Question

hi i’d like to put several videos on my website using jwplayer. i’ve set up the jwplayer using my mp4 videos but when clicking start the player seems to download the whole movie instead of starting to stream it right away.
i found out i need to set up a streaming-server – and i was wondering:
whats’s the best streaming method for streaming videos like youtube (i’d like to use 640×360 pixels for the default player and 720p for fullscreen)?
can i do it on my own server (win 2008 server running php)
thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can do so without much trouble with jwplayer. You need to ensure your video is either

1. flv files – Just remux them to flv to get them to start immediately
2. mp4 with hinted tracks

Hinted tracks can be obtained using MP4Box tool
MP4Box -hint input.mp4

Do a MP4Box -h hint to see more details.

To understand what hinting is just google a bit. Basically the headers of the mp4 file have to be put at the beginning of the file for it to start playing immediately.