Hosting FLV Files, bandwidth Q's
 

For a mainstream project I want to encode and host my own Flash movies (Tutorials). They are short, 3-5 minute clips in a decent resolution (not high res or anything). I think 400kbps?

I was wondering what kind of effect this will have on bandwidth assuming that these had like 1,000 views a day? I believe with WMV streams its just the size of the file (so if it is 5mb it would eat up 5mb of bandwidth everytime someone watches it). Is that the same for Flash?

Sorry to bust everyones balls, but thanks for the help in advance!

a lot more buddy..a LOT more..

Haha yeah well that much is obvious. I'm just wondering if a Virtual Hosting at Phatservers with 1000gb bandwidth will be sufficient for initial launch and testing.. moving the site onto a larger dedicated rack when traffic starts to increase.

The site is going to be pretty lightweight besdies these short videos, and there aren't going to be millions of them. Probably from 20-100 max in the first 6 months.

I suppose I should just stop being ridiculously cheap and get a decent dedicated package. :2 cents:

Or you could get a cheap shared hosting package and then add the vids/flv's on a CDN - most CDN's give you pay as you go kinda deals, so you'd only pay for the bandwidth you use.

I had a few on a blog.. 3 of them with less then 3 min with 700 + views a day I was burning 30 gigs a day

Either way, you're going to burn quite a bit of bandwidth. You do, however, have the option of implementing some sort of streaming solution, though if your videos are tutorials then they'll probably watch them from start to finish rather than skipping to different parts.

If you want to explore a different hosting solution that meets your specific needs, then please get in touch and we can work something out.

Good luck with your site! :thumbsup

Hello,

As to burning quite a bit of bandwidth, yes it will. Beyond the bandwidth keep in mind that depending upon everything you have running a VPS has only a limited portion of the resources available from the server that it is resident on.

I am not sure what budget range you are looking to start out with but we have Dell dedicated servers starting out as low as $80/mo and that includes 2000 GB of bandwidth too, more importantly we can help you with a seamless migrations as you grow.

Anyway congratz and good luck with your new project.