[Web4lib] Streaming media

[Keith D. Engwall]

Just to follow up on this thought...
 
One of the consequences of the fact that Flash video tends to be progressive load instead of true streaming is that it is more difficult to prevent users from making a local copy of the content.
 
In most streaming media, the user only has access to the stream, not the actual file, and so they must connect to your server in order to view the stream.
 
With progressive download flash files, the flash file itself is downloaded, and an enterprising user can view the source to get the URL for the flash file.  I do not know how you might protect against this if you need to restrict access to the source media.
 
Keith
 
-----------
Keith Engwall
Head of Library Systems and Technology
Catawba College Library
kengwall at catawba.edu
http://libweb.catawba.edu
 
----- Original Message -----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of Leo Robert Klein 
Sent: Tue, 7/11/2006 3:50pm
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Streaming media 
 
 
Junior Tidal wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> Has anyone used flash based videos (FLV) to stream video content over
> the web? Our library is thinking of utilizing it, and I was just curious
> of other people's experiences with it. 
> 

Technically they don't stream unless you have a special streaming server 
(using "Flash Communication Server software").  For many sites, what you 
have instead is "progessive download".

That said, you see this kind of video all over the place nowadays -- 
everywhere from NYTimes.com to YouTube.com.  Where it's particularly 
handy, assuming "progressive download", is in shorter pieces (<10min) or 
where you can take advantage of Flash interactivity.

LEO

-- -------------
Leo Robert Klein
www.leoklein.com
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