[MPlayer-users] OT question - Video-Streaming - how?

[Rainer Hantsch]

Hello, and thank all of you very much for your informative hints.

What I totally forgot to mention is:
As everybody of you surely knows (and many of yours mentioned), most clients
use Windows based computers, so I must live with IE and Windows Media Player,
too.  :-(
Well, meanwhile IE gets more and more "compatible" to the w3m standard, but it
still lacks many features that are standard in NS, FireFox, so I will be
restricted to very basic HTML anyway...  -- So you are right, keeping it
simple is the best choice.

Which file format would you recommend in this situation? I need some basic
things:
.) Good image quality (size 1/4 PAL)
.) Good data compression
.) Good "compatibility" with existing Windows systems
.) If possible, I would prefer to prevent the average user from downloading
   the file. He may view it, but not store it on his disk.


I see the following options:
a) The last point seems to be the most problematic one. I (for myself) would
   prefer DivX4 files, because mencoder can produce them easily and they have
   both: good quality and small size.
   But the disadvantage is that standard Windoze PCs do not play DivX by
   default, so the customer must install a codec first. -> Not every user is
   able to do that.
   Ok, I could place a link to DivX' codecs below. Is it possible to test
   with JavaScript, if the used browser (with plugins) is able to play DivX
   and automatically point users to a download URL if NOT? (As this is done
   mith Flash player on many sites?)

b) Another option is using .mpg files. This is a little bit more problematic,
   because SuSE doesn't have a really working codec library. It can decode,
   but not encode. So this requires more work and also gives much bigger
   files.
c) I could try to produce MPEG4 files, but I have no experience if (and how)
   mencoder can do that, how the filesize is, ... If I understood right,
   this file format (as well as an .mpg file = MPEG2 ?) should automatically
   play while it is still downloading. Would appear similar to a stream, but
   without a stream's disadvantages.



mfg

  Ing. Rainer Hantsch