Windows Media vs. Flash vs. Other

[shaun]

The problem is that with Flash, people with dial up frequently have issues. Its fine for banners, but with 5 or 6 minute clips it seems to choke on people!

[Lee]

The problem is that with Flash, people with dial up frequently have issues. Its fine for banners, but with 5 or 6 minute clips it seems to choke on people!

Id disagree, Flash for banners sucks these days because it adds an extra click before the surfer even hits our sites.

Regards,

Lee

[mickey]

so for download you would go with WMV ..

for streamiing - still WMV or would you go for flash there ?

[ccjax]

so for download you would go with WMV ..

for streamiing - still WMV or would you go for flash there ?

Streaming with WMV is the simplest and least expensive of the streaming services - I can post a WMV for streaming in seconds on our delivery network (both live and on-demand) - Flash is a little pricier due to licensing issues, and carries a little more overhead. Flash streaming is a 'sexy' format right now, but I agree with basschick, that the quality isn't as good in Flash on comparable bitrates.

Oddly, the experience with our customers is that QT is somewhat preferred for downloads, since it goes cross platform between iPods and PCs as well - but for streaming, the most stable, consistent, format seems to be WM right now with our customers.

[gaybucks_chip]

The new H.264 video format, which is Quicktime compatible, delivers about twice the quality of Windows Media or Flash for the same bandwidth. So you can, for example, put up a 500K H.264 stream and it will look every bit as good as a 1K Windows Media or Flash format. So for now, at least, it's a total win for everyone. It's also playable by just about every player out there.... except Windows Media, of course, because Micro$oft doesn't like competition.

WM is still the market leader, but I suspect the improvements Adobe is working on to Flash, and the H.264 codec will start to seriously erode that lead.

[basschick]

but quicktime player still takes longer to open and in order to stream a quicktime movie, you have to pay for streaming software. or do new quicktime movies now self-stream? i hadn't heard they do.

also i wait a long time before offering movies with a new codec as a lot of people have a 1 year old computer and don't like to download just to watch what is in the member area. and i hate getting tons of "the video won't play!" emails

The new H.264 video format, which is Quicktime compatible, delivers about twice the quality of Windows Media or Flash for the same bandwidth. So you can, for example, put up a 500K H.264 stream and it will look every bit as good as a 1K Windows Media or Flash format. So for now, at least, it's a total win for everyone. It's also playable by just about every player out there.... except Windows Media, of course, because Micro$oft doesn't like competition.

WM is still the market leader, but I suspect the improvements Adobe is working on to Flash, and the H.264 codec will start to seriously erode that lead.

[ccjax]

The new H.264 video format, which is Quicktime compatible, delivers about twice the quality of Windows Media or Flash for the same bandwidth. So you can, for example, put up a 500K H.264 stream and it will look every bit as good as a 1K Windows Media or Flash format. So for now, at least, it's a total win for everyone. It's also playable by just about every player out there.... except Windows Media, of course, because Micro$oft doesn't like competition.

Is H.264 streamed via Darwin/QT or does it require a different streaming server?
Any sites you can reference in our biz that are using it?

[MyLifeUncut]

Wow...Lot's of help for me after I get off work. .

So from what I can see (correct me if I'm wrong here) WMV is pretty much a hands down must since I'm going to be streaming videos since Flash has inherent downfalls with bitrates and load times. As far as videos for downloading go, however, it's best to offer at least two formats (ie WMV and Quicktime) so that surfers can choose based on what they wish to do with it.

Maybe if Flash and Quicktime pick it up, they would be better candidates for streaming in the future, right?

Thanks,
Ben