Limiting Video Size on Websites

Need help

[swrightok]

I am the webmaster for a school district here in Oklahoma. I am currently writing and policy about our "Internet Presence" In the policy I am going to limit the size of audio/video files on each site. This issue has been under heavy fire. We are running Apache Web Server running about 30 virtual hosts. Right now the server is on a 10 meg line shared with about 30 other buildings. I need some help for my argument, including facts or whatever you can help me with. Any help will be hugely appreciated. By the way, I am new to this forum and hope I put this in the right spot. Thanks again!

[eman]

you did put it in the right spot, but I'm not quite sure what to tell you. There are so many variables in movies. Deminsions, Quality, Format(WMV, MOV, AVI) , is there audio?, and most importantly length of the movie. WMV is the overall lowest quality, smallest file size. AVI is the highest quality with the highest file size, and MOV is somewhere in between. I would probably impose something like a 300x300 pixel limit, 30 second length limit, prefer WMV, but not required since most don't know how to convert file types. Most movies that I've seen are small, but you run then at 200x size and it compensates for it. The main problem is that 10 MB line, you can fill up 10 MB in no time. Maybe a 15 second limit would be better. As far as audio goes, make sure it's not a wav file or something like that. Link to a freeware converter program like RazorLame, opensource stuff is great for things like this. midis won't be a problem, and would probably be preferred by the dialup users. I'm not sure of how many people have broadband in OK, but I'm sure it's not an incredibly high percentage. Sorry I couldn't give you a definate answer, hope that helps.

-EMAN

P.S. Welcome to Webmaster World!

[swrightok]

Thanks for the info. Actaully I would say around 50% of homes here in the Oklahoma City area have broadbadnd, mostly cable. There are wide open access points all over the place. What I think I am going to do is just limit file size for them. We have the virtual hosts set up to pull the sites from the users home dirs. I am going to limit the size of the directories and write into the policy that there is a maximum single file size of 30 meg and combined video files cannot go over 90 meg, unless otherwise approved by the Director of Technology. Sound good?