Free video streams

Question

I am trying to create a website that will allow the user to upload video files and display them as streaming video.

I'm a complete newbie to the streaming world, so I don’t know exactly how to do this, and I definitely don’t want to reinvent the wheel.

Are there any free platforms that I can use for this? Do I need a streaming server or is there a special player that I can use that does not require a dedicated server?

Answer 1

You can try several sites:

www.bitsontherun.com - not free, but has a full API and great service

http://www.ustream.tv - free streaming services, heard good things. has an API too, but not sure if it will let you stream through it. This is more for live broadcasting, not for transcoding and storage.

When it comes to playback, transferring names to files in a standard flash player (like JWPlayer ) is a good start, or you can also explore the elements of HTML5 video.

If all else fails, there is always one :)