Need help with a streaming server/multiple bitrate mpeg

[Dot50Cal]

Ok heres my deal..I was planning on using Windows Media Server on my server however I found that there is no support for it on Linux platforms.

What im looking to do now is find an mpeg encoder which will allow me to include multiple bitrate files of the same movie into one large file (known as intelligent streaming for wmv) and a streaming server that will support this kinda of mpeg which will run on a Red Hat server.

If this is in the wrong forum I'm sorry, but when I searched for "streaming" this is the forum that had the most topics related to my issue.

[Koepi]

I invoked google (search term: linux streaming server mpeg multiple bitrates) and the first link it came up with was this:

http://lists.psand.net/archive/clan/att-1482/01-video-streaming-servers.txt

..which is ffmpeg (and supports different formats than mpeg too :) ). So the forum is the right one - but the setup of such a complex server is better done by step-by-step following the manual pages.

I hope this helps.

Regards
Koepi

[Dot50Cal]

I better re-phrase that and include a little more info..

Ill start off with what i need first. Im looking for a program which will allow me to convert mpeg, and other files into a streaming format of mpeg. Do you know of any programs which will let me do this? Im using windows as my OS, however my server is the box that has Red Hat on it.

Ive also heard that there is no way to allow a Linux box to actually stream a WMV file, it only downloads the file then plays it. is this true? and if not what streaming server allows it?

[Koepi]

Take your "my_home_video.avi" or "my_home_video.mpg" and put it on your server (or mount a share from your windows computer on your linux machine).
Setup the ffmpeg server (shortest part in this "explanation", but the most time consuming for you).
Then read the documentation which ships with ffmpeg (usually a sub-dir in the sources called "documents"). There you get i.e. examples how to make this file (my_home_video.*) or directory accessable for ffmpeg and how to setup the encoder.

There you can choose which codec you want to encode to (i.e. wmv8 or real1, mpeg4,...) in which bitrates (i.e. 50kbps, 150kbps, 1.5mbps) and where to make the resulting file/stream available (dunno, didn't test, maybe you can directly hook that into your apache webserver).

Streaming is possible via http, ftp and rtsp which are open standards.

It depends on your client machine/system/setup whether it downloads the file or takes it as stream 8via http or ftp) - with rtsp it is clear that this is a streaming solution.

But you _REALLY_ should read the ffmpeg documentation to find out if it suites your needs, and if you#re capable and/or creative enough to make a running service out of that.

You can also always try to use bochs or virtualpc to install a windows in a linuxbox (and then simply use your wmv-encoder). You'll loose plenty of processing power and it's quite sub-optimal, also the cross-linking of the virtual pc with a real ip and so on will be not too simplistic.

I hope this inspires you to do some research on that issue and find a solution which could match your needs. If you found some solutions which are ok for you, feel free to report back how things are going.

Regards
Koepi

EDIT: if your sitting behind your server directly you can also setup the windows media encoder and let it run on your windows boy - all you need are some portforwards on the router. Ask google or your firewall-documentation how to do portforwarding.