H.264 Hi Def streaming is here.
By Mike McGuinness
FLV Hosting
New camera hardware competitive pricing is allowing the average user access to Hi Def recording, and of course now this format is looking to the internet
for distribution.
HI Def on the internet is still in it’s infancy, but is becoming more accessible as connection speeds improve, and encoding becomes more rounded.
If you want to view HD and Hi Def H.264 videos in Flash or Quicktime, better be prepared for hardware upgrades.
It is recommended to compress your video files for easier streaming, especially in cases of hardware configurations as described below.
If serving videos to clients, be sure to warn them what they need to view properly
In some cases at least 1 GIG of ram is needed
So yes HD is coming, but like all new things to the market, there is a catch up learning curve along with usability
Recommended Hardware Configurations for H.264 High Definition (HD) Playback
To play high definition video, a large amount of data must be processed by your computer. A powerful system will deliver the best playback experience.
and thats just the hardware
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QuickTime 7 System Requirements
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:
400 MHz Power PC G3 or faster Macintosh computer
At least 128MB of RAM
Mac OS X v10.3.9, v10.4.9 or later
QuickTime 7 for Windows:
Pentium processor-base PC or compatible computer
At least 128MB of RAM
Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Vista
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For 852×480 (480p) video at 24 frames per second:
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:
1.25 GHz PowerMac G4 or faster Macintosh computer
At least 128MB of RAM
64MB or greater video card
QuickTime 7 for Windows:
2.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or faster processor
At least 512MB of RAM
64MB or greater video card
Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Vista
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For 1280×720 (720p) video at 24-30 frames per second:
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:
1.8 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer; 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster
At least 256MB of RAM
64 MB or greater video card
QuickTime 7 for Windows:
2.8 GHz Pentium 4 or faster processor
At least 512MB of RAM
64MB or greater video card
Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Vista
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For 1920×1080 (1080p) video at 24 frames per second:
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:
Dual 2.0 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer; 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster
At least 512MB of RAM
128MB or greater video card
QuickTime 7 for Windows:
3.0 Ghz Intel Pentium D (dual-core) or faster processor
At least 1GB of RAM
64MB or greater video card
Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Vista
Dont forget the internet connection too
Some lower speed “cheap” DSL will just flat out not be enough to stream HD without choppiness or stutter
What are the minimum requirements for H.264 video streaming?
A) A high-speed Internet connection with at least 700 Kbps and up. 5mbps is ideal.
Also, it is important that this Internet connection is not shared unless you have higher connectivity speeds.
For example, if you share a DSL line in your press box and a couple of photographers begin transmitting photos, that could cause buffering or network congestion with the video. You can get a good idea of how fast your connection is by plugging into the network you’ll be using and visiting http://www.testmy.net
Your IT department can also tell you if your network meets these requirements
You can generally use wired OR wireless connections, but again, be aware of the speed .
FLV Hosting Servers are capable of streaming large H.264 compiled videos.
Here is an example website player for Wide Screen H.264 Hi Def
DEMO H.264 Hi Def Player
http://wowzatest.flv9.com/wideplayerv3/
DOWNLOAD WEB PLAYER FILES HERE
http://flvhosting.com/downloads/h264wideplayer
H.264 Encoder/Compressor
H.264 Encoder by FLV Hosting.
Compress your Hi Def Files into much smaller versions while maintaining quality
The file playback example at http://wowzatest.flv9.com/wideplayerv3/
originated as a 142 meg file but is now just 28 megs after using the FLV Hosting H.264 Hi
Def Encoder – this aids in keeping streaming bandwidth costs low, along with
enabling easier streaming for low end broadband users.
Supported input files include
AVI – MPEG MPEG-1 (VCD) MPEG-2 (SVCD.DVD) MPEG-4 (XviD, 3GPP) MPEG-4 V3 ISO MPEG-4 V1 – Cinepak Codec by Radius, Cinepak by Supermac to FLV – Intel Indeo(R) Video R3.2 – DivX 5 to FLV Windows Media Video , ASF WMV 7, WMV 8, WMV 9, 10 to FLV -
Outputs to MP4 H.264
Available here
http://flvpowertools.com/shop/index.php?productID=138
The moral is, embrace H.264 Hi Def on the web, it looks beautiful and is here to stay. But also be aware of the compromises you migtht have to make to achieve the best playback
See you next time
Mike