[P1] Bandwidth

[Rick Banuelos]

On Thursday, March 13, 2003, at 08:38  PM, Charles Martin wrote:

> There's absolutely no way in advance to calculate this. Too many 
> variables. For example, if your clips feature and female breasts you 
> should plan on at least 10 times the bandwidth a non-breast clip would 
> get. :)
>

ROTFLMAO. Really.

> Also we don't know how extensively the site will be publicized or 
> who's linking to it/driving traffic that way, etc.
>

True, but I can try to make projections based on how many times the 
film name is trotted out to potential viewers.

> You should be aware that you don't have compress the clips as much as 
> you may think. Thanks to Quicktime's streaming technology in versions 
> 5 and particularly 6, even a HUGE clip can be seen at dialup speeds. 
> The trick is not to compress the picture quality, but to make a 
> "reference movie" (a very tiny file that senses what speed the viewer 
> is working with) which automagically points to either a 
> highly-compressed, small-pic version of the clip (for dialup) or a 
> less-compressed, nicer and larger version (for broadband).
>

A good thing to know. Thank you.

> Let's say for argument's sake that the sum total of these clips is 
> 60MB, divided equally. If all your visitors average watching at least 
> two of the clips all the way through, and you get 100 visitors a day, 
> that's 40MBx100 = 4GB daily.
>
> Your best bet would be to talk with your bandwidth provider and make 
> arrangements for them to set a bandwidth limit and CLOSE the site 
> temporarily if the bandwidth is exceeded (with a notice to try back 
> later). Otherwise, they will happily serve up all the visitors you can 
> handle but will bill YOU for the "surprise" bandwidth, and this can 
> hurt BIG TIME -- remember back in the 80s when the only way to run up 
> an $1000 phone bill was to call phone-sex services? Hah!
>
> _Chas_
>

Ah, how I miss the '80s. Madonna, junk-bonds, me graduating from 
diapers... wait, what?

Thanks for the helpful info, Chas.



Rick

--
"If we fight a war and win it with H-bombs, what history will remember 
is not the ideals we were fighting for but the methods we used to 
accomplish them. These methods will be compared to the warfare of 
Genghis Khan who ruthlessly killed every last inhabitant of Persia."

--Hans A. Bethe