Flash server?

[Mickeroo]

Hi all,

Has anyone taken the plunge here and gone the flash server route for streaming video? We're looking at adding that format for our video clips but are kinda disappointed at the price of the server software, so I was curious to see if anyone has already purchased/configured flash server and how that went for you. Also we wouldn't be against finding someone to do the flash hosting for us- does anyone know of an adult hosting company that's doing flash hosting?

Thanks!!

[MMemmer]

Hello Mickeroo,

I am not sure what you are looking for that should be considered as special. I know that one of our administrator hosts alot of FLASH and he just uses our regular servers and Windows IIS, so to answer at lest prt of your question, we would be very happy to host your adult Flash products.

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[Mickeroo]

Thanks very much for the information. I'm actually not in the market for server hardware, but the expertise in installing and configuring the Flash Server software itself. I've worked with enough server systems to know that just installing the software with some wizard is usually not enough to insure that everything is configured properly! I was hoping to find someone here who had done it themselves and could advise and/or recommend someone to help with the server's configuration and optimization.

[Chilihost]

Mike, I haven't personally installed Flash server yet, but I know our techies at the NatNet helpdesk have installed and tweaked it for some very large "playahs" in the biz. I asked them quickly for some tips and they just told me that its best to let them install it and work their majic as, apparantly, the tweaks are server hardware specific. I know you said you don't want to move so I won't spam an offer in this thread, but if you are interested in what we can setup email or PM me.

cheers,
Luke

[Mickeroo]

Hey Luke,

Actually I'm glad to hear that your guys have experience working in that area too. Really the only thing that concerns me is that whoever we use to do this has the expertise to be able to tweak it to run the way it should (and isn't installing it for the first time by reading the directions on the back of the box- heck I can do that!)

I'll drop you an email and we can chat more about it.

I'd still be curious to hear what others are doing though!

Mike

[Chilihost]

sweet, looking forward to it

cheers,
Luke

[wildwebmaster]

i'm in the same boat, mickeroo, been actively looking for some options for streaming flash video. prices are all over the board. you can do progressive download without the need for a streaming server, but there's a lot more protection and control over the streaming when you use the streaming server. I just came across an alternative to the Adobe server this week from a company called wowza media -- i have nothing to do with them, but it seems to be an affordable option to the official Flash Media Server. Am also looking for integration with a pay-per-minute or pay-per-view system for Flash Video...if anyone knows of companies or developers offering this.

[fetishlad]

Hi Mike,

I use Flash 8 video encoder and then embed the moves in my pages as progressive download. It works very well. Good thing is, you don't have to rent an expensive server - which as you know - can be a big gamble, you are in a contract, but will it be worth it?

If you are going to start with flash movies, I would certainly recommend doing it without the flash server, until you are certain it is worth spending all that money.

If you are worried about safety ... use strongbox for extra safety.

Good luck
Hendrik

[Chilihost]

wildwebmaster - I have sent you a PM with some further details about what we can offer you to help out.

If anyone else is interested in this technology, our techies have two setups. One is free (it has a command line based interface) and one involves purchasing a very cheap 3rd party script but it gives you a GUI interface. Our techies will help get this setup for any clients with a dedicated server. Please PM me if you want further info.

cheers,
Luke

[AcidMaX]

Installing Flash Media Server is like a 2 minute job. It runs better on RH enterprise or Windows platforms.

As far as it being worth it, it depends on your expertise with flash. It can take some time getting things going the way it should, licenses are expensive, operating systems re expensive and there is a learning curve. It also depends on if you are doing progressive vs streaming movies. Do a lot of research, there are tons of places on the web to give you code for actionscript, but Adobe is lacking with their free support docs.

There are alternatives to FMS as well wowza has one and red5 which is an opensource java oriented streaming server is another. Red5 is not very mature yet though.

[steven619]

If you can hold off for a few months, we are ramping up to offer not only window media hosting (with and without DRM) but also flash, quicktime (apple serve) and Silverlight.

Our clients has been wanting added choices and starting early 2008 we will have some packages ready. Then if you need help with installing or maintaining your own flash server we can work out a contract with you the same as we do with our other services for those that don't host with us.

Look for a press release in the next two weeks.

Steven

[cre8ivguy]

I had an urgent demo to get running and rather then use Flash Media the guys at Natnet had me up and running on a freeware product in less then a day..

it was pretty cool. we even tried hacking the file down with ORBIT and others with no success.

b

[cre8ivguy]

came with platinum support upgrade and i seriously have not seen better value for money in a long time.

natnet struggled a bit at first, but with Flash's help now have an origin edge implemented for less then 10 grand..

tweakng on encoding and using h.264 made a big difference too.. now we have edge serversin usa europe and great results..

[aaron-qc]

I've used the open source variations AcidMaX discussed with much success. It really all depends on your server specs, how many concurrent connections you'll use, file sizes, etc. Spending a bit of money with a knowledgeable consultant would probably be wise. PM me if you need any further help.

[scwebmaster]

Hi all,

Has anyone taken the plunge here and gone the flash server route for streaming video? We're looking at adding that format for our video clips but are kinda disappointed at the price of the server software, so I was curious to see if anyone has already purchased/configured flash server and how that went for you. Also we wouldn't be against finding someone to do the flash hosting for us- does anyone know of an adult hosting company that's doing flash hosting?

Thanks!!

We use red5 open source flash server at APTHost. We have no problems with them. BTW we are using a dedicated server. I don't know about the shared hosting if they have it.