[thelist] darwin streaming server

[Jake Stetser]

Mr. Handelaar quoth:
>It's OK if you have a Mac, or have spent the time downloading
>the 9MB of program stuff.  Interactivity-wise it doesn't
>do anything you can't also do with Real.

Subjectively, Quicktime looks better during streaming than Real, at least to
me. And it DEFINITELY looks better for non-streamed files (check out the
movie previews at Apple's site). QT also offers embedded Flash content, but
I think Real can do that too.

>Quicktime does have these very serious disadvantages, though:

>*  It can't really handle broadband
What do you mean? For one, how does a media format 'handle' broadband? Two,
I refer you to Apple's quicktime previews of movies - those look really good
on a cable connection! And for the amount of traffic it gets, the QT stream
of Apple's keynotes live manage to hold up really well.

>*  It still doesn't so much stream as do a progressive download
>   which leaves a copy of the movie in tact in your cache
This is true if you don't STREAM the movie. There's a BIG difference between
Quicktime streaming and Quicktime download. Any HTTP server can allow
downloaded Quicktime files, even with Fast/Quick start. QTSS actually
streams the file. This is a true stream, not a progressive download. Honest.

>*  It SUCKS at live broadcasting - and there's only one
>   live encoder on earth, and it only runs on Macs.
Yeah, those keynotes are just awful quality - especially when you consider
that 3 gigabytes of data per second are transferred to people watching that
live stream (total, not to each person ;).

If you're going to do live encoding anyway, you don't want to encode and
serve from the same machine- the encoder should send the signal to another
server running QTSS and that server serves the stream.

I'm just not sure about these claims. There are of course disadvantages, but
quality and capability to stream are not among them. If you're concerned
about getting the most users, stream as Windows Media or RealPlayer - WMP
has the most installs because it is installed by default on Windows
machines, but RealPlayer at least works well on Macs. If you're looking for
quality, go Quicktime. 

BTW, if you don't need to stream, any HTTP server will do.