Video Conversion Use Case Scenarios; Network Bandwidth - HP EX485 - MediaSmart Server - 2 GB RAM User Manual

HP MediaSmart Server User's Guide

Network Bandwidth

One benefit of using the Full resolution output settings is that older video formats like MPEG-2
videos are often much larger in size than the format used by the video converter. The output of a
Full resolution video conversion can be approximately 25% the file size of an original DVD
(MPEG-2). This significant reduction in size can make streaming via 802.11G less problematic
(although many factors impact streaming videos wirelessly, results may vary widely).
When considering remotely streamed video content (using a Windows Home Server with Remote
Access Enabled), Full resolution videos will be difficult to stream remotely on many broadband
connections. HP recommends using the Mobile resolution videos when streaming remotely for
more success. These videos are very limited in resolution and visual fidelity, to provide a better
chance for successfully accessing videos remotely. The Mobile resolution setting produces a
video that is commonly supported for the mobile devices listed above. The Mobile resolution is
also ideal for streaming playback on Internet connected PC's using the HP MediaSmart Streamer
and on iPhones/iPod Touches using the HP MediaSmart server for iPhone application.
V C U C S
IDEO ONVERSION SE ASE CENARIOS
Basic/Default Video Conversion Scenario
If you have little to moderate video content you will find the basic default settings appropriate for
video conversion. The basic settings require you to enable the video converter tool, and keep your
videos in the Videos shared folder.
Advantages
The advantage of using the basic settings is that all video files in your Videos shared folder will
attempt to be converted. Also, this scenario does not require any file organization changes or
moving or copying files around.
Disadvantages
If you have a lot of content in your Videos shared folder, the basic settings can use a lot of
additional disk space. Also, video conversion takes a lot of time and you may have to wait a long
time for video conversion to complete. Lastly, if you have a lot of videos that are already in a
highly compressed format (such as DivX, Xvid, or H.264); then converting them again on the
"Full" output setting offers little value since these formats are very similar in storage efficiency.
Video Conversion Scenario – Alternative #1
You may find that converting all of your videos takes too much time and disk space. However,
you may want to have all your videos available remotely. In such cases, it is recommended to
enable Mobile quality only for the Videos shared folder. To save disk space, you can create a new
shared folder (called something like "full-res videos") and enable full resolution conversion only
on this folder. When there are videos that should be converted at full resolution, those files can be
copied or moved into this new shared folder. After conversion is complete, the original files
should be moved back to the original location in the videos folder (to make sure they are still
available for local network streaming).
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