I need a reliable audio video webhost

Hi,

This message is for webhosts only.
If non-webhosts are reading this then recommend me the best.

Anyway, do you have the right webhosting packages for me ?
I need your help to pick the right packages.
I want to run a review website where it will host audio and video clips of products, services and websites.
The audio and video clips will either be streaming or downloadable files.
So, how much band-width do I need ?
The audio and video clips will be each :

* minimum 1 minute and
* maximum 5 minutes

So, how much band-width would one audio file eat and how much band-width would one video file eat based on each
streaming file being 1 minute in length ?

And, how much band-width would one audio file eat and how much band-width would one video file eat based on each
streaming file being 5 minutes in length ?


Also, how much band-width would one audio file eat and how much band-width would one video file eat based on each downloadable file being 1 minute in length ?

And, how much band-width would one audio file eat and how much band-width would one video file eat based on each downloadable file being 5 minutes in length ?


Knowing the answers to these will help me estimate how much band-width I will need for my website when I know the traffic of my website after my first month.
I do not know how much visitors I would get as my website has not been launched yet.

I need :

* Cpanel
* FTP uploads (so I can upload my cgi-files and cmod them since chmoding is impossible via browser file uploads)
* Cgi-bin (I want to run Perl Cgi-scripts)
* Php MyAdmin (I want to run Php scripts)
* unlimited or enough MySql (I will be running many web scripts that will use MySql)
* unlimited SSI
* Custom error pages

I should be able to :


Apart from the monthly hosting fee I should not be charged any hidden, open, fixed, variable, circumstantial, one-off, on-going costs to

* get 24/7 unlimited support
* log-in to my account unlimited times
* use the Cpanel unlimited times
* upload, edit, delete the html, Cgi, Php, audio, video etc. files via the browser unlimited times
* upload html, Cgi, Php, audio, video etc. files via ftp unlimited times
* use my Cgi-bin and Php MyAdmin unlimited times
* execute unlimited number of Cgi and Php scripts unlimited times
* use the MySQLs unlimited times
* use the SSIs unlimited times
* update Custom error pages unlimited times
* etc. (I think you get the picture)

I want no surprise on my monthly bill.
Whatever you charge me the first month thatever you should charge me all the rest of the months without rising the charges unless I upgrade.

Also, I only wish to pay monthly. Is that ok with you ?
I would like to try you out and so am not willing to risk paying up-front for a lengthy time (quarterly, half year, yearly) with-out knowing how reliable your service is. Sorry, cannot take your word for it or anyone else's for that matter with-out checking myself how reliable your service is.

So, which packages do you recommend ?
Choose the suitable, lowest priced, packages for me.
Choose 2 packages for me. One for my "review website" where I will host audio and video files and another package where I will not host any audi or video files as this website will host all the other stuffs (text data, images, animations, flash animations, Perl Cgi scripts and Php scripts, etc).

Thanks

Try http://www.uh-hosting.co.uk, they are cheap and reliable hosts that are willing to customise their packages to suite your needs.

If you dont like them, try http://www.fasthosts.com

you're going to want to search ozzu for this, it';s been asked 100000000 times and it's getting very tired. you are not the only one who "needs hosting" and all this does is incite blatant spamming. You do have some good questions there, so I'm gonna leave this open for now. If the spamming starts as I expect, this may have to end quickly.

Hello onauc,

Well - without knowing how large these files are (length doesnt necessarily give an indication of size) and without knowing the number of visitors you will receive - it would be really difficult to give you an estimate of expected bandwith useage. Please provide some additional information - specifically on format and size.



Everything on here is pretty standard - however - "unlimited" may not be attainable - not many hosts actually monitor most of this stuff - except to say that as long as you're not abusing it, you shouldnt have a problem. As for cPanel - personally - I wouldnt touch it - but again, you should have no problem finding this..



Again - most of this is standard except:



If you truely want 24/7 support - expect to pay for it - many offer this - but very few deliver - do your research on this one...

&



Again - be weary of unlimited anything - however - cgi's in particular can be an issue - just make sure youre running "clean" cgi's and that you arent abusing the server and you should be fine



I recommend all consumers do this until they have been with a host for an extended period of time - good business practice...



If you want quality - expect to pay for it. It looks like you have been through a number of hosts based upon your requirements - were they all the "lowest priced" you can find?

I can recommend http://www.diyhosting.com - they will definately fulfill your requirements - especially on the 24x7 support. However - they have recently dropped cPanel completely - They do offer both Plesk Reloaded and H-Sphere - so, if either of those fulfill your requirements, and you dont mind paying the extra money for their service - they may be a good option for you.

Hope this helps...

UNFLUX - I think you have been clear - I would hope no one would flagrantly spam after your statements above. The original poster has asked some really good questions - so - hopefully everyone can play nice here and leave this discussion open...

I agree which is why I left it open. Posts like yours here is the example to follow, and I appreciate your efforts to help as usual.

While all of this may be true it does not offer a solution. There are simply too many unknown variables to answer these "really good questions". Thus we offer to host the site FREE of charge for three (3) months. We'll start them out on a 2GB/40GB Multi-Domain Plan and adjust as needed. At the end of the three months they can either subscribe to a plan that will accomadate their needs or take the answers derived to another host. If this interests them they may contact sales and refer to this thread for site activation.

If anyone feels the post is out of line feel free to remove it. I just think that failing to offer a viable solution or sending the TS on a wild goose chase in guesstimate heaven is silly. Especially when the answers to these questions will only be known when they know how much traffic their site generates and the size of these files.

Hi Uncensored - I dont think your post is out of line - however - I urge you to consider several things before making such generous offers.

Based on the OP's requirements - there are several things which would indicate to me that this customer needs to be thoroughly screened before offering a solution and allowing this customer on my cluster.

Judging by his post - he has run into problems with previous hosts (my interpretation) - I need to understand what these issues are - chances are - he/she has run into some bad hosts - but, the possibility also exists that the original poster has abused servers - particularly with cgi scripts (possibly home grown ones that arent particularly resource friendly)...

Though I respect your willingness to offer a solution - I caution you to screen users like this a little more thoroughly before giving them the keys to your house

karticahosting !
It seems you are a host yourself but made no offers but instead advised me to be weary of this and that when looking for hosts !!!

What's wrong with cPanel ?
And, what are "Plesk Reloaded and H-Sphere" ?
One host said that %MB would be spent on an 8 min when I asked exactly these same questions but diod not indicate if he was talking about audio file or video.
Frankly, I have never used a paid host and so I need some help in choosing one that will not come-up with excuses and then shut me down after I have parted with my quarterly or annual payment in my first payment and so I prefer to pay monthly.
Yes, I know about the catches about "unlimited" :

http://www.webhostingunleashed.com/what ... ompany.php

Frankly, read everything under the heading on the left :

"Web Hosting Info"

Cheers.

Hi onauc,

and thanks for your reply. Rather then make you a specific offer, I though it would be best to review your requirements and try to guide you in the right direction - afterall, you can always click on my signature to see my pricing...

You are on the right track with respect to monthly billing, vs quarterly, etc...

Honestly, based on your requirements, and the fact that you are starting a new site - I believe you will do fine with a 200-500 BM/10 GB plan - and grow from there (as your resource utilization grows)... (though again, without knowing the size of these files, its really difficult to be accurate - however, based on other customers, particualrly ones just starting a site - I believe these numbers should suffice)

Its great to see that you have done your research... I think you have armed yourself with enough knowledge to make an educated decision.

Narrow your choice down to 4-5 hosts with reasonable prices for what they are offering and contact each one of them with some pre-sales questions. You should have a good indication of who you want to deal with after this

Hope this helps and best of luck in your search....

I recently downloaded a video file and it says the size is 1,917kB, I couldn't see how long the clip is because it is an .swf file and I don't know what player plays it. I have windows media player and winamp but they don't play.
If only, I could see how long it is then I could make a hunch how long each of my video files will be. And from that, I can calculate how much band-width I will need for certain number of visitors downloading my video files.
Anyone know of where I can get a freeware player that will play .swf files ?
Frankly, google has been no help.

Hello - ok - so these are flash files people will be downloading - gotcha - with the file size you indicated above - I really think most starter plans would suffice for you until you begin seeing a significant increase in traffic (from most startup sites)

As for the freeware player

http://www.findapp.com/fMgmt/PDetails.aspx?PID=5717

Google may be the biggest search engine - but, its far from the best

Try using this one in the future (its only in beta now - but, its pretty awesome already )

http://beta.search.msn.com/

Hi,

A host told me this :

"Also note that what-ever changes that you make for your web-site
throught the browser or the FTP connection, that will be calculated to your
bandwidth. So the question of unlimited FTP to your site is ruled out.
But surely you can access the Control Panel unlimited times and make the
changes in there including the changes in the mod (chmod)."

How come I lose bandwidth whenever I edit my file ? :twisted :
Do all hosts do this ?
I thought I only lose band-width when a visitor requests any file !!!

Ok fellows, I said that my website will be streaming audio-video

1. product ads
2. product reviews
3, customer testimonials

but since streaming is going to cost me too much bandwidth then do you reckon I should instead offer the audio-videos for downloading from my website ?
Or better, do you reckon that it would save my website a lot of bandwidth if I instead list the audio-videos on my autoresponder so if anyone wants to view these audio-video files they can email my autoresponder and it will email them the audio-videos in zipped files just like I got that .swf file ?
Now, I am not thinking of hosting an autoresponder on my website because if I do it won't solve the problem of saving band-width. I might aswell search for some free webmail with an autoresponder feature that offers me to attach zipped files to my autoresponder.

But yet again, people might get the wrong end of the stick.
Cos, if I myself, went to a website and it asked me to email their autoresponder for an audio-vidoe file then I would be very suspicious cos maybe there is no audio-video file on offer but a bombardment of viruses, trojans, worms, spywares or maybe this is all a scam just to harvest our email addresses to send us spam.
Now, if people start thinking the same thing regarding my website then drat I won't attract any audio-video viewers.

It's a shame that certain crooks (spammers virus developers) have spoiled it for the rest of us.

Ok, I know that, un_censored_host has offered me 3 months of unrestricted bandwidth and free trial but let's assume that my website became really popular and the 3 months is over then I will have to come-up with a soultion pretty fast. If you get what I mean. Either pay for band-width or display a "bandwidth over the limit for this month" notice when it does go over limit. Frankly, I hate the last option as it will definitely ruin my domain name.

Frankly, I think webhosts by now should have had a hunch how much bandwidth typically is spent on certain mins of audo/video.
I am guessing 5MB for 1 min video.