Online (streaming) media hosting?

[toonzes]

Anyone know of a good (preferably inexpensive) online host for digital media (specifically videos) that allows high-quality internet streaming to your desktop (and possibly iPhone, too)? If so, does it require any special encoding, or can one just upload regular popular video formats as-is? Thanks for the help.

 

[anthemus]

Not sure exactly what time of stream you have in mind in terms of codec. But take a look at livestream.com - I've streamed via flash to this site.

 

[toonzes]

Thanks for the tip - but I was actually thinking more along the lines of a service that offered online hosting of your video library (home & vacation movies, DVDs that you've ripped, etc.) for personal streaming access only - not for broadcast. Basically, a way to allow you to watch your movie & video collection remotely when you travel (without having to keep them on your hard drive), including mov, mp4, avi, etc.

 

[ChemiosMurphy]

orb.com

 

[anthemus]

Sounds like something you could do with a MobileMe account. www.me.com

 

[toonzes]

Thanks again for the kind responses. Both of those options, however, have limitations. Orb utilizes your home computer as the host, and since home internet upload speeds are severely crippled, the video quality isn't great. And MobileMe's storage and transfer limits are too low to be a viable option for one's entire video library (although a good solution to host and view a few videos).

 

[akdj]

We use these guys for some wedding and event hosting

http://www.ustream.tv/

Mobile Me is pretty useful, as mentioned earlier...there are plenty of options available through Apple, including iPhoto and iMovie for sharing, etc.

What are you trying to achieve?

I use gear from RealTek and the LiveCaster systems...as well as ustream and some other online resources. Again, more specifics. How many family members will be viewing it? In High Def? SD? How is your upload bandwidth on your end? Download?

J