Streaming Video - What are the options?

Streaming video is rapidly becoming the vehicle of choice for webmasters to get their message to the visitors much easier. Initially, the cost of streaming video put out of reach for most people and the technology is advanced, the cost for video streaming has reduced.

There are many different formats available to create streaming video formats with the most common are:

1. Adobe Flash (FLV)

2. Quicktime

3. RealMedia

4. Windows Media

All formats have advantages and disadvantages, with the final decision comes down to personal preference. However, FLV has emerged as one of the strongest contenders in the market for streaming video to users through important as Google Video, Reuters.com and YouTube.

This is not only the big publishers who favored the streaming FLV, but thousands of small webmasters who have chosen to FLV streaming video. The simple reason is due to the low cost and the fact that it is one of the most widely-supported platforms available players. It is a common plugin which means almost everyone will be able to view the videos produced for the FLV format.

For most of the webmasters who suffer from moderate traffic to their website, FLV videos can be stored on your web host and incorporated into their site content to improve the user experience. When visitors click to view this video you can play immediately if you use progressive download streaming.

Progressive downloads for streaming means no special streaming servers needed to host video files, and visitors are not required to download the complete video before viewing. This means that there is no additional cost for webmasters who want to add video to web sites do not need to pay for expensive dedicated video streaming server.

FLV is particularly suited to the progressive download method, such as Flash uses two main file formats, SWF and FLV. Swf files are embedded in HTML / PHP / ASP pages and act as a web video player while the FLV file can be stored on an external server or within the server itself and streamed over the web video players.

If you want to provide video on your website you can choose to upload your video to video sharing sites like YouTube or you can host your own. The most convenient way to host your videos are FLV format using progressive download streaming. If you already have an existing portfolio of video, you can usually convert them to FLV format with a converter flv quality.

Overall, although there are several options available to add video to web sites, video streaming software can be expensive if you want to have only the highest quality video. However, the FLV format has been designed to play and the web is of high quality, compact and favored by thousands of smaller Web site publishers. Why not add some 'fresh web video player to your website today and provide a better browsing experience for users? ...