Biz question for Paysite owners; MP4 or wmv for true HD
 

Hola;

I notice certain programs offer 1080 true HD full movies in a MP4 format. I noticed that one of the biggest offers it in wmv. What would be the reason behind this?

I am trying to decide which extension to offer my 1080 true HD full movie in and wanted to know the reasoning behind each format before I made the switch.

Any and all help would be appreciated!

Amar

MP4 is where it's at... once we're finished with our new tour we'll be moving all of our hd material over to MP4 as well...

Sucks that our streaming server doesn't support seeking mp4's... would like to get rid of flv as well...

MP4 is what you want. Smaller file size, better quality, and cross browser / device friendly.

Not to mention you can stream them properly and allow your members to scrub through the video, as well as lock that stream down making it more difficult for pirates to steal and pass around.

Using what streaming server? Or is this via "pseudo streaming"?

I'd love to see someone (try to) explain why WMV is better...

Are you guys taking HTML5 into consideration or ignoring it for now?

I agree, mp4 is all that is needed.

mp4 can be streamed in HTML5 without a prob. http://videojs.com/

We use Wowza for all members videos. Lighttpd for our tour videos.

What about as a general question - Are site owners asking for HTML5 yet?

we use red5 currently but I've been looking at Wowza.. so it supports .h264 streaming with full scrub/seek support? mp4 or f4v format?

i dont see the need for HTML5 video yet because all devices can play an MP4 so what's the point?

And if you want to progressively stream the video, you'll want this or something like it:
http://www.datagoround.com/lab/ (free!)

This will change the metadata in the video so it will play right away instead of having to wait for it to fully load before you can see it.

Wanted to add another cavet to the equation -

Google analytics show that 40 percent of our members area traffic is using Windows xp and the default player wmp on xp cant play mp4s from what i have read?

Would this be a good reason to go wmv, as mp4 downlaods wont play without additional software for those surfers.

qt-faststart that's bundled with ffmpeg (have to build it seperatley) is supposed to have the same functionality.. but the results have been very poor.. I'll try this one out and see if it's any better.

I like the thinking.

How many of those 40% are using the default player?

And how many are using the default player without the .MP4 plug-in when all you need to do is press play and it says "you need to download additional shit, click here" and they click and it's all good?

I don't think it's a massive tech hurdle, but I do like the way you're using the data.

Check out Wowza's site: http://www.wowza.com/

It should do everything you want it to do. We only use mp4 and they can scrub/seek easily. We also use a security token, RMTPE (not just RMTP), and a few other delights to make it more difficult to rip. You more or less have to use a screen recorder if you want it, and while that can be done, no one is putting in the effort yet. But that is when you can up it a notch and display member user data on the video with their IP address, member name, date of view, and so on.

Stream the MP4, everyone will be able to see it. And if you must, provide a WMV for download. Or a WMV and a MP4, let them decide.


I had issues with qt-faststart as well. Have not had any issues since I changed to MP4FastStart. My work flow is Vegas Video > Handbrake > MP4 FastStart (or Sorenson Squeeze if I want another format).

I always have links up for guys who are having problems playing videos, and make them very obvious. Once on the video help page, we suggest they use VLC Player. It's free and it will literally play anything. They never have issues again once they start using VLC player.

Damn.. mp4 faststart is windoze only :(

Use MP4Box instead of qt-faststart

There is a windows version here.

It's not just "mp4". It should be h.264 encoded video in an mp4 container.

You're on a mac. :Oh crap

I got a mac to do all my video work on, but ended up building a new PC to do it. Mac was nothing but problems for me. Now it collects dust, or at best, runs Windows on bootcamp.

Suppose you could run Parallels and just drag the videos over to run on mp4 Fast Start. That would be one easy solution.

Nah.. I'm on Linux mainly.. I mean, I have windoze installed for the 1 or 2 times a month I take a break to play a game or 2... but the main reason is because I can't see myself re-uploading all of our videos in bulk on my 1mbps upstream... would be best if i can do server side encoding at this point.. but seeing that I can indeed get mp4box running on linux, I'll play around with it this weekend.

It literally takes 2 minutes... if you have a centos based server you can just do this.

Ubuntu is similar

^^ debian here.. but no biggie.. I can build it from source just the same.

Few support WMV these days and even MS has moved most of the focus on Silverlight. I was once the one of the biggest proponents of WM however, I really don't think they have kept up with the times and do not put nearly as much as they used to into this product.

About 2% of what we deliver is WM for adult now though we are one of the few CDN's who still support it. H.264 has clearly been the market leader followed closely by FLV.

However, Silverlight is seeing a turn around as many IPTV sites are moving to Silverlight. Nefflix uses Windows Media Silverlight. See: http://blog.netflix.com/2008/11/enco...streaming.html

Would prefer to see .mp4.

I know this is an old thread, however I wanted to say thanks for the link.

Solved my problem with streaming mp4's :thumbsup

Thanks for bumping this thread, some interesting informations

If you tick the "web optimize" box in Handbrake it does this for you.