uploading an iso image

[Acer2000]

Hi everyone,

Just would like to ask if it is technically possible to upload an iso image which is 700 mb to a webserver so that people can download from my website and later burn to a cd/dvd?

Thank you.

[OMGmissinglink]

Yes, say your files name is "####.zip to create the link on your webserver should appear as this

<a href="yourwebsitedomain.com/####.zip"><b>name of file</b></a>

[OMGmissinglink]

might add in this senario you can upload the file to be downloaded via zip or iso format this is done by changing the parameters

File: ####.zip
####.iso

[Acer2000]

Thank you very much OMGmissinglink

[ebackhus]

Please note that unless this is an ISO of a freely distributal package you are committing software piracy.

[Acer2000]

I will be putting the video lectures of our law university.

[Cellus]

Just make sure to tell the network admins if they start knocking at your door that is it legitimate if you're hosting it on the university's network. Some universities are strict about distribution, even harmless lecture videos (since they may not necessarily know better unless they actually look inside the file), if they're in ISO format.

[Acer2000]

I know what I am doing, don't worry; If you look at my profile you can see that I am the university's administrator! And I have full authorization from the dean of the university, who is the author of the video lectures! He wants me to put them online so that students can download these from the university's website.

[koala]

Do you know if the students are on broadband?

A 700mb file will take a long time to download even with a fast connection, so you might want to put a link on your site to a download manager like FlashGet, Get Right or Fresh Download, so the download can be paused and resumed without having to start over.

[Acer2000]

Hi Koala

Thank you for your reply, I think that would be a problem, but it would be possible I think to forget about the iso images and put each video lecture online so that students can view them online with the option to right click and save as if they wish. The size of all the video lectures is huge, something like 8-9 GB!

Please advice me!

Thank you

[Fr4665]

well since the video lectures are in .iso format you would first have to record them into a movie file like .mov or .avi

todo so you need to first burn or use a virtual drive to open the iso and look inside in what format the video is

when that is complete you can put up a site with links or embedded video files. i would also recommend if you do this to have very high compression but try to still have quality like with divx or xvid or .mov

[Acer2000]

No, the video lectures are not in iso format, they are in WMA but I can create an iso image if i want. But now I think the best option would be to forget the iso thingy

[koala]

Some video formats don't allow the viewer to skip forwards during playback, and I think WMA might be one of them. If this would be a problem for long videos where students are looking for a specific part of the lecture, you might want to consider converting to another format. However, streaming or embedded videos might not have this problem, I'm not sure. Hang on for other replies from people who know more about videos and website coding.

What size is each video, and could they be split into sections?

[Acer2000]

Hi Koala,

Thanks for your reply, no, I don't think this should be a problem, the students would view the video lectures online after they log in to a password protected area which is for students only; if they want to download a cetain video lecture, they could simply right click on it and save it to their computer.

Visitors who are interested to buy our video lectures can buy them online and we send them the video lectures on cd/dvd.

Each video lecture is something between 40-60 mb some are 70 mb or more.
I don't think I am going to split any, as this is very time consuming and unnecessary.

[Acer2000]

I now looking for a webhosting company which can take this huge size
I contacted the hostdepartment, 1&1 so far.

[Cellus]

The video lectures, along with the number of students accessing them, could start to add up as knowledge of them grows over the months. Just keep an eye out on the bandwidth usage after a few months and see if later on the account needs to have its bandwidth limit extended. It could become an inconvenience if the limit was accidentally hit and students were not able to get the video lectures later on.

On a separate note, bravo. It's good to see a university starting to put video lectures up.

[Acer2000]

Thank you Cellus

I agree, bandwidth may still be a problem, at 1&1, the Linux businss package offers 2000 GB of bandwidth, which could theoratically mean, 222 students can download 9 GB of video lectures each month. Practically, I can imagine 200, as the website will inculde a reivew of the lectures as well and a few samples and these can suck some of the bandwidth.

I really have no idea whether the students would find it convenient to download the lectures online, i know that people do download large software from the internet and even images from the Gutenberg project which is almost 5GB. I really would appreciate your opinion here.

Perhaps the best option would be to put them on a dual layer DVD disc and a CD-ROM.

[koala]

You could email the students or post a survey on your site to see if online videos would be popular. If not then you won't need to upgrade your server package, and you can fit 9gb onto 2 standard DVDs which might be cheaper for you and more convenient for the students.

[Acer2000]

Thank you Koala