Anytime someone spends time writing a good detailed post with info that would be valuable later..i post it to the group's wiki: http://videoblogginggroup.pbwiki.com/Great%20Quotes%20from%20the%20Group I just added Stan's post since I think S3 for hosting might become more and more popular.
Feel free to add anything you see come over the wire. Jay > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > > > From: Stan Hirson, Sarah Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > Date: Dec 17, 2007 6:27 PM > > > Subject: [videoblogging] Amazon S3 for Flash Videos > > > To: [email protected] > > > > > Has anyone had any experience with Amazon's S3 service? I'm having a > > > lot of trouble with their terminology. > > > > > > I am currently using DreamHost for my videos. Other than a few > > > glitches, it's been pretty good and it certainly is cheap. But I am > > > planning a new project that will require almost instant streaming of > > > .SWF files to an international audience. Apparently Amazon has the > > > resources to fill these needs. I just cannot figure out the costs. I > > > use 3GB of disk space and 60GB of bandwidth per month. But I just > > > can't make out their jargon. > > > > > > I wrote AWS and they suggested I ask in their forum. I don't > > > understand a word of it! > > > > > > Has anyone had any experience with progressive downloads of Flash > > > videos with them? > > > > > > Stan Hirson > > > http://hestakaup.com > > This was all good help for me. Nathan's explanation of the costs as > so close to what I am paying on DreamHost encouraged me to do some > tests. I would like to share the results. > > Opening an account through Amazon was very easy, same as for book > shopping. > > Setting up the file system was straightforward once I was able to > figure out some of the terminology. For example, in Amazonese, > "bucket" corresponds to "folder". There is easily enough Googled > documentation on this. I uploaded the files using a FireFox plugin, > S3 Organizer. I tested some short SWF files first and, of course, > nothing worked. It turns out I had to set permissions by editing an > ACL file (whatever) so that everyone could read the file. Then the > SWFs worked. > > As I use vPIP in my site, there was no problem pointing at the AWS > file by copying the path in S3 although it looks a bit odd compared > with the familiar apache files. > > Feeling cocky, I then moved to the big time, longer FLV files sending > up the player as a SWF. And then the heavens opened with a huge dump! > > The FLV files did not play and the forums had lots and lots of talk > about the impossibility of playing Flash FLV files in Amazon because > of cross domain issues, etc. and all kinds of computer and Amazonese I > could not understand. > > It looked like a total loser for the longer FLV videos. Then I > realized that all I had to do was set up vPIP to use its built-in FLV > player. Gave that a shot and it worked! > > There are still some problems. I wanted a minimum amount of > pre-loading -- none if possible -- and I can not do it with the vPIP > player. I get the spinning cobweb for a few seconds. > > It works well enough and if there is a way to get it to pop on > instantly and play, that would be great. > > To show how S3 works, I made a simple HTML page with a comparison of > the DreamHost hosting using an ON2 player and the Amazon S3 with the > vPIP player. > > See for yourslf: http://shirson.com/web_pages/amazon_compare.html > > I've picked a scene with difficult compression: 30 fps with moving > horses and landscapes. The motion should be smooth and fluid. 480 x 360. > > Thanks Jay, Chris, Nathan, and Markus for your help. I thought I > should pay back and share the results. > > > Stan Hirson > http://hestakaup.com > > -- http://jaydedman.com 917 371 6790 Video: http://ryanishungry.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/jaydedman Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/jaydedman/ RSS: http://tinyurl.com/yqgdt9
