Opening an account through Amazon was very easy, same as for book
shopping.
Setting up the file system was straightforward once I was able to
figure out some of the terminology. For example, in Amazonese,
"bucket" corresponds to "folder". There is easily enough Googled
documentation on this. I uploaded the files using a FireFox plugin,
S3 Organizer. I tested some short SWF files first and, of course,
nothing worked. It turns out I had to set permissions by editing an
ACL file (whatever) so that everyone could read the file. Then the
SWFs worked.
As I use vPIP in my site, there was no problem pointing at the AWS
file by copying the path in S3 although it looks a bit odd compared
with the familiar apache files.
Feeling cocky, I then moved to the big time, longer FLV files sending
up the player as a SWF. And then the heavens opened with a huge dump!
The FLV files did not play and the forums had lots and lots of talk
about the impossibility of playing Flash FLV files in Amazon because
of cross domain issues, etc. and all kinds of computer and Amazonese I
could not understand.
It looked like a total loser for the longer FLV videos. Then I
realized that all I had to do was set up vPIP to use its built-in FLV
player. Gave that a shot and it worked!
There are still some problems. I wanted a minimum amount of
pre-loading -- none if possible -- and I can not do it with the vPIP
player. I get the spinning cobweb for a few seconds.
It works well enough and if there is a way to get it to pop on
instantly and play, that would be great.
To show how S3 works, I made a simple HTML page with a comparison of
the DreamHost hosting using an ON2 player and the Amazon S3 with the
vPIP player.
See for yourslf: http://shirson.com/web_pages/amazon_compare.html
I've picked a scene with difficult compression: 30 fps with moving
horses and landscapes. The motion should be smooth and fluid. 480 x 360.
Stan Hirson
http://hestakaup.com
Nathan of Cruxy explains how much hosting on S3 costs:
> Basically, the rate is 15 cents per GB stored per month, and 18 cents per GB
> transfered out each month. So, 3GB of storage will cost 45 cents a month,
> and 60GB transfered will be $10.80 month.
>
> It works well for progressive video streaming - somewhat of a lightweight
> CDN. The downside is that it does basically infinitely scale - if you get
> Dugg or Boing'd be prepared for the costs, as S3 will handle just about any
> load you can throw at it.
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