= H264 Streaming Module Introduction (version 2) =

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== News (March 2010) ==

Another sneak preview. We offer you a first look at [http://smoothhd.code-shop.com Smooth Streaming for Adobe Flash 10.1]. Encode your content once and playback on Silverlight, iPhone and Flash 10.1. More information is available on our [http://smoothstreaming.code-shop.com Smooth Streaming page].

== News (January 2009) ==

Welcome to version 2.0 of the H264 Streaming Module. Version 2.0 is a complete rewrite. It works with a wider variety of MP4 video files and has faster start/seek times. We have also added support for Apache and Ngingx, next to Lighttpd.

== HTTP Pseudo Streaming  ==

Adobe recently [http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200712/120407adobemoviestar.html announced] support for H264 video files in their Flash player. They have done a great job and the good news is that we can have better quality video at lower bitrates. At the same time it allows us to use free software to handle the encoding.

== H264 Streaming Module  ==

The H264 Streaming Module is a plugin for your existing Apache/Lighttpd/Nginx webserver. Its features are as follows:

==== Timeshifting seek ====

Enable your viewers to immediately jump to any part of the video regardless of the length of the video or whether it has all been downloaded yet.

==== Virtual video clips ====

You have really long video clips and you don't want to re-encode them into smaller parts? We also support 'virtual video clips', so you can specify to only playback a part of the video or create download links to specific parts of the video.

Virtual video clips also enables possibilities for [http://h264.code-shop.com/demo/adaptive_streaming/video.html Adaptive Streaming].

An easy way for making previews available, say for example when you want to differentiate between registered and unregistered users. Here's a little tutorial for the different web servers on [wiki:VirtualVideoClipUrlRewrite 'url rewriting and virtual video clips'].

==== Network efficiency ====

The next version will feature 'bandwidth shaping' allowing you to stream videos and only use the bandwidth required to view the video over the network.

==== Encoding ====

If you are already using the widely adopted MPEG4/H264 industry standard, there is no need to re-encode your MP4 videos, you can use your existing video files.

== Demonstration  ==

You can watch the [http://h264.code-shop.com:8080/testlist.html H264 (Pseudo) Streaming Demo]. Make sure you have the latest Flash player installed. Grab it from [http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/].

== Available Versions ==

Pick your webserver and continue to the download and build instructions.

  * [wiki:Mod-H264-Streaming-Apache-Version2 Apache]
  * [wiki:Mod-H264-Streaming-Lighttpd-Version2 Lighttpd]
  * [wiki:Mod-H264-Streaming-Nginx-Version2 Nginx]
  * [wiki:Mod-H264-Streaming-Internet-Information-Services-IIS-Version2 IIS 5 and 6]
  * [wiki:Mod-H264-Streaming-Internet-Information-Services-IIS7-Version2 IIS 7]
  * [wiki:Mod-H264-Streaming-AolServer-Version2 AOLserver]

Have a look at the [wiki:ReleaseNotes-Version2 latest release notes] to see what has changed or have a look at the [wiki:Mod-H264-Streaming-Performance-Version2 performance figures] to give you an idea about cpu / memory usage.

== License ==

This version is free if you agree to the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ noncommercial license]. Please mention its use on your website, in the lines of 'This website uses H264 pseudo video streaming technology by [http://h264.code-shop.com CodeShop]'.

Our commercial license is very inexpensive, see the following page to check if you need a [wiki:Mod-H264-Streaming-License-Version2 commercial license].

== Flash players supporting H264 Streaming ==

  * [http://www.fastcatsoftware.com/Player/H264Streaming/demo.asp FCPlayer] by Fastcat Software.
  * [http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/ JW FLV Media Player].
  * [http://www.flowplayer.org/ Flowplayer]. The H264Streaming Flowplayer plugin is available [FlowPlayer here].

== Encoding videos in H264 ==

See the article [wiki:Encoding Encoding video in H264].

== Who is using the plugin? ==

See this [forum:7 forum] for references.

== Feedback ==

Feel free to email us a [mailto:h264@code-shop.com private comment] or leave a note on our [/trac/discussion public forum].

== Thank you ==

A big thank you goes out to Tinic Uro and the people on the http://www.jeroenwijering.com forum for providing the necessary reading, articles and links.