You are correct in saying that apache cannot stream files, the only possibility is to progressively download the data, otherwise known as 'http streaming', which is, as previously mentioned, inefficient compared to other more suitable methods.
I think that part of the problem is that today there are so many solutions offering to solve the issue of getting streaming video/audio from one place to another, each with a different combination of encoder, decoder, wrapper and transport. This ambiguity, and choice, may be what is slowing down the development of 'free' implementations. But then who can argue against the fact that choice is a good thing? Always a difficult issue to address. This discussion is interesting because it brings forward the possibility of standards, without the major pressure of commercial success driving results. It's interesting to see what suggestions are being made. On Jan 24, 2008 11:10 AM, Phil Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > (for some reason Andy's reply didn't make it to my mail client, but I've > read it online > here: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg07375.html- > I'd really > appreciate it if the Backstage page about the mailing list would link to > the HTML archive!) > > >> Apache has the power to serve files over HTTP. You should check it out > >> http://www.apache.org/ . Stick a file in a location it can access and > >> clients can stream from it. > > As far as I know, Apache cannot stream files. > > >> Red5 .. > >> VLC > > Even if these were OK, do they work on the massive scale required by the > BBC? According to > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7187967.stm they'd need to be > support streaming > 250,000 programmes a day. I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that > neither of these > servers are capable of handling this load as-is. > > I can't answer all your other questions because I don't know all the > answers, but here are > a few: > > "Does this mean an RTMP > client needs to have a full interpreter for some programming language" > > An RTMP client needs to have an execution environment. > > <questions about dates> > > See the JavaScript Date documentation for your favourite implementation, > such as > > http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Core_JavaScript_1.5_Reference:Global_Objects:Date > > <acceptable characters in PID and Token> > > These are generated by the BBC, so you probably don't need to know, other > than ensuring > you encode as UTF-8 to make sure you can handle a broad character set. > Java encodes String > objects to UTF-8 internally by default. > > I would hope that most of your other questions become redundant if an API > appears, as has > been suggested. > > Cheers, > > Phil > - > Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please > visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. > Unofficial list archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >
