Compare Video Hosting for Business

Compare and review top video hosting providers for business (host video ads, pay per view videos, restricted access video on demand, big videos/documentaries/movies/series, adult videos, own player with own ads and/or access control).

High volume providers with plans that can handle at least 5000 Gb transfer per month were considered.

Monthly Transfer Price Comparison

[table]

;Wistia;Vzaar;Cincopa;VideoWhisper;VideoShareVOD

1 Tb;$300;$200;$249.95;$50*;$20

5 Tb;$750;$500;$900;$100;$100

15 Tb;$1500;-;$2700;$200;$200**

50 Tb;$3000;-;-;$250;$250**

[/table]

*Entry plan for VideoWhisper comes with 2Tb/month.
**VideoShareVOD provides dynamic VOD hosting as multiples of the $20/mo plan. For higher volume than 5 units it’s more affordable to take the higher VideoWhisper hosting options.

Yearly Transfer Price Comparison

Some providers have better deals for plans paid yearly:

[table]

;Vzaar;VideoWhisper

1 Tb/mo;$1920/y;$400/y

5 Tb/mo;$4800/y;$1000/y

15 Tb/mo;-;$2000/y

50 Tb/mo;-;$3500/y

100 Tb/mo;-;$4800/y

[/table]

Average Bandwidth for Monthly Transfer

This estimates continuous bandwidth use (connection) required on server to consume the monthly transfer amount, continuously. Values are estimated by dividing total monthly transfer to seconds in a month and converting to bps.

[table]

Monthly Transfer ; Average Bandwidth

1 Tb ; 3 Mbps

5 Tb ; 15 Mbps

15 Tb ; 46 Mbps

30 Tb ; 93 Mbps

50 Tb; 154 Mbps

100 Tb ; 308 Mbps

[/table]

As seen in table above, to consume over 30 Tb/month a regular 100 Mbps server connection is not enough.
That’s why most providers can’t handle volumes over 30Mbps on their servers, even if used fluently.

Bad thing about such providers with 100 Mbps connection is that they can’t handle traffic spikes. With a 100Mbps maximum transfer that can occur in theory in a day is 1Tb.  That means even if plan includes 30Tb/month, if there’s a surge of visitors in some days and require more than the average,  they will not be able to access content due to connection limits.

From offers above, it looks like only VideoWhisper provides 1000Mbps Video Hosting and maybe Wistia while rest use 100Mbps servers.

Wowza RTSP Live Streaming for Android

 

Test your device RTSP playback:
rtsp://184.72.239.149/vod/mp4:BigBuckBunny_175k.mov

 

 

Configure Wowza Media Server

– http://www.wowza.com/forums/content.php?36#publish
[install-dir]/conf/Application.xml

+ Set the Streams/StreamType property to live :
<StreamType>live</StreamType>

+ Set the HTTPStreamers property to cupertinostreaming,smoothstreaming,sanjosestreaming :
<HTTPStreamers>cupertinostreaming,smoothstreaming,sanjosestreaming</HTTPStreamers>

+ Set the Streams/LiveStreamPacketizers property to cupertinostreamingpacketizer,smoothstreamingpacket izer,sanjosestreamingpacketizer:
<LiveStreamPacketizers>cupertinostreamingpacketizer,smoothstreamingpacketizer,sanjosestreamingpacketizer</LiveStreamPacketizers>

+ Set the RTP/Authentication/PlayMethod property to none:
<PlayMethod>none</PlayMethod>

 

– http://www.wowza.com/forums/content.php?62
[install-dir]/conf/VHost.xml and add 554 to the list of HostPort/Ports

– http://www.wowza.com/forums/content.php?36#RTSP
RTP > Properties container in [install-dir]/conf/[application]/Application.xml (be sure to get the correct Properties container – there are several in Application.xml):
Code:

<Property>
<Name>forceMPEGTSOut</Name>
<Value>true</Value>
<Type>Boolean</Type>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>rtpWrapMPEGTS</Name>
<Value>true</Value>
<Type>Boolean</Type>
</Property>

Publish

http://www.wowza.com/forums/content.php?62

  1. Encoding:

    It is best to encode the video using a low bitrate, frame rate and low encoding complexity. For mobile streaming a total bitrate of between 64Kbps to 250Kbps is probably best. Many mobile devices may not be able to handle a full 30 frames per second (fps). A frame rate of 15 – 24 fps may be best for mobile. It is best to encode to a lower H.264 complexity. Most mobile devices only support H.264 Baseline. Encoder complexity and level is discussed here.

  2. Networking (UDP and TCP setup):

    UDP: It is best to open all UDP (0-65535) ports for RTSP/RTP streaming. On the incoming side, Wowza tends to try to use ports between the range of 6970-9999. Outgoing the port choice is made by the receiving device. So it is best to open all ports to outgoing UDP traffic. Getting the UDP setup correctly is sometimes difficult and dependent on your router and firewall setup. If behind NAT (network address translation) it is important that all UDP ports are mapped to the server running Wowza.

 

Android: Most Android devices support RTSP/RTP streaming. Newer Android devices that are running version 2.2 or greater (Froyo) also support Flash player 10.1 and can play RTMP and Flash HTTP streams. Android devices cannot play MP3 streams over RTSP/RTP in any combination (audio/video or audio only). Android devices that support Flash player 10.1 can play MP3 using RTMP or Flash HTTP. When streaming to an Android device using RTSP/RTP, the RTP portion must flow over UDP. Android does not support RTSP/RTP interleaved (RTP over TCP). This means if UDP is unavailable for RTP playback, RTP over TCP will not work as a failover and your stream will not play.

Customers have reported issues with RTSP/RTP playback on the DroidX and Droid2. It seems that only a few frame sizes will play properly on these devices:

  • 800×480
  • 480×320
  • 240×160

 

VideoWhisper provides compatible, rtmp managed Wowza hosting plans and assistance with mobile streaming:

http://www.videowhisper.com/?p=Wowza+Media+Server+Hosting