Live Video Streaming

[candidoflamm]

Does Bluehost support live video streaming?

[bobdog]

I've never asked bluehost about it, but for the most part, I'm guessing no.

I have set up several websites that have live streaming media. For Windows, you need a Windows Media Server, Real player, a Helix server. There are companies that specialize in this particular service, some of which can get pricy depending on the bandwidth you are prepared to deliver and bitrate encoding.

[candidoflamm]

:) Thanks for your help! I was talking to the Bluehost support center few minutes ago, and the guy told me it would be possible to "live stream" through their servers. It's obvious that we gonna have a delay of 1 min or 2, 'cause we gotta get the video, encode and transfer using FTP...Do you ha ve any suggestion for encoder programs?

[bmac]

If they don't they should. Look at the features they say they include in the basic pack.:

MULTIMEDIA FEATURES INCLUDED
Supports Streaming Video
Supports Streaming Audio

from: http://www.bluehost.com/tell_me_more.html

:cool:

[bobdog]

Correct me if I am wrong, but did you say a Live Stream? As in a live broadcast of a radio station or TV station that runs 24/7/365?

Or did you mean streaming a file? Like a video clip that lasts a few minutes or longer?

[thicke]

BMAC - candidoflamm was asking about "live streaming video". That's a big diffrence from just "streaming video".

[candidoflamm]

Hi guys,
The kind of streaming I mean is exactly like a TV Station. To be more precise, it's for my church. We need to broadcast on the web (webcast) the sunday services...

[bobdog]

Ahh...I see.

The best thing to do is record the session on a camera, load to your local drive, encode in Windows Media Encoder or Real Player encoder, or both.

Then download Windows Media Encoder and/or Real Player encoder (they are free) and run a session on the video file. In Windows, use the wizard to "convert a file". Navigate to desired file to convert. In the Windows wizard, you will get an option for a way to stream. When prompted "How do you want to distribute your content?" Select web server (progressive download)

Continue through the wizard. Remember that some people use dial-up for a connection, so be careful on the bitrate encoding.

The next window will ask for a title, copyright, and so on. Fill out the information.

Continue, and click finish. Make sure that the "begin converting file" is selected on exit.

Now, after the session, upload to the bluehost server the file you converted using ftp.

Then you will need to make a link to the file. Check file name and extention.

That should work.

[candidoflamm]

hey Bobdog,
I've got the WME 9 and I got it working fine... but, as you said before, bluehost doesn't have any kind of media server... So to get my videos on a "live broadcast" I am planning to get windows media player embedded on a web page pointing out to "http://myipaddress:8080". What do you think, is it gonna work fine?" (on the top of it, I gotta change the windows registry entry allowing more than 5 simultaneously connections, of course).
Thanks for all the info you gave me so far...appreciate it! :)