This is the simplest and cheapest way to stream video from a website. Small to medium-sized websites are more likely to use this method than the more expensive streaming servers.

For this method you don't need any special type of website or host — just a host server which recognizes common video file types (most standard hosting accounts do this).

There are some limitations to bear in mind regarding HTTP streaming:

• HTTP streaming is a good option for websites with modest traffic, i.e. less than about a dozen people viewing at the same time. For heavier traffic a more serious streaming solution should be considered.
• You can't stream live video, since the HTTP method only works with complete files stored on the server.
• You can't automatically detect the end user's connection speed using HTTP. If you want to create different versions for different speeds, you need to create a separate file for each speed.
• HTTP streaming is not as efficient as other methods and will incur a heavier server load.

These things won't bother most website producers — it's normally only when you get into heavy traffic that you should be worried about them.

To Create HTTP Streaming Video

1. Create a video file in a common streaming media format
2. Upload the file to your web server
3. Make a simple hyperlink to the video file, or use special HTML tags to embed the video in a web page.

That's essentially all there is to it. When a user clicks the hyperlink, their media player opens and begins streaming the video file. If the file is embedded, it plays right there on the page.

Now let's look at how to create the necessary video files...