Hosting for video files

What criteria to consider when choosing a host?

[pepped]

I have a videographer client who has asked me to quote for a website. The site will perform two functions.

• It'll be a shop front including various showreels and the usual static HTML pages.
• It will host rough cuts for clients to view/approve. So, for example, she will be uploading demo.mov to a location such as [hersitename.com...] and then point the client to that location to view the footage.

Now, this means she's going to be using LOTS of bandwidth. The actual disk space may be relatively modest as she will erase demo.mov once the client has approved it. So the content may be something like showreel1.mov, showreel2.mov, showreel3.mov and a constantly changing demo.mov.

[edited by: trillianjedi at 1:31 pm (utc) on Aug. 23, 2005]
[edit reason] We do not do specific hosting recommendations here a per TOS (spam issues). [/edit]

[JAB Creations]

Just a reminder, if you have a suggestion sticky it to Pepped.

In general the way to figure out what in general you're looking for can be figured out roughly by simple calculation.

How many unique visitors do you get? Keep in mind visits, visitors, and hits are completely different things.

How large are the video files? How many video files do you have?

If you get 10 visitors a day, have 5 videos, and they each are 15 megabytes you would have a general bandwidth need of..

10x5x15 = 750 MB a day. (10x5=50 downloads = 50x15)
31x750 = 23,250 MB (31 days X daily bandwidth)
23,250MB = 25 GB monthly bandwidth. (translate to GB)

Follow that basic math structure and try to figure your monthly bandwidth out.

Then post what your bandwidth need is (in general).

If you expect growth or see a general rise or fall in visitors (and thus changes in bandwidth) try to work those dynamics in to the math as best as you can.

From personal experience I've hooked clients up with as much as 100GB of monthly banwidth for about as little as 6-7 bucks a month (paid yearly of course).

[Leosghost]

Best option would be to run it yourself on a dedi server or as a reseller ( many packs from $5.00 per month paid yearly ..or $6.00 to $7.00 paid monthly ) on a dedi server..the unused bandwidth you can then use for other things ...

Before everyone jumps in saying this price is way too low ..I can ( if you sticky me ..point you to someone reliable with 200 gigs per month for around these prices )...Dpends on what you need and how much the client is willing to pay ..for the same thing you can pay more obviously ...
You can rent your own server with 1200 + gigs per month and 2 X 80 gigs HD and all the latest CPU'S RAM etc etc ..for under $100.00 per month with many reputable hosters ...