Quote:
Originally Posted by Nautilus
Thanks for explanations Robbie. I have couple more questions, if you don't mind.
What bitrate and resolution did you use? Has it affected your bandwidth usage?
I'm especially interested to know if this works OK with HD.
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Im still in SD...but the h264 compression ESPECIALLY works good for HD. Matter of fact, in HD it will give you files far, far smaller than you've ever had before.
As far as bandwidth...I haven't had any real changes in that. For Claudia-Marie.Com I have a 15 TB a month package and I usually fall anywhere from 11 to 13 TB a month.
Most of the bandwidth is from the tour and galleries anyway. The members area isn't really even a factor in the bandwidth.
I am going to go HD sometime this next year and can't wait. Matter of fact, the first time I ever saw h264 streaming was with HD movie trailers put out by the big Hollywood studios. They are absolutely awesome looking. I've seen some HD h264's encoded at 500k that looked damn near flawless.
I can't come close to doing that...probably because I'm shooting in SD. My uneducated theory would be that if you shoot in HD you can compress it down further with better results because your original file size is so big.
I am currently encoding h264 .mp4's at 1,200k At first I was doing them at a variable rate of 2 - 6 mps But the stream puts a big load on the user side cpu. So any of my members using a weak computer and/or a computer with a shitload of background tasks were having problems with the stream "stuttering" on them.
Plus those file sizes were pretty big...but damn they looked sooo good. I re-encoded all of them to the 1,200kps and that pretty much ended any problems. Not quite as "perfect" as the bigger ones were...but nobody is having any problems now at all.
From what I have been told by others who are shooting porn in HD, that 1,200 kps encode rate should look like a million bucks with HD.
I would say this is the "future". But the reality is...for mainstream Hollywood it is the "present".
It's a scary step to make though. The thought of possibly pissing off your entire members section is enough to make someone pause.
I have a section in my members area entitled: WHY CAN'T I DOWNLOAD THE VIDEOS
Here is the copy&paste:
"WHY CAN'T I DOWNLOAD THE VIDEOS?
For many years adult sites were set up to allow their members to download the videos. No problem. But in the last 2 years people have begun downloading them and then re-uploading them to so-called "free" sites. Seemed cool. But what you didn't know was those "free" sites are making MILLIONS of dollars off of pre-paid spots from "dating" sites because they have such huge traffic numbers of surfers wanting to watch "free" porn.
But the real result is, it's putting the people who actually CREATE porn out of business. We could no longer stand by and see this happen to us. It was so bad that we would release a new update intended for YOU. And within hours it was all over the internet on every thief's site. And those motherfuckers are making money off of us! And using our own members against us to make them money at our expense.
But for months we have been at an impasse. I wanted to protect our content and the value of your membership, but I didn't want to lose any quality.
Well, in the last few months brand new mpeg streaming technology has come out which allows large files to begin to stream almost instantaneously AND allows the surfer to click anywhere on the timeline of the vid and skip right to that part.
It cost us quite a bit of money to have this brand new encrypted streaming server installed on our server. But we shelled out the money. And we have been working night and day to encode all the vids by hand...not using some bullshit script, but carefully making sure each vid is of the highest quality.
We thank you for being a member, and we are working hard to ensure that your membership is a great value to have for years to come.
The content on Claudia-Marie is unlike any other in the world. It isn't some generic porn being shot in "porn valley" by "porn stars". Claudia-Marie is a REAL milf and true sexual being. She doesn't "fake it" like those girls do in L.A. This is the real deal. And her content is a very precious commodity when compared to all the generic porn out there. And we intend on keeping it that way. We not only are using encrypted streaming...but we have hired a company that is aggressively sending legal notices and having all of the stolen vids of Claudia-Marie taken down.
Yes, it is costing us a lot of money. But we truly want your membership to be something special and unique. Our members are like family to us and we appreciate each and every one of you. We have BIG plans and are very busy shooting some of the best footage we have ever done. Just let me know if there's anything you need.
thanks,
-Robbie
INSTRUCTIONS TO PLAY VIDS:
1. You will need FLASH in order to stream the vids. Get that HERE
2. You will see a large image on the page. That is where the vid will be displayed. Push the play button.
3. The video will begin to play within a few seconds.
4. Once the vid starts to play you can grab the cursor and yank it forward or backward in the timeline of the movie and skip parts or watch your favorite parts over and over.
5. Make sure to not squirt cum all over your computer keyboard... lol"