Hi Everyone, I've been brought in to consult for a new video streaming site that expects to launch 3Q 2012. We had a first meeting today and there were some questions that came up that frankly I'm not sure the best answer to and I had hoped to pick the brains of the good folks at PLUG to help me come up with some answers.
First off they don't plan to use flash and with the new HTML 5 spec I think that's a wise idea. Instead they plan to have a device specific client apps that will handle the actual playback of the video. Out the gate they plan to support Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS & Android. They may do a set-top box as well, but not in 2012. The question is, what would be a good format for storing the video in. They would like the initial storage format to be 1080p and then have the server transcode it down to match the optimum video screen size and available bandwidth on the playback device. At the moment I'm leaning towards mp4 (H.264) since it seems to be widely used and is the native format for most Blu-ray discs. Are there any caveats that I need to be aware of before recommending this? Another concern is that obviously they're not going to build out their own content distribution network, but handling large HD video streams could get slow and expensive. AWS Cloudfront looks like it might serve all needs but I worry about the 20GB per item limit. A Blu-ray disc has a capacity of 50GB, but does anyone know what a 2 or 3 hour 1080p stream would actually consume in terms of storage? Also are there other CDN's that might be a better fit? Being able to have an entire BD online (including all the special features) and available for instant streaming would be a big plus, so obviously the bigger the better for maximum file sizes. OTOH I highly doubt they'll be storing an ISO image of the disc, so knowing how large the largest file we could reasonably expect might be a better way to go. Finally we were talking about pricing. Personally I've used Netflix & Vudu. Vudu is built into my TV and there is no monthly commitment but it's a small fortune to buy videos from it, in some cases it's more than just going to walmart and buying the disc (valid comparison since Walmart owns vudu). Netflix on the other hand has unlimited streaming for a flat monthly fee of $7.99, but the selection appears to be rather limited, the DRM means it's not usable under linux (as far as I've found), and there appears to be no option to purchase, so if Netflix loses the right to stream a video then it just disappears. The plan they are working under is to offer unlimited standard def (480) streaming for $4.80 per month, 720p for $7.20 and 1080p for $10.80 per month. There is also the option of no monthly service charge streaming where you would "rent" a movie for the day similar to redbox. $1.99 per day for 480, $2.99 for 720p, $3.99 for 1080p A final option being worked out (assuming movie companies will allow it), is the option to purchase any movie for about the same price or maybe less than purchasing physical media, this would then be downloaded to the client. I admit that I like all of these options, but my gut instinct tells me that too many pricing options might actually turn off potential customers. If it were you, what option or option(s) would you prefer or do you think putting them all on the table would be best? Anyways, thanks in advance for letting me pick your brains! /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
