About

The Simple Flash Video Plugin builds on the plugins that all ready allow easy posting of .flv or .mp4 files on the popular WordPress platform. Simple Flash Video allows for all of the JW FLV options to be utilized via its config.xml file and post level overrides. With this plugin you can easily post .flv or .mp4 videos to your blog and have your viewers instantly watch the video without having to fully download the video before watching. It also combines the popular Shadowbox utility to allow for the videos to float over the website content for a clean look. This plugin was built from the ground up to take full advantage of the JW FLV Player and Shadowbox. On top of this it is the only plugin for WordPress that utilizes the Simple Stats App for JW that gives users a total look at the video viewership of their website. Code has been used from the Flash Video Player by Joshua Eldridge as per the licence agreements of the respective software. When you put the [video...] code in your plugin it will be replaced by a Link to the video that will open in a Shadow window. If a .jpg file is in the same directory with the same name as the flv it will also use that photo in the link. If no image is found it will simply place a Text link in your post. If you wish you can also disable the Thickbox feature in the post command.

Want to say thank you for the plugin? Just leave a comment or send an email if you found the plugin useful. Or if you want you can make a donation to the project. All of these methods are always appreciated and will certainly help keep up the motivation for future releases. Thanks!

Demos

FLV File

FLVs will simply be changed to links to the post in the feed.
[video filename=/wp-content/uploads/SimpleShorts/Spare_Change/spare_change.flv /]

Simple Flash Video 1.7 Beta 2

Bits on the Run Hosted file – Shadowbox off Autostart Off

FLVs will simply be changed to links to the post in the feed.
[video filename=http://content.bitsontherun.com/players/yYul4DRz-327-1754.swf shadowbox=off /]

Simple Flash Video 1.7 Beta 2

FLV File Different Image

FLVs will simply be changed to links to the post in the feed.
[video filename=/wp-content/uploads/SimpleShorts/Spare_Change/spare_change.flv vid_image=http://simplethoughtproductions.com/wp-content/uploads/Sports/Rollins/Basketball/womens/08/RWBBALLVsEckerd0809.jpg /]

Simple Flash Video 1.7 Beta 2

H264 File With Custom Title

This video will also properly download via the feed in itunes or your favorite software.
[video filename=http://www.simplethoughtproductions.com/wp-content/uploads/SimpleShorts/Morning_Mail/morning_mail.mp4 height=360 width=640 title=My Cool Custom Title /]

Simple Flash Video 1.7 Beta 2

Youtube Hosted Video

[video filename=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly0dBk7yqYU plugins=tipjar-1 /]

Simple Flash Video 1.7 Beta 2

Blip.TV Hosted File

[video filename=http://blip.tv/file/1853058?skin=rss /] <-Note that you must add ?skin=rss for the plugin to get the correct information.

Simple Flash Video 1.7 Beta 2

Video with Longtail Ads Enabled

To enable on a per post basis you must add longtail=true and plugins=ltas to the video command
[video filename=/wp-content/uploads/SimpleShorts/Spare_Change/spare_change.flv ongtail=true plugins=ltas longtailenable=true /]

Simple Flash Video 1.7 Beta 2

STPENC is a free, for non-commercial, open source application that allows you to utilize FFMPEG and x264 to encode video files to either h264 mp4 or mpeg2 files and upload them if needed. It is written in Python and is distributed using Py2EXE. It is our hope to make it easier for people to create great quality video for the web in a format that can easily be used with Simple Flash Video or any Flash player.

STPENC allows for easy encoding into:

• H.264
• MPEG2 for NTSC-DVD
• XVID
• Thumbnails for use with Simple Flash Video WordPress Plugin

It also allows for uploading of encoded files via FTP, FTP w/ SSL, and SFTP.

For more information please visit the STPENC Page!

Following up with our article on Streaming Live video on the web we now want to take a look at simply putting video footage online to share with the world. There are a lot of options when you are simply allowing viewers to download your footage. So let’s take a look at some of them and what they can do.

Codecs for All – Choose your Audience

One of the first things that you will want to do is to pick a codec or even multiple codecs to encode the video into. There are a large range of video codecs on the market today which each has their own strengths and weaknesses.

Commonly used online video codecs:

• WMV
• MPEG4-ASP(DivX, Xvid)
• H.264
• Flash (H.263 Sorenson Spark)
• On2 VP6

*In another article we will discuss the pros and cons of each of these codecs

The video codecs are the compressors of the video information in your file. In general when uploading a video to the web you want it to be the smallest file size possible while maintaining as much of the original video quality as possible. In this case we use a “lossy” codec. This means that we take the information in the file and use computations to reduce the amount of data needed to describe each frame of video. In doing so there is some amount of loss of quality that can never be recovered but the file size is reduced greatly. Some codecs do a better job at keeping quality at small file sizes, but this generally incurs a performance penalty on older machines. File size is important because the larger your files the more disk space and bandwidth they will use. If you have a popular file it can quickly consume your bandwidth allotment and cause an overage on your account which can cost a lot of money. Compressing your video files with a lower resolution and decent bit rate will often result in a better image quality and smaller file size.

The next consideration for codecs is will your audience be able to play the files with a default setup or will they need to install some extra software in order to watch your video. It is an important thing to consider and it really helps if you know your audience. If most visitors to your website are on a Mac or Linux you probably will want to use H.264 in a Quicktime container. Likewise if your audience is all Windows based you might want to use a WMV9 codec so they can play the file with the default install of windows. Adobe Flash is a popular option that has the highest install base (98% as of Flash 7 and increasing each month) on Windows, Mac, and Linux that can allow video to be played in the web browser, but there are some limitations regarding hardware acceleration of video which can potentially affect performance as well as user interface inconsistencies among the various Flash video players available.

Calculating the Bitrate

Bit rate is the key to file size and download times. As a general rule of thumb two things happen with higher bitrates. The image and audio quality increases, as well as the file size. One of these rules is broken each time a newer, superior codec is released. The quality of a new codec can be equal to an older codec with a lower bitrate in most cases. With a lower bitrate a newer codec could afford you to have a smaller file that looks the same but if you encode the file at the same bit rate the file size always be the same size.

To calculate the file size you need to know the video duration and the video/audio bitrate you want to use.

Sample File Info:

• File Length: 10 Minutes (600 seconds)
• Video Bitrate: 500 kbit/s
• Audio Bitrate: 128 kbit/s
• Total Bitrate: 628 kbit/s

With this info we can calculate roughly what the file size will be. Our total bitrate is 628K kbit/s combining the video and audio. Each second of video weighs in at 628 kbits. One kbit, or kibibit, is 1024 * 8 or 8192 binary digits. If we divide by 8 we will get a total of 78.5 KiB (Kibibytes, most commonly and mistakenly referred to as kilobytes) a second. Multiply this by the duration in seconds (10 minutes * 60 seconds per minute = 600 seconds) and you get 47100 KiB. If you want the size in MiB divide that number by 1024 (1024 KiB = 1 MiB) for a total of 45.9 MiB for a 10 minute file at a bitrate of 628 kbits a second. The other useful bit of information we got was that if someone wanted to watch this file while it was being downloaded without having to wait for buffering (progressive download [more on that later]) they would need a connection that could download at 78.5 KiB or faster. This would work for most broadband connections, but depending on your customer base or intended audience they may have slower connections, such as those limited to 30 KiB/s download speeds.

Containing the Data

Now that we have the video and audio compressed with our new codecs we need something to hold them for delivery. Most windows users will recognize these by the file extensions.

Common File Containers:

• ASF/WMV
• FLV
• MP4/MOV/M4V/M4A
• MPEG

These containers are responsible for syncing the data from the video and audio streams so they play back together correctly. Some containers are also capable of storing additional information such as meta data or subtitles. Most containers are also capable of containing a number of possible codecs so it is important to realize that just because the file extension is .mov it could be one of many codecs used.

Progressive or not Progressive

The next thing you need to decide is if you want to provide your videos as a file that is downloaded and then viewed or viewed as it is downloading. The second option is called progressive downloading. Progressive downloads are similar in nature to streaming video but it depends on what client is used and the server setup on whether you can get all the features you normally would with a true streaming setup. With progressive downloads and properly formated video files you can allow your audience to start watching almost instantly, neatly bypassing expensive or difficult to setup true streaming solutions. It also can be setup to allow them to randomly access the file, that is seek to any point in the file without loading the whole file and play from that point onward. These are usually the two most sought after features of streaming services which can be done with a simple web server and a PHP script or server plugin, such as the H.264 streaming plugin for lighttpd.

Progressive downloads are a great tool to allow people to watch your content quickly on your website. It also brings them back if they want to see it again. This allows for repeat visitors as well as more options to increase ad revenu if you use it. The down side is that depending on cache settings a single user who watches your videos time and time again will consume more bandwidth which can increase your costs.

If you allow your viewers to save the content directly to their computers they can then watch it as often as they want without using additional bandwidth. The trade off obviously is that you will not get the increased traffic to your site.

Each method has its pros and cons which must be considered when selecting a solution for your website and audience.

Summing it all up

The world of online video is constantly evolving with updates, new codecs, and delivery methods. The key is to make sure you use the right options based on your audience. When you base your choices on your audience you will be more successful in delivering your content to them.

Ever since the breakthrough of YouTube more and more people have been interested in video online. The next step is to provide live events around the world for others to watch. In the past this would usually have taken a team of video and computer personnel to produce. As streaming has become more popular the tools to do so have also become more commonplace and accessible. This allows smaller operations to have the ability to stream events live even when the veiwership never breaks 100 viewers without breaking the bank. Lets take a look at some of the technologies used.

Formats

To start lets talk about the two dominant streaming solutions: Adobe Flash and Windows Media Video (WMV). WMV has long been the de-facto standard when working with live streaming video. One of the biggest live events that used WMV was the 2007 Live Earth where it was reported over 9 million video streams were served. While the server power behind such a feat is mind boggling it still shows that with the right setup one can truly reach a global audience. At the time MSN had declined to comment how many of the streams were concurrent which is one of the most important metrics when trying to reach a large audience.

Next up is the relatively new format and the subject of this article, Flash, which can utilize the Sorenson (H.263), VP6f, and H.264 video codecs and has support for FLV and MP4 containers. Flash has long been popular but it first became notable when put to use by YouTube to serve all of their videos. While Youtube utilizes primarily progressive downloads the format is quite capable when it comes to streaming. Flash has one of the widest footprints of all video platforms across many operating systems and devices. A newer codec you can utilize is H.264, also called MPEG4 Part 10 – Advanced Video Codec (AVC). This newer more advanced codec can maintain a higher picture quality while using a lower bitrate. The trade off is that it requires the viewers to have one of the latest versions of Flash (version 9.0.115 or newer), and it also requires a more powerful computer to process the video.

While both are capable formats, we will be focusing on Flash for a few reasons:

• There is an open source solution for a server that has a lot of potential.
• There is also a number of Flash players that can display the live footage to the world.
• It is said that 98% of the computers on the internet have Flash.
• If you are programming savy and have Adobe Flash you can even go as far as to build your own player

We would recomend starting with the excellent JW FLV Player (utilized on this site) and work your way into skining it (requires Adobe Flash still) and then program your own player if you still find the need.

Abilities

As you can see, a high-end server with Flash Media Server 3.0 has the potential to serve out to a lot of customers. This is limited by the bandwidth availible to the server, and hardware. If you are going over a few hundred viewers you might find it best to utilize one of the all ready established CDNs (Content Delivery Network) that have hundreds of servers networked and ready to take on all of your viewers.

Alternatives to Flash Media Server include Wowza and Red5. Red5 is a free alternative.

What you need

To get started you will need a few things:

Now if you do not have a firewire port on your computer you do have the option of getting a USB Capture box that can take S-Video, or Composite RCA and feed it into the computer.

Streaming Server Options

Now that you have the tools to stream the video, what are you going to stream it to? At this point you have to decide which server option will work for you. If you are streaming in an environment where you need to be able to get quick support you are probably better off going with FMS or Wowza which are both just shy of the $1,000 price mark. If you are OK with tinkering with an open source project and setting it up You can look at the free alternative known as Red5. I was able to successfully setup Red5 on my dedicated server and use its built in demos to stream a nice image to it. I did run into issues when trying to stream 16:9 content which I have yet to resolve. What is important to decide and account for at this time is the number of connections (your audience) you will get for your live stream.

If you have a decent dedicated server with a 2GHz CPU and a GB or more of ram on a 100mbit line it is possible to host around 100 viewers with a decent video resolution. After the 100 viewer mark your milage will vary. If you are looking to host more viewers this is where you will probably be best served by looking at CDNs which can be found on Google. Keep in mind a quality CDN will not come cheap.

The good news is that if you have a dedicated server and a little know how you can setup a free server solution. You can even run the Red5 Solution on a home machine running Windows or OSX but your connection upload speed will probably only allow one or two connections.

The Flow of Data

The flow of data is fairly simple to follow but it is good to know. First your camera will capture your image and send it to your computer. This will either happen over the firewire connection or via the capture box. This data is fed into the encoder. The encoder is what converts your DV, HDV, or other native format into the streaming format, such as H.264. The encoder will follow the settings you select so that the stream fits your specificatoins to send it along to your streaming server over your Internet connection. The streaming server picks it up from there to send down to the viewer. Depending on its setup it can redistribute to other servers that are closer to the viewer as well (this is what the CDNs do, for example). From there the Internet takes over and delivers it down the maze of pipes to your viewer’s screen.

Real World Application

One real world example of this would be what we use to stream sporting events at Rollins College. This NCAA Division II school streams a majority of their sporting events for friends and familes of the players to watch.

To accomplish this we use a few tools:

• Canon XL-H1A HD Camera
• Laptop with Firewire port
• Canopus ADVC110 Converter
• Panasonic DMR-EZ28K DVD Recorder

We set it up so the camera feeds the DVD recorder. This gives us an instant copy of the game. The DVD Recorder feeds a Conopus box which is the feed for the internet stream. One possible addition to this setup would be a distribution amplifier. This would allow each device to get a clean signal without degradation. Because we are only passing through on device before the internet stream capture the loss is minimal. The stream is then compressed and sent out to a large CDN. In this case we went with a CDN because the average viewership is over 200 concurrent viewers.

Summing it all up

Hopefully this information has given you a small grasp on the huge world of online video streaming as it is by no means a complete view. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc… please feel free to leave a comment or contact us via email.

About

The Simple Flash Video Plugin builds on the plugins that all ready allow easy posting of .flv or .mp4 files on the popular WordPress platform. Simple Flash Video allows for all of the JW FLV options to be utilized via its config.xml file and post level overrides. With this plugin you can easily post .flv or .mp4 videos to your blog and have your viewers instantly watch the video without having to fully download the video before watching. It also combines the popular Shadowbox utility to allow for the videos to float over the website content for a clean look. This plugin was built from the ground up to take full advantage of the JW FLV Player and Shadowbox. On top of this it is the only plugin for WordPress that utilizes the Simple Stats App for JW that gives users a total look at the video viewership of their website. Code has been used from the Flash Video Player by Joshua Eldridge as per the licence agreements of the respective software. When you put the [video...] code in your plugin it will be replaced by a Link to the video that will open in a Shadow window. If a .jpg file is in the same directory with the same name as the flv it will also use that photo in the link. If no image is found it will simply place a Text link in your post. If you wish you can also disable the Thickbox feature in the post command.

Want to say thank you for the plugin? Just leave a comment or send an email if you found the plugin useful. Or if you want you can make a donation to the project. All of these methods are always appreciated and will certainly help keep up the motivation for future releases. Thanks!

Demos

FLV File

FLVs will simply be changed to links to the post in the feed.
[video filename=/wp-content/uploads/SimpleShorts/Spare_Change/spare_change.flv /]

Simple Flash Video 1.6 RC2

H264 File

This video will also properly download via the feed in itunes or your favorite software.
[video filename=http://www.simplethoughtproductions.com/wp-content/uploads/SimpleShorts/Morning_Mail/morning_mail.mp4 height=360 width=640 streamer=lighttpd /]

Simple Flash Video 1.6 RC2

Youtube Hosted Video

[video filename=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly0dBk7yqYU /]

Simple Flash Video 1.6 RC2

Video with Longtail Ads Enabled

To enable on a per post basis you must add longtail=true and plugins=ltas to the video command
[video filename=/wp-content/uploads/SimpleShorts/Spare_Change/spare_change.flv ongtail=true plugins=ltas /]

Simple Flash Video 1.6 RC2

| Simple Flash Video Gallery |

Special Thanks

Daniel G. Taylor – Programming
Borrie Sven – Beta Testing

Installation

1. Download and unzip Simple Flash Video.
2. Transfer Simple-Flash-Video directory to your `/wp-content/plugins/` directory
3. CHMOD the config.xml to be writable by the server, 666 or better
4. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

Usage

To use the plugin you simply need to insert: Simple Flash Video 1.6 RC2
into your post.

You can add the following variables after the filename variable:

• shadowbox=off – Disables ThickBox and simply puts the player into the post
• embed=true – Uses embed code instead of SWFObject Code
• vid_image= – set the URL of an image to use for the video link instead of the default.
• ALL JW FLV Variables in lower case format ex: width=200 Simple Flash Video 1.6 RC2

For the Stats simply goto the SFV Stats page that is linked under the main admin page. From there you can see the over all stats or search for a specific file or IP address.

F.A.Q

Q: I cannot get the stream.php working what is wrong?
A: to use it you have to set the stream variable to the location and file. So for most people this will be: /wp-content/plugins/simple-flash-video/stream.php – If you have your WP install in a subfolder that will have to be added. Also, if you are using Lighty Webserver please use its FLV Mod instead of the stream.php

Q: I have activated the plugin, but don’t see the video player. What do I do?
A: Check and make sure that you have the appropriate hook in your template file for the header: wp_head();

Q: How do I change a setting for a single post?
A: If you just want to change a single value for one video you can do it by modifying the code in your post. To Change the hight you would simply put: Simple Flash Video 1.6 RC2
You can put any of the variables in this way using all lower case variablenames without spaces in the name.

Q: How do I change the defaults?
A: The config.xml file contains all of the current variables of JW FLV 4.0 . You can modify this file to change any of the default settings that the plugin will use.

Q: Help! I can’t figure this out!?
A: No problem! Give us a shout using the contact form @ http://www.simplethoughtproductions.com/contact/ and we will see if we cant help you. We also recommend posting a comment on the version of Simple Flash Video player to allow the community to assist as well. Find the post for your version @ http://www.simplethoughtproductions.com/category/simple-flash-video/

About

The Simple Flash Video Plugin builds on the plugins that all ready allow easy posting of .flv or .mp4 files on the popular WordPress platform. Simple Flash Video allows for all of the JW FLV options to be utilized via its config.xml file and post level overrides. With this plugin you can easily post .flv or .mp4 videos to your blog and have your viewers instantly watch the video without having to fully download the video before watching. It also combines the popular Shadowbox utility to allow for the videos to float over the website content for a clean look. This plugin was built from the ground up to take full advantage of the JW FLV Player and Shadowbox. On top of this it is the only plugin for WordPress that utilizes the Simple Stats App for JW that gives users a total look at the video viewership of their website. Code has been used from the Flash Video Player by Joshua Eldridge as per the licence agreements of the respective software. When you put the [video...] code in your plugin it will be replaced by a Link to the video that will open in a Shadow window. If a .jpg file is in the same directory with the same name as the flv it will also use that photo in the link. If no image is found it will simply place a Text link in your post. If you wish you can also disable the Thickbox feature in the post command.

Want to say thank you for the plugin? Just leave a comment or send an email if you found the plugin useful. Or if you want you can make a donation to the project. All of these methods are always appreciated and will certainly help keep up the motivation for future releases. Thanks!

Demos

FLV File

FLVs will simply be changed to links to the post in the feed.
[video filename=/wp-content/uploads/SimpleShorts/Spare_Change/spare_change.flv /]

Simple Flash Video Plugin 1.6 Beta 3

H264 File

This video will also properly download via the feed in itunes or your favorite software.
[video filename=http://www.simplethoughtproductions.com/wp-content/uploads/SimpleShorts/Morning_Mail/morning_mail.mp4 height=360 width=640 /]

Simple Flash Video Plugin 1.6 Beta 3

Youtube Hosted Video

[video filename=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgX-hiQdfFw /]

Simple Flash Video Plugin 1.6 Beta 3

Video with Longtail Ads Enabled

To enable on a per post basis you must add longtail=true and plugins=ltas to the video command
[video filename=/wp-content/uploads/SimpleShorts/Spare_Change/spare_change.flv longtail=true plugins=ltas /]

Simple Flash Video Plugin 1.6 Beta 3

| Simple Flash Video Gallery |

Special Thanks

Daniel G. Taylor – Programming
Borrie Sven – Beta Testing

Installation

1. Download and unzip Simple Flash Video.
2. Transfer Simple-Flash-Video directory to your `/wp-content/plugins/` directory
3. CHMOD the config.xml to be writable by the server, 666 or better
4. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

Usage

To use the plugin you simply need to insert: Simple Flash Video Plugin 1.6 Beta 3
into your post.

You can add the following variables after the filename variable:

• shadowbox=off – Disables ThickBox and simply puts the player into the post
• embed=true – Uses embed code instead of SWFObject Code
• vid_image= – set the URL of an image to use for the video link instead of the default.
• ALL JW FLV Variables in lower case format ex: width=200 Simple Flash Video Plugin 1.6 Beta 3

For the Stats simply goto the SFV Stats page that is linked under the main admin page. From there you can see the over all stats or search for a specific file or IP address.

F.A.Q

Q: I cannot get the stream.php working what is wrong?
A: to use it you have to set the stream variable to the location and file. So for most people this will be: /wp-content/plugins/simple-flash-video/stream.php – If you have your WP install in a subfolder that will have to be added. Also, if you are using Lighty Webserver please use its FLV Mod instead of the stream.php

Q: I have activated the plugin, but don’t see the video player. What do I do?
A: Check and make sure that you have the appropriate hook in your template file for the header: wp_head();

Q: How do I change a setting for a single post?
A: If you just want to change a single value for one video you can do it by modifying the code in your post. To Change the hight you would simply put: Simple Flash Video Plugin 1.6 Beta 3
You can put any of the variables in this way using all lower case variablenames without spaces in the name.

Q: How do I change the defaults?
A: The config.xml file contains all of the current variables of JW FLV 4.0 . You can modify this file to change any of the default settings that the plugin will use.

Q: Help! I can’t figure this out!?
A: No problem! Give us a shout using the contact form @ http://www.simplethoughtproductions.com/contact/ and we will see if we cant help you. We also recommend posting a comment on the version of Simple Flash Video player to allow the community to assist as well. Find the post for your version @ http://www.simplethoughtproductions.com/category/simple-flash-video/

Download me

I am testing out using h.264 files inside of the FLV Player for beter quality. You need the latest flash player to see this video. What does this mean for the viewers? It should mean a few things.

Benifits

• Better quality at the same bitrate or the same quality as before but a lower bitrate
• One file on server for “streaming” and for user download

This is a huge feature for the content provider because now you can just have one version of your video/vidcast that the viewers can watch near instantly online AND save to their computer for later play back which was not as easy with the FLV files.

Pitfalls

• Requires latest flash player
• Requires slightly more bandwidth to provide “streaming”

During the transition time of people updating to the latest version of flash you always have to worry about using the latest and greatest as it might eliminate some viewers who do not have auto update on or do not want it. Adobe has provided a solution tfor this situation. It is possible for a flash player to check the version that the user has and if it is not capable of playing back the h. 264 file it can fall back to a traditional FLV. So with this you can continue to encode in both FLV and h264 format until you see enough viewers using the h264 version. Also with the ability to use scripts to allow random access of properly encoded files the need for a true streaming server is becoming smaller every day. There are still features that a true streaming server provide but the gap between the streaming server and a regular web server is becoming smaller and smaller each day.