I'm interested in switching from ...I'm interested in switching from free live streaming solutions (Justin, Ustream etc) to a "home built" alternative. I want to buy a JW Media Player license, customize it and then run a live stream through it. I've read that JW Media Player supports different media providers, but I have not found a streaming server application that works P2P and outputs in flv or mp4. Most of the open source or free streaming servers that are peer to peer are based on the OGG-format.
Do you know any P2P streaming server that outputs in a format that can be ran through JW Media Player? Of course, I know that a client side application must be ran for each user (until HTML5 is out). Basically, I'm looking for a free alternative to services like Octoshape.
Summarized: P2P Stream server whos output can be shown through JW Media Player. Anyone?
please richard we want to use jw player to rebroadcast our sunday services om our web site, we know how to enbedd the player but how do we take the videos from g drive and put it on the player wher do we put it and what code should we write and on what line? can you or any one help us?
bc.. P2P Stream server whos output can be shown through JW Media Player. Anyone?
Well, since a web browser is required to load and play videos via JW Media Player, and browser = Client/Server, we are inherently limited to a client (or group of clients) which accesses/pulls files from a server (or group of servers), for web-based live streaming solutions.
Live streams are definitely still possible but is there any particular reason why you want the live streams to be distributed P2P when client/server is an obvious fit for most pull-based live streaming needs? (Remember, P2P is like client/client with everyone pushing/pulling a chunk of data at a time)
You should look into the RTMP streaming options: http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/tutorials/RTMP-Streaming-with-the-JW-Player
AFAIK, there is as yet no reliable way to P2P stream in Flash in order to circumvent traditional client/server and load-share the traffic (which is probably the benefit you must be after, to reduce your own server bandwidth demands?). I did hear about one idea to hook Flash to a Flex/AIR desktop app and get around the client/server limitation that way though: http://gigaom.com/2008/05/15/flash-p2p-now-thats-disruptive/
Sounds good in theory, however, in practice all the most widely-used live streaming solutions that I've heard of work at a different level (Transport rather than Application) so we'll for some time be stuck in Client/Server mode for web-based live streams, even after the finalization/adoption of *HTML5* (HTML5 has nothing about P2P streaming, just use of open video standards). Some examples of current live streaming options I know of:
Adobe's combo *Flash Media Streaming Server*: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashmediastreaming/ and *Flash* *Media Player*: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/ or, our beloved *JW Media Player*: http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/jw-player-setup-wizard
Microsoft's combo Windows Media Encoder: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/ and Windows Media Player: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/ or, JW Silverlight: http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-wmv-player/
As for truly P2P streaming solutions, I've seen this much more with pre-recorded or re-broadcasted content, such as China's infamous desktop *PPLive*: http://www.pplive.com/en/
(this is the only one that I know of which can be considered true "P2P Live Streaming", and has been used to broadcast the annual Chinese New Year Spring Festival, live Football matches, etc.. but its because it is a desktop app which can work on the Transport layer as well)
Another option might be PPlive's competitor *SopCast*: http://www.sopcast.org/ (it claims "P2P Live Streaming" but from what I've seen its all actually "P2P Re-broadcast Streaming")
Again, if you only want Live Streaming, I'd say go with JW Media Player (RTMP mode) + a good ol' Client/Server Streaming Media Server solution (and possibly a CDN to load-balance if your traffic was really getting crazy/expensive).
If we know more about your use-case it might be clearer why/how P2P would be useful for your live streams... but I also believe that before the end of this decade, the Broadcatch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcatching) method of media distribution will replace Broadcast (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcasting) as the preferred and most cost-effective distribution medium.
Just for reference to anyone reading this conversation, its important to know the difference of Web .vs. Desktop limitations, and P2P Streaming .vs. Live Streaming .vs. P2P Live Streaming.
- Web Server vs. Streaming Server: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/compare/WebServVStreamServ.aspx
- How to Multicast a Live Stream by Using Windows Media Encoder 7.x or Later: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/269073
- Streaming from a Web Server: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/webserver.aspx
- Windows Media Pull Streaming: http://www.streamingwizard.com/faq/windows-media-pull.asp
- ADOBE Live dynamic streaming and DVR for non-developers: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashmediaserver/articles/live_dynstream_dvr.html
- Flash 10 p2p and CDNs Deeper Analysis: http://whydoeseverythingsuck.com/2008/05/flash-10-p2p-and-cdns-deeper-analysis.html
- Bram Cohen To Deliver BitTorrent Live Streaming: http://torrentfreak.com/bram-cohen-to-deliver-bittorrent-live-streaming-090916/
- P2P-Next Introduces Live BitTorrent Streaming: http://torrentfreak.com/p2p-next-introduces-live-bittorrent-streaming-080718/
- SwarmPlug-in M24.2 Test : http://trial.p2p-next.org/
- iPhone live streaming: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/07/08/apple_launches_http_live_streaming_standard_in_iphone_3_0.html
- Apple's HTTP Live Streaming Overview: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/networkinginternet/conceptual/streamingmediaguide/introduction/Introduction.html
- Html5 Open Video Tutorial: http://www.slideshare.net/silviapfeiffer/html5-open-video-tutorial
- HTML5 video and H.264 what history tells us and why were standing with the web: http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/weblog/2010/01/html5-video-and-h-264-what-history-tells-us-and-why-were-standing-with-the-web/
Hey bcmoney, thanks for your elaborate answer. As you assumed, my need of P2P is for reducing traffic. The shows that we stream needs at least 1mbps bitrate (we're streaming video game footage by the way) and we get up to 3000 viewers. As you could guess, this would result in huge bills if we were to stream with our own solution. Now, Justin.tv is great and all, however we get visitors from many countries where Justin.tv is either restricted or banned. For our majority of viewers (Sweden), there is also times where the Justin.tv servers are unaccessable.
PS. Ah I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote about HTML5. I was thinking of the benefits of the new adobe protocol that supported P2P (Stratus?).
Never heard of Adobe's Stratus or RTFMP proposal: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/stratus/
Since its such a new technology, I doubt anyone here has much experience with it, but I hope someone can prove me wrong and share more information on it!
What about defaulting to Justin.TV or another provider for most cases, but also having your own solution for failover on unsupported regions or unvailable streams?
I too am hoping for Stratus inclusion in the next version of JWPlayer.
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/stratus/
Looking into the API for Stratus the source code for JWPlayer would need to be modified extensively, more than the average person with access to the source would be able to do.
Can someone here at Long Tail Video post an official response on when Stratus will included in JWPlayer?
I am a newbie with the JW Player. I have installed the player and started to experiment with he livestream plugin. I like the JW player because of all the plugins, but my primary concern is to be able to do live streaming and video on demand, but with minimal bandwidth on our server or then rather streaming from a CDN like livestream. Another priority are to have good quality that will eliminate the buffering. That is another reason I was looking at the P2P content delivery.
What is the latest on P2P streaming and integration with JW Player? I cannot find more information on the internet than what bcmoney have shared.
Another question is, what would you recommend somebody like me be using, who is really not technical and do not understand half the stuff that I am reading here, but urgently need a viable solution for my company?
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