here we are talking about streaming video on the internet.

With the internet came attempts to display video but little progress was made due to the lack of technology and bandwidth. Technology has overcome these problems with more powerful computers, standard protocols and formats. More homes and computers with faster CPUs can now access broadband and we now see the expansion of video on the internet.

Businesses and websites are steadily taking advantage of this booming sector. Some sites have had video on them since the technology was available, more sites are turning to video and its advantages daily while some sites may not understand the technology and prefer to remain with the written word. Having said that it is now so easy to incorporate video into websites that there is no real reason not to.

With true streaming video the end user can start watching the file almost as soon as it begins downloading. The file is sent to the user in a, more or less, constant stream, and the user watches it as it arrives. The obvious advantage with this method is that no waiting is involved. Streaming media has additional advantages such as being able to broadcast live events and sometimes referred to as a webcast or netcast. True streaming video must be delivered from a specialized streaming server. This type of streaming video is not used by most websites.

Progressive downloading, pretty much the same as HTTP streaming, enables the video to be viewed as soon as a portion of the file has been received. This simulates true streaming video but is not of the same quality but has the advantage of being able to be hosted on a normal server. This is the simplest and cheapest way to stream video from a website. Small to medium-sized websites are more likely to use this method than the more expensive streaming servers. For this method you don't need any special type of website or host, just a host server which recognises common video file types.

Progressive download video is downloaded from start to finish, typically delivering the entire video file to a temporary file area of the viewer's computer. After a few seconds of downloading, the video starts playing. For this reason, most viewers can't tell whether they're seeing progressive or streaming video. Most of the time, the download will go faster than the playback, so the media player will easily be able to keep up. If the internet connection is slow or suffers traffic congestion, then the player pauses until it once again has a few seconds of video ready to play.

To create a progressive or HTTP streaming video all you do is the following.

1. Create a video file in a common streaming media format
2. Upload the file to your web server
3. Make a simple hyperlink to the video file, or use special HTML tags to embed the video in a web page or blog post.

When the day comes that your videos are popular then you might have bandwidth issues with your hosting provider and you may need to upgrade or move to a different host and server. Hopefully that day will soon be here.

Article Source: ArticlesMaker.com

About the Author: Bruce Walls writes about using video on your website to increase traffic. You can read this article and more at WebsiteVideoGuide