How big is too big for flv video files?
 

I have some 30 sec. to 2 min. video clips that i want to show on a website using flash. I have plenty of server power behind me and the files sizes range from 2.2MB to 7MB. Does that sound like a safe range to you? At what point would you see your site affected, i.e. how many ppl viewing video at the same time?
thanks.

Impossible to tell from what you wrote. We'd have to know your monthly bandwidth allowance, average views per day, expected max. number of views at the same time, and how fast the server can deliver the data. Are you execpting a ton of views for your video?

If not, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Simply try a few different bitrates and pick the lowest one that still has acceptable quality. Download times for the people viewing your video are probably a more important consideration than the server limit.

- Martin

As the others have said there is a lot that can effect this. I have FLVs up to 400MB and higher on my server. It really depends on the traffic, one thing I do plan to add soon is a modification to my Web server Lighty that checks the bitrate of the FLV and then limits that connection speed to just above it after a burst to get it going. This means that every one shares the 100mbit line of the server rather than a few 10Mbit connections dominating it.