I give up! Recommend video streaming server

[Henry1]

I give up on trying to get the Quick Time video on my website to load faster than 48 seconds. I have asked everywhere and lots of nice people have told me what they thought I should do, but nobody could tell me how to do it.

So I am ready to pay.

Will some of you nice folks recommend a streaming video server that will not cost me an arm and a leg? I want one who will help me and give me advice. If they are not willing AND ABLE to give me advice I don't want 'em. Note: I talked to a sales person at streamhoster.com and he complicated my life even more than what it is already.

Here's the background:

I edited my video in Premiere 7.

I embeded the following code into an html page and uploaded to my website where it plays nicely, but it takes 48 seconds for it to load.

<object width="320" height="256"
classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"
codebase=http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
<param name="src" value="monademo.mov" >
<param name="controller" value="true" >
<param name="autoplay" value="false">
<object type="video/quicktime" data="monademo.mov" width="320" height="256">
<param name="controller" value="true" >
<param name="autoplay" value="false"
pluginpage=http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">
</a>
</embed>
</object>

This is a wedding video demo and nobody is going to wait 48 seconds to watch a demo. If anyone is interested in checking it out here is the link to my wedding photography website:
http://www.kandhweddingphotography.com

[Hankw]

Henry1:

Checked out your site and video, it did take 51 sec. to download before click to play. Tried PET site to do same and took about the same. just comparing for you info. Nice site and video.

[baderms]

What about converting it to flash?

[ATR]

Henry1

I am distressed by the situation that you described.

Did you get the opinion of Ron at that other web site? What did he suggest to solve your problem and did he fail to supply the how tos? Why? Once I know where you left that route, I will try to move forward with defined alternatives.

Streaming Media Servers can be costly. I believe the charge is based on traffic. If you want to stay with your HTML, do you want to try decreasing the file size of what you have (.mov) or embed a flash video as baderms suggested instead of .mov on your web site and see if that loads quicker?

I checked out the streamhoster site. From what they advertise, they should have all the answers streaming video- and cost- wise. How did they complicate your present situation?

Just some miscellaneous reading material:
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/streaming/server.html

To be continued.....

ATR

[Chuck Engels]

Henry, the recommendation was to purchase QuickTime Pro for $30 and then simply save your video using QuickTime Pro to set the Fast Start option. That is all you should have to do to make your current setup work better and get the video to start playing before it is completely finished loading.

There are many Web Hosting companies that will provide better video viewing than GoDaddy, Yahoo included. However, if you want to get help from a good support staff, especially if you are looking for help coding HTML or something similar, that will be hard to find. You would be better off hiring a Web site development company/person to do your site for you. They could provide you with easy content management for your site that you could take over and maintian after they finished. This will cost in the $2000 + range depending on what all you need done. It is not cheap to have someone else do it for you, that's for sure.

There are plenty of helpful people on the internet if you are willing to learn, the help at Muvipix was just beginning and you never came back to ask any additional questions.

[ATR]

Henry1

From your initial thread to this one, you have continuously demonstrated a willingness to learn, the stick-to-it-tiveness to plow through obstacles, and an excellent level of achievement as demonstrated by the excellent web site (s) that you have developed, up to now with pictures rather than video.

So, I am forced to conclude that your present issue is one failure of communication (on your side and on that of the other web site) rather than anything else.

If the "hands on" suggestion at the other web site was the use of Quick Time Pro with its "Fast Start Option", were you left with your video and the Quick Time Pro and did not know what to do with them? If so, then CE and his people need to supply the step by step or clarification. Follow up is important.

Be that as it may and whatever the case, I will continue to support you as requested and as needed.

ATR

[ATR]

Henry1

I forgot to mention "Do Not Give Up"......if necessary, maybe retreat temporarily, regroup, and move forward.

ATR

[Henry1]

After all the kind encouragement that you folks have given I've decided not to give up. From what I have learned so far, the short demo videos that I will be using do not require full streaming, so I am going to forget about streaming hosts and proceed with html and see what I can get from Premiere 7's "sharing" feature.

I have the lynda.com tutorial (on disk) for Premiere 7, which by the way is an excellent tutorial. It just kinda rushes through things when it comes to how to share.

So the first thing I am going to do is follow Chuck's advice and buy Quick Time Pro ($30 bucks) LIKE RIGHT NOW and go from there.

Again, thanks to all. I'll be back. If I ever get this right you can be sure that I will be ready and willing to offer help to others in any way that I can. Once upon a time I wrote Military Spec Manuals, so I sure as hell aught to be able to explain to others how to do something--that is, once I learn how to do it myself.

[ATR]

Henry1

I am proud of you decision.

I was just about to post some additional links for you, so I will, although you may must want to "file" them..

http://www.kathymarks.com/archives/2005/09/embedding_windows_media_and_quicktime_video_on_a_w eb_page.html

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/embed.html

Good luck.

ATR

[Henry1]

Thanks ATR
That Kathy offers some good info.

[ATR]

Henry1

Good Morning.

I am looking forward to your results, and I hope that today will be the day that the project comes together. Good luck.

ATR