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Using Amazon S3 to hose your own videos

Page history last edited by jay.dedman@... 16 years, 3 months ago

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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