Posted by svenrissmann on December 15, 2008 at 1:39pm
Hi
I've to write a Module for that I need Video-Support.
I don't want to have a Monster-Module which can give me all things FFMPEG & Co can do...
I'm looking for a solution that is as most functionally & economic as possible.
Espacially I need:
- Converting any Format to FLV
- Resizing and that kind of things
- Watermarking
- MAY BE some DRM Capabilities
The Module should make it possible to me to give a Temp-File-Handler an some params to it and after I receive either a File-Handler of the overworked File or may be a whole Drupal-File-Object!
I'm very aimed to use a module which takes care of my server resources!!
I hope there's some Software which can fit my needs...
Thanks an Kind regards
Uhu
Comments
Not sure you are looking for simple
Not trying to argue, but the functionality that you are looking for is simply not simple. I'd suggest looking at the ffmpeg_wrapper as an API to access ffmpeg if you want to use something that already exists. Other options are the video module, flash video module, media mover, and probably a few others that I'm neglecting.
http://24b6.net
http://24b6.net
if using ffmpeg it won't be simple
what you're looking at and wanting "convert any Format to FLV" well you'll need ffmpeg for that, use flash_video which does this and also watermarking and whatever other ffmpeg parameter you want to add to the encoding, it also has others feature but no DRM which I would look you down upon if you're gonna use that, come on!! DRM is eeevil!
bending technology to fit businesses.
Let's replace...
Hi
Thanks.
Ok let's replace "simple" with "clean"...
I've already looked at some Modules you've alluded.
For me it seems that most of them are trying to implement as most features as possible.
But what we, the community realy need is a solution which implements the basics in an adequatly depth!
Kind regards
Uhu
Take a look at CDN2. It's
Take a look at CDN2. It's not a wrapper around ffmpeg. Rather it offloads the transcoding and delivery from your server and plugs right into Drupal. It's designed to get you up and running with video in minutes. http://drupal.org/project/cdn2
Features vs. Functionality
Well, you're right that many of these modules do offer a large number of functions, but I think you have to give up back end simplicity if you are doing video. End user simplicity exists, but managing files, conversion, and creating new files is complicated business.
I'd suggest using media_mover + ffmpeg_wrapper (I'm biased) and having things converted automatically for the user. If you want to avoid using media_mover and build your own front end, I'd suggest using ffmpeg_wrapper, but do two things: 1) when you are getting the file that you want to convert, use ffmpeg_wrapper_file_data() to find out what codecs created it. 2) build a look up table (or use ffmpeg_wrapper_output_rules()) to define how you decode this kind file. Then you can fire off the ffmpeg process and just attach the resulting file back to the node.
You may also want to give flashvideo another look- it's a single solution that doesn't have many dependencies.
http://24b6.net
http://24b6.net
Key considerations in selecting a video module
here are some key issues to consider:
1. Hosting and streaming
this could be either from your drupal hosting, CDN or free hosting sites
* Hosting on your own drupal site would give lesser results (especially if you plan on access from world wide)
* CDN is best results, but probably cost and bureaucracy if you do not have CDN relationship already.
* free hosting - youtube and similar, good streaming but your content is all in youtube. people can watch the content on youTube instead of your site, related videos on your site pull people into youtube, youTube can add ads but you can't.
2. Content privacy and ownership
* how important is it for you that people watch the content from your site and not youTube?
3. Maintenance efforts
* how much time you have to install, configure and monitor the site?
if you are going to make the conversions yourself, it is quite time consuming. you have to keep track of each conversion error, and define the fallbacks in case the conversion fails. this is especially important if you have UGC content.
if you partner with a CDN service, they can take care of these issues, as well as offer custom tailored solution (Watermarking, DRM, etc')
4. Flexibility
* how well is the metadata represneted in Drupal? how easy is it to integrate it with Views? existing content? existing content types , etc'
5. Features
* some modules come with many features all integrated and working togather, this could include video comments, play lists, uploading UGC content easily , importing from social networks (flickr , youTube , etc') , editing, remixing, etc'.
Player features are also important - support for widescreen , customization of look N Feel, support for viral distribution and embedding, etc'.
To sum up, I think the kaltura Video module http://drupal.org/project/kaltura/ gives a good coverage to most of these needs.
the hosting is done on a CDN , but you do not need a CDN relationship,
you have full control of the content and the meta data .
There is a company that handles the maintanence efforts.
All metadata is stored within drupal, views and playlists are well integrated.
The player editor and uploader are full of nice nifty features (and they are open source)
Check it out.
Ariel.
Good analysis tools
The categories of functionality that Ariel lays out here is quite good. It would be interesting to try to maintain a matrix of modules that handle for people who don't know the landscape as well. There have been a few posts in the video group that have tried to address this, but perhaps we could do something that was more of a group effort? It might be helpful to see where we have overlap and where integration work would be an obvious bonus.
It also might be worth putting together some profiles of users to show which solutions might be a good fit for them.
a.
http://24b6.net
http://24b6.net
Kaltura looks promising
I've been playing around with the Kaltura module and it really looks promising. One great feature is the customizable wizard that enables end users to upload media or embed external media (similar to emfield). What I'm not sure about is if Kaltura provides a way to 'push' media out to other video, audio, and photo sharing sites (something discussed in this thread).
More info on it can be found here -
http://drupal.kaltura.org/
http://corp.kaltura.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
http://corp.kaltura.com/
Gus Austin
PepperAlley Productions
Gus Austin
swf to flv
Does ffmpeg convert swf to flv and/or is there anything else that does, short of using frame capturing tools?
Is this what Kaltura does during its download/flatteing stage and is this piece also part of open source ?
conversion
ffmpg supports conversion of various formats into flv. and it is open source.
you can check out the ffmpeg documentation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFmpeg#Codecs_and_formats_supported
if you use Kaltura, then you do not need to deal with the ffmpg complexities, since the transcoding is done on Kaltura servers.
This means that website users (or content editors ) will be able to upload content in various formats which will be converted to FLV and streamed from Kaltura servers.
Kaltura supports upload of media in the following formats:
MPEG audio
MPEG-1 systems
MPEG-2 PS
MPEG-2 TS
ASF
AVI
WAV
Macromedia Flash
FLV
Real Audio and Video
Raw AC3
Raw MJPEG
Raw MPEG video
Raw PCM8/16 bits, mulaw/Alaw
Raw CRI ADX audio
Raw Shorten audio
SUN AU format
NUT
QuickTime
MPEG-4
Raw MPEG4 video
DV
4xm
Playstation STR
Id RoQ
Interplay MVE
WC3 Movie
Sega FILM/CPK
Westwood Studios VQA/AUD
Id Cinematic (.cin)
FLIC format
Sierra VMD
Sierra Online
Matroska
Electronic Arts Multimedia
Nullsoft Video (NSV) format
ADTS AAC audio
Creative VOC
American Laser Games MM
AVS
Smacker
GXF
H.264
ffmpeg transcoding
Ariel is right that FFmpeg supports a large number formats- it is a powerful tool that can convert between a large number of formats to a different specified formats- you can convert your AVIs to MPEG4 for video casting or create a standard format for downloads on your site or FLVs and/or H264 for display in a flash player. FFmpeg can do things beyond just transcoding- it can manipulate a number of different characteristics of video (color, frame size, etc), as well as adding new audio tracks, watermarking, screen shot grabbing, etc. It can also manipulate audio files in the same ways.
Ariel is also right that configuring and using FFmpeg can be challenging- I think this is why many people look to services like Kaltura, Work Habit's CDN2 service, Vimeo, YouTube, etc. Drupal does have a few solutions which implement FFmpeg- flash video and video both do. Without trying to self promote, ffmpeg_wrapper does this as well and supplies an API for other modules to implement FFmpeg conversion. Media Mover makes use of this.
Ultimately, I think different needs require different solutions- clearly Kaltura, Work Habit's CDN2, emfield and youtube, etc. offer great functionality for people who are not interested in transcoding their media locally. For those who do, there are solutions which use FFmpeg.
http://24b6.net
http://24b6.net
But, specifically ...
Does anyone know if ffmpeg specifically supports SWF to FLV conversion? I have read on many forums that it does not or at least not when it comes to sections which are dynamically created by ActionScript.
Meanwhile, I am confused about Kaltura. On one side it advertises itself as "open source" and yet everything it does forcefully pushes (: includeing their answers here :) a solution that works only on their servers. Looking around, I am unable to find anywhere a download for the server side source code. Most of everything else revolves around something that is no more complicated than telling flash to play this piece of media, starting here and ending there, followed by playing another and so on.
Source code
Kaltura's code is here: http://corp.kaltura.com/wiki/index.php/Kaltura_source_code
As far as converting SWF to FLV, from what I know of FFmpeg, it can not do this alone- you need to process the SWF first before handing it to FFmpeg to convert to FLV. It seems that many people are doing this, but I can't find any specific references to FFmpeg being able to do this natively.
http://24b6.net
http://24b6.net
Missing server side code
Are the server side folders not empty or is it me?
Kaltura's Source Code
Wanted to respond regarding Katura's source code - we are working on the 'communityedition' of our server technology that is due to be released in Q1 2009. When released, this will give people the option to self-host, or choose to remain with our Software-as-a-Service offering that leverages Kaltura's robust data center and Tier1 CDN for simplifying ingestion, transcoding, hosting, and streaming of content.
Either way, Kaltura will offer its full solution stack as GPL software (the first in the market to do so).
If you want to ne notified when our Community Edition is released, go to: http://corp.kaltura.com/static/community_edition
Thanks!
i´m back ;)
Hi
I´ve been in Austria for job reasons, sorry!
What im building now is a module that builds a framework on top of the Node API.
So Videos will be Nodes.
I´m doing so because nodes can have comments, ratings, and so on by their selfs.
For that now I´m searching for a slim but effective module which can do all the default things with video files. The best case would be if it´s only an API without (or fully separated) GUI.
Outsourcing of some services isn´t wanted!
It should all be done on one machine.
Greetings
where are you going to stream your videos from?
For me the important part is where the meta-data is stored. If it is stored locally on drupal you can build anything above it: Views, Nodes that hold videos, Custom HTML , etc'.
The hosting and streaming of the actual media files has different considerations: good quality of streaming , good coverage in the areas where your viewers are, and good price.
Are you planing to stream from your local server?
With Kaltura you can have all the metadata stored locally, you can access everything via API , and you can get the advantages of CDN streaming.
there are GUI componenets delivered, but you can write your own, or modify the existing compnents - they are open source.
if it is important for you to host and stream from your own server, Kaltura is planing to release all the server code to the community soon - you may start with the hosted edition and migrate later.
Hope this helps, would be happy to know what you think.
Ariel.