Question

To be able to record and play back audio instantly on my website, I’ve set up Red5 and FLV Audio Recorder. Now, I’m going to implement a video solution as well.

The problem with streaming (HD) video is that it doesn’t work if your internet connection is too slow. I want to let the majority of users be able to watch my videos. Can I use the Red5-server, or do I have to use HTTP to ensure that everyone can watch it flawlessly?

Answer 1

Well, if you use for example jwPlayer, you could set up a RTMP stream, as you probably already know since you asked this question.

If you use this code:

<div id='mediaplayer'></div>

<script type="text/javascript">
  jwplayer('mediaplayer').setup({
    'flashplayer': 'player.swf',
    'width': '720',
    'height': '306',
    'playlist': [
        {
           'title': 'Just add a title here...',
           'provder': 'rtmp',
           'image': 'Add a image to show before the video is started.',
           'duration': 'X seconds'
           'streamer': 'rtmp://server.com/dir',
           'plugins': {
             'qualitymonitor-2': {}
            } // This will give different charts so that you can see what's going on behind the scenes!

           'levels': [
              { bitrate:"2920", width:"1920", file:"videos/sintel-1920.mp4" },
              { bitrate:"2080", width:"1280", file:"videos/sintel-1280.mp4" },
              { bitrate:"2080", width:"720", file:"videos/sintel-720.mp4" },
              { bitrate:"650", width:"480", file:"videos/sintel-480.mp4" },
              { bitrate:"420", width:"320", file:"videos/sintel-320.mp4" }
           ]
        }
    ]
  });
</script>

you can provide the end-user with many different versions of the same video, with different bit rates, thus you can use a higher quality one if you have enough internet speed. (If you have 20mbit/s as a client, and a screen width of 400 px, you will get the last file in the example code, even though you have the internet to get the topmost. This is because you as a client will not see any difference anyway.)

You can also use less of your hosting bandwidth, because if you use a small screen, you don’t stream a high quality, since the end-user doesn’t see any difference anyway.

This is a good way to do it, because it will give your users the best experience, while you stay better protected against “robbery” of your videos!

Please add a comment if you wonder about something!