Every now and then we do some video and audio streaming at the moment we use windows media services, just interested to see what other people use, I know another option is shoutcast but you can’t do video with that.

It’s just a pity WMS doesn’t support MPEG4 Video!

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Graham Spratt
Direct Hosting UK - UK based Shared Hosting / Reseller Hosting / Windows VPS / DotNetPanel Authorized Reseller

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Registered User

You can stream video with Shoutcast - look at the NSV plugin (Nullsoft Video Streaming)

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Jamie Martin :: PowerCore
UK Web Hosting
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Web Host - Certified Member

Flash servers can stream FLV. While their own software is $insane, there are some copy softwares for free on linux systems that do the same job.

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Forum Administrator

Have used helix in the past. Streams pretty much everything.

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Mooharr
E-Mail Hosting Services
These are not my views and i cannot be held accountable for anything he says.

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Web Host - VIP Member

I take it with all of the suggestions above the client will need to install extra software, e.g. flush, real player.

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Graham Spratt
Direct Hosting UK - UK based Shared Hosting / Reseller Hosting / Windows VPS / DotNetPanel Authorized Reseller

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Registered User

seams so, you can of course just store FLV files if you only want to play stored videos rather than true streaming.

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Forum Administrator

This would be for live events

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Graham Spratt
Direct Hosting UK - UK based Shared Hosting / Reseller Hosting / Windows VPS / DotNetPanel Authorized Reseller

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Real's 'Helix' server is meant to be pretty good, but AFAIK, its rather un-cheap

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Technical Director, Open Hosting Ltd

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Web Host - Certified Member

That’s one good thing about WMS, it's free.

I've seen a few companies use Helix, but they stream to US servers and the delay is bad.

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Graham Spratt
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I think it's pretty much guaranteed that someone somewhere is going to have issues connecting and will need to update/install additional software regardless of what format you choose.

It's just finding one that has the best all round support. Personally I think Flash is the way forward for the majority of web streams. It's got the widest range of support, it's cross platform and it loads very quickly.

Flash media server isn't that expensive really, though as Neil pointed out there are free options out there.

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Mooharr
E-Mail Hosting Services
These are not my views and i cannot be held accountable for anything he says.

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Web Host - VIP Member

Think I'll spend a bit of timing looking at Flash then.

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Graham Spratt
Direct Hosting UK - UK based Shared Hosting / Reseller Hosting / Windows VPS / DotNetPanel Authorized Reseller

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Definitely think Flash is the way forward, we host for some rather big movie companies and flash is their format of choice.

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Web Host - VIP Member

Thanks for your help I'll take a look at flash then.

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Graham Spratt
Direct Hosting UK - UK based Shared Hosting / Reseller Hosting / Windows VPS / DotNetPanel Authorized Reseller

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Registered User

Haven't used it myself, but might be worth looking at red5.

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Registered User

Take a look at VLC, doesn't need much resource to run and can stream just about anything. I used it to stream bands live and it works a treat

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Registered User