I need a video streaming solution for a paysite. Customers will be able to download videos so I don't think I need some hardcore protection of the videos preventing downloading the stream. The paysite will be run on Wordpress. What are the advantages of Wowza vs LightTPD?
Video streaming solution - lighttpd or wowza?
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Wowza will save you around 20-30% bandwidth and let users skip around your videos a bit better.Mechanical Bunny Media
Mechbunny Tube Script | Mechbunny Webcam Aggregator Script | Custom Web DevelopmentComment
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Imagine you have a 10mbyte video file that is 3 minutes long and a guy on a 10mbit connection. For the sake of simplicity, lets say he can download at 1mbyte/second. This is slightly inaccurate but I don't feel like busting out the proper math
. Not ever user watches every second of every video they watch.
Via http, this guy loads up this video on your site and it downloads in approximately 10 seconds. While it's three minutes long, he might decide to go watch another video instead after 15 seconds. He's downloaded 3 minutes of video but watched 15 seconds of it.
Via RTMP, this guy loads up this video on your site and it's "real streaming". If he watches 15 seconds of it, he downloads more or less 15 seconds of it.
So in a nutshell, with rtmp you waste less bandwidth. The http problem can be mitigated by throttling each user connection to just over the amount of kbytes/sec it takes to stream the video without stopping to buffer all the time, but in the real world on say a tube site you have tons of varying bitrates so there's no good way to optimize this.Mechanical Bunny Media
Mechbunny Tube Script | Mechbunny Webcam Aggregator Script | Custom Web DevelopmentComment
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Right but that's not a Wowza exclusive feature. But I get what you are saying that it would save bandwidth.Imagine you have a 10mbyte video file that is 3 minutes long and a guy on a 10mbit connection. For the sake of simplicity, lets say he can download at 1mbyte/second. This is slightly inaccurate but I don't feel like busting out the proper math
. Not ever user watches every second of every video they watch.
Via http, this guy loads up this video on your site and it downloads in approximately 10 seconds. While it's three minutes long, he might decide to go watch another video instead after 15 seconds. He's downloaded 3 minutes of video but watched 15 seconds of it.
Via RTMP, this guy loads up this video on your site and it's "real streaming". If he watches 15 seconds of it, he downloads more or less 15 seconds of it.
So in a nutshell, with rtmp you waste less bandwidth. The http problem can be mitigated by throttling each user connection to just over the amount of kbytes/sec it takes to stream the video without stopping to buffer all the time, but in the real world on say a tube site you have tons of varying bitrates so there's no good way to optimize this.I'm out.Comment
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Mechanical Bunny Media
Mechbunny Tube Script | Mechbunny Webcam Aggregator Script | Custom Web DevelopmentComment
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you can accomplish rtmp like bit rate streaming limitations if you know your bitrate your videos are encoded at and set the throttle/rate limit per connection based on that bit rate thats encoded. This isn't rocket science.
Now saying that. Wowza/Abobe FMS is hell on disk IO vs a progressive download.
Nginx/lighttpd can be ran on fast disks and atom servers..
Wowza/FMS requires a bit more processing power and memory and is better suited on a quad or dual quad with ample ram.
It really comes down to what "perks" you want to accomplish, any of the modules/bw check, swf tokens etc? then wowza/FMS is your way ot go. If you just don't care and want to be cheap? lighttpd/nginx works fine.Comment
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I tried Wowza a couple of years ago and honestly it sucked.
As a video streaming platform it worked fine until I wanted to put the videos inside my member section and keep them protected. I could never get an answer on how to do it. short of the wowza support people telling me I had to write "custom code"
fuck that I dont know if version 3 has made that easier but version 2 was given back to them.
If it is behind a members area or if your server is fully managed and your hosting company can set it up for you (mine couldnt) I would avoid it.Last edited by mikesouth; 08-13-2012, 08:53 AM.Mike South
It's No wonder I took up drugs and alcohol, it's the only way I could dumb myself down enough to cope with the morons in this biz.Comment
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What solution would you recommend then?I tried Wowza a couple of years ago and honestly it sucked.
As a video streaming platform it worked fine until I wanted to put the videos inside my member section and keep them protected. I could never get an answer on how to do it. short of the wowza support people telling me I had to write "custom code"
fuck that I dont know if version 3 has made that easier but version 2 was given back to them.
If it is behind a members area or if your server is fully managed and your hosting company can set it up for you (mine couldnt) I would avoid it.Comment
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unless you need live streaming Id say lighttpd would suit you just fine. if its a small site bandwidth probably isnt an issue anyway.
Medium term I would be looking at MPEG-DASH but you wont need a media server for that because apache can do it although Id bet lighttpd will also support it. When it becomes readily available it will solve LOTS of problems.
Advantages:
encode once play on anything
adaptive streaming
streams in segements that are not stored so much simpler to protect your streams from being ripped. plus simple to insert ads between segments
streams over HTTP and allows future and past seeking
supported by adobe, microsoft, apple, sony, netflix, wowza and most everyone else except google.
Standardized.
Im watching it closelyMike South
It's No wonder I took up drugs and alcohol, it's the only way I could dumb myself down enough to cope with the morons in this biz.Comment


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