Flash server?

[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..