maximum file size for web viewing?
 

I have never hosted a video on my website.
I am trying to host and entire highschool basketball game.

What is the largest the file size should for the viewer to see it smoothly?

currently I am looking at a 2 Gig file. It has been compressed but at the highest quality setting. Will this work?

The size is up to the host. Youtube has two uploading methods, the single upload which limits to 100mb, around 5 minutes or the Uploader which can go up to 1G or around 10 minutes

Vimeo allows 500 mb limit per week

Google video I think it around 500 mb I'm not sure

At any rate you are going to have export/compress your video clip to MPEG4. I really like the H.264 compression from Apple, if you don't have Mac software you can use Quicktime Pro to do this.

This is a big topic, I'm sure there is lots of info on this sites and others will chime in

Guy... The length of the game and the size of the file could create issues. But first we need to know who's hosting the video files. If it's your own site and you have the storage and bandwidth then your ultimate concern will be creating a file that the viewers can access via progressive download that won't play faster than it will download.

Can you guestimate the slowest download speed of your target audience? Compress your video with that download speed as a target. You could put up two versions. One high bandwidth and one low.

The file size and compression format will directly effect the video quality so you'll need to find something that won't mash the fast action of a basketball game. Some codecs may be better than others. I like h.264 but flash also has its place.

You have your work cut out for you but a little research and some trial and error with your codecs and you should get what you need.

Yes, I am hosting this on my own site. At this point I am not ready to launch it but preparing to. I am not sure my bandwidth yet. I expect alot of people hitting it when I do it.

I have been struggling with my deinterlacing, resizeing and compressing this footage. Iam trying to find out what changes make which impact in the compression. Currently I am doing it with virtualdub and compressing Xvid MPEG4 codec. I am not sure why but today when I started compressing another file the codec actualy has a different user interface? I am not sure what has happened but it appears very different from what it was last night?

I don't have flash yet so I am really up for suggestions. I was planning to empty the wallet and get Adobe Premire CS3 and just use flash. However, since my system is a 64bit system I am alittle concerned. The trial software will not work on this machine so I am concerned that the disk may not either.

So it sounds like I need to focus on what my site can deliver for me? It was not designed for host video so I may have to make some changes.

I think I am going to be able to get the each half of the game down to about 600MB and maintain fairly OK quality. I think the flash encoder compress again if I am not mistaken so I may be able to improve the quality in my initial compression and still be OK?

You think 600MB files should be OK?

asper previous answer, file size is not relevant.
You have to find what bandwith your server has (the speed of you internet connection, when you send a file, not when you receive from the server).
A simple FTP test could give you an idea.
Then you divide this bandwidth by 4 or 5 (conservative approach) and you got an idea of the bandwith to be used to compress your files.
If you can FTP a 1 gig file in 20min, then you get 1000/(20*60)= around 800KBytes/sec. then you can use 200Kbytes/sec (or 2Mbits/sec) as encoding bandwith.
On the other hand, you have to take in account the bandwith generally available to the viewers. If the previous calculated bandwith is largely bigger that what an average user can get, you have to lower it.
I think you can count on a sustained bandwith of 250-400Kbytes/sec (2.5 to 4Mbit/sec).
Some calculator found on the web can also give you the size of the picture in pixel to reach a particular bandwith or file size.

The resulting filesize is then simply calculated by lenghtofyourmovie*bandwith.

Aprroaching the calculation by the filesize is wrong. because you can create files that are small but looks ugly or play badly, because bandwith/compression is miscalculated.

So what you are saying is that my compression speed can not exceed the speed the viewer can watch?

It looks like I am going to have to tinker around with this. MY hosting company says I have 400gig of unused space so they said this should be no problem. I am sure there are thing's they are not aware of which is why I need you guy's.

The compression speed you speak of will be for my flash encoder? is that correct?

Guy... Giroud seems to have an excellent handle on the subtleties of finessing Web video compression.

To keep it simple, you might want to start encoding a 5 or 10 minute segment to Flash at 200 kB/sec, then upload it to the Web server and let several of your friends/family try it out to see if it works. If the video stops and starts, lower the data rate. If you want better quality video, up the data rate.

Sooner or later you'll find the sweet spot, but it will take a while. Best short term deal for you is to find the lowest data rate that yields video quality you deem acceptable and go with that. Otherwise your quest could end up being a giant time sink.

Definitely use Giroud's data. It's sound.

Here is a link to a home video that I posted as a test. However, I can't view it with out it stopping every 3 seconds or so.

Is the bandwidth that you outlined above a possible problem here?

http://visualboxscore.com/video/Yout...s_5-18-08.html

For what it's worth this plays fine on my laptop. Don't ask me any technical details. It's broadband. That's all I know.

Since you video stutters when you view it but not when Richard views it, it sounds like his internet download bandwidth is bigger than yours. To find out what your download speed is, go here: http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest.

Run it a couple of times at different times of day and use the lowest speed it reports, then use Giroud's calculations to determine a good data rate for your video. That should get you closer to what you need for reliable downloads.

I would not put up anything on my website at higher bitrate than 512 Kbps because I want to accomodate all of my potential viewers. If you go higher than that, you will exclude some DSL users (cable users have higher bandwidth).

As an alternate, if you would like to provide a really high quality file for those interested, you could provide a second file, in a format that can be downloaded and viewed later. So do a Flash at 512 Kbps for viewing in an embedded player (better yet, mp4/H.264, it is now playable in the Flash player) and a WinMedia or QT file at 2-3 Mbps for download.