Re: Question: video on web pages

[Dave McGill <david -dot- mcgill -at- SENECAC -dot- ON -dot- CA>]

Deborah Turton wrote:
>
> I have a client using a lot video on a series of web pages.  It's a
> start-up project, and they're trying to determine a general rule of
> thumb for how much memory is needed to store one minute of color video.
> Could anyone help us out?
>

Deborah,

You will need gobs of storage for this. I have a course with video in it
in this format,
- an image size of 160 x 120 pixels (about as small as you can go)
- the frame rate is 15 frames per second
- no sound
- average length 5-10 seconds

Our average is about 1 MB/5 seconds, which would be about 12 MB/min.
This course was designed for an intranet, and works fine under those
conditions. It usually takes about 10-20 seconds for the average clip to
come down the pipeline from the server, and the students don't mind a
wait of that duration. The course can _not_ be delivered over a 28.8
modem, because the average clip takes over 10 minutes to arrive.

> PS This will be a limited access web site and the people using it will
> know they will be watching 5 -10  minutes of video on the page.

That's an awfully long time, particularly if you've sacraficed image
size, and quality, to limit file size.

I guess this sounds discouraging, but I think your clients are a bit
ahead of the curve on this one.

If you have further questions email me off-list, I can give you an URL
to my course and you, and your clients, can sample the video
performance.

Regards

Dave McGill
Seneca College