Streaming media without special software?

[pmkpmk]

Hi,

for a new product to be featured on the web I just bought some stock photography from GettyImages when I stumbled across this nice little video flick at 240x180 with 3 MB as a Quicktime file and without thinking much bought that one as well.

Now I have the problem of HOW to put it on the website? Converting it into any other fileformat (wmv springs to mind) is not the problem. But all I have a standard Apache server without any special streaming server software installed.

What I want is that the visitor sees at least the first frame right away, better even start the video launching right away WITHOUT the need to download the whole 3MB before anything happens!

How is that managed, and what would be the best file format to achieve this effect so that it can be seen by as many visitors as possible without the need for them to install plugins.

Any help would be appreciated.

[txbakers]

with Real files you can do HTTP streaming without software.

WNV or ASF files require a Windows server for streaming.

MOV files (quicktime) require some software from Apple to stream.

[choster]

You can stream WMV/ASF files over HTTP, by referencing the resource via an .asx file. This is a text metafile, Microsoft's analogue to RealMedia's .ram file for streaming .rm content.

With QuickTime, users can "fast-start" from a download over HTTP. Essentially, this means that they can start viewing the movie before it has downloaded completely, although the longer the clip or the slower the connection, the poorer the viewing experience. See www.apple.com/quicktime/tools_tips/tutorials/httpvsrtsp.html .

Streaming over HTTP is clumsier than RTSP or MMS, but it will serve your purposes.

[bakedjake]

I'm about 70% certain that you can stream MPEG over the wire without special software, as it is a frame-by-frame format.

Might want to google that to be sure, but I know that incomplete downloads of MPEG audio and MPEG video play just fine.

Believe it or not, nowadays it seems like you should be more worried about the individual preferences of clients for streaming video. With all of the players and versions out there, it may be hard to get your desired effect.

[pmkpmk]

OK, I tried it with WMV which had the bonus that I could get filesize down to 1MB. Howerber I got strange side effects (video disappearing, reappearing when you change pages in an errornous way). Also, it seemded to me that the visitor needs to download the whole file before the animation starts.

I then changed to the original MOV with the disadvantage of the 3MB file. Now the first frame is directly displayed, and the animation starts as soon as the whole file is transmitted. That's good. Unfortunately the strange side effects are exactly the same ones as with WMV :-(

Would Flash or even animated GIF be an option? It's not really a critical movie. It's rather a nice design element which adds to the overall impression of the site.