Streaming media

Whether it's for a product demonstration or sharing your latest rock 'n roll masterpiece with the world, audio and video can greatly enhance your visitors' experience. Unfortunately this isn't as simple as it sounds - both audio and video need to be encoded into one of several competing formats before your visitors will be able to enjoy it. These formats allow the beginning of the audio or video file to start playing while the later portions are still being downloaded. Audio or video delivered in this way is said to be 'streaming'.

Streaming audio

Audio is prepared for streaming by reducing the quality of the audio to levels that can be transmitted over a standard internet connection. A 20 kilobit/second stream is similar in quality to AM radio and is small enough to be transmitted to visitors who use dial-up connections. A 128 kilobit/second stream is considered to be near-CD quality and is suitable for even the slowest broadband connection. Popular streaming audio formats include Apple Quicktime (MOV), MPEG Layer 3 (MP3), RealAudio (RA), Windows Media Audio (WMA).

Streaming video

Video can be streamed over an internet connection in a similar manner to audio. Due to the vastly greater file sizes broadband is recommended. Popular streaming video formats include Apple Quicktime (MOV), RealVideo (RV), and Windows Media Video (WMV).

What you need to do

If you want streaming audio on your website all I need is the original audio in a digital format (this usually means CDs, but I also accept files in the MP3, WMA, OGG, or AAC formats). I can also convert 90 minute cassette tapes or vinyl LPs for an extra fee of £20 each. If you want streaming video I will need the original video, this can be Mini-DV tape, VCD, DVD, Quicktime files, MP4 files (including DivX, XviD and 3ivx), and most AVI files. Note that streaming media, video in particular, consists of large files (up to 5MB per minute for average quality video) and may require that you increase your disk storage quota and bandwidth limit with your hosting company. In layman's terms that means they'll want you to pay them more money.