Forum user: Andria

Please excuse me, that my topic is not directly associated with Flow.

Currently I am developing a project which I will be licensing to be used with one domain at the time. Similar to the licensing model of commercial version of flow player.

What I have seen from flow's commercial version is that it uses a license key in conjunction with the domain on which it is running.

And this is exactly what I am looking for to protect my own work! I need a script which would make a simple query whether the domain which is running my product is entitled to do so, or not. I don't know if flow player is "calling home" or not, but I expect it not to be doing something like that and I also would not want my product to call home and check each time if the license and domain in question are ok or not.

Is anyone here who could offer such solution to me as a service of his own or be so kind and point me to other services or resources where I could find the solution I am looking for?

Let me say that I don't demand high security. If someone was to invest his whole day and break it, then I would have to live with that. All I am looking for is rather low security product which an advanced user or an average webdesigner would not figure out in a matter of minutes. If you offer a system which is much harder to hack, even better!

I am not looking into buying such solution package, I want to license it per copy sold. What I am looking for is 500+ licenses sold per year.

Thank you!

Arjen, it is amazing how supportive you have been!
Thank you very much!

I have sent the exact info to the support and now they have been able to install it!

Thank you once again!

Anssi, thank you too!

Hello Arjen!

Thank you again for your help. I have provided the support with your post, but they were not fortunate enough to make it work.

I am quoting support's reply:

Dear Andria,

The command you have provided is possible only in debian OS systems.
You are using Centos version with cpanel.

The apxs binary for apache 2.2 is located as /usr/local/apache/bin/apxs.

Ralph and Larry tried compiling H264 using the binary /usr/local/apache/bin/apxs which produced error while apache restart.

Please contact the developer and get back to us with the exact steps to carry out the installation in Centos 5 version.

Looks like I will have to get along without seekable h.264 :(

Hello Arjen!

Thank you very much for your fast reply! I indeed have overseen the link you have provided! (btw, the link got parsed with '.' (dot) in the URL giving 404)

Since I have no Linux abilities, I provide the support of my hosting company with urls. The one I have sent them was http://h264.code-shop.com/trac/wiki found at http://flowplayer.org/plugins/streaming/pseudostreaming.html

Obviously they have also not seen this instruction. I will update them with the new URL!

One more thing: in your post you say "both necessary" files? Which exactly are the necessary files? moov.c and apsx2? On the instruction page there is no mention of moov.c!

I try to sum up what everything is needed, please correct me if I am wrong:

1. h264 streaming (obviously)
2. aspx2
3. moov.c

PS: Could you kindly provide an url where to download moov.c? I googled for it but was not able to locate it. You can imagine for a non-linux person like me, much of the develper sites I run into are quite hard to follow and understand what is what.

PPS: will it be sufficient for my support to update them with the url http://h264.code-shop.com/trac/wiki/Mod-H264-Streaming-Apache-Version2 or will they need something more?

Thank you very much for your help!

bigred, this sould help you:
http://flowplayer.org/forum/5/16769

1. To be able to click in the timebar you definitely need a video with METADATA and also the CORRECT pseudo code with it.
In this thread http://flowplayer.org/forum/5/16769 I have posted a piece of code which IS WORKING and also a link to flowplayer's video file which has metadata injected.

2. The issue with the skipping back to the start of the video is server issue. Maybe could also be an cache issue of your browser. I have had the same trouble like you and have described it in the thread posted above.

I hope this helps.

As i described above, you would need a flv file WITH metadata to be able to click in the timebar and skip in time (regardless if your server has mod_flv or not).

Also you would need the appropriate code. The one I have posted is positively working.

Now to the issue with time skipping to the start of the video - on my server mod_flv was installed, I was using the the correct script and the correct video file, yet it would not work.

In order to test if it was up to mod_flv or not, i uploaded the same files to another server where there was no mod_flv installed and I was seeing the same behavior - I was able to click in the timeline, but the player would always skip to the starting point.

After seeing this, I wrote again to my support and asked them if they have followed the install instructions kindly provided by thinkscape perspective http://tperspective.blogspot.com/search/label/mod_flvx The support answered that this instruction actually helped them to install this in the first place and YES they followed the instructions.

Now I was confused and I really felt SAD! I did everything right, the support seems to have done everything right, yet it was not working :(

Short time later, my firefox crashed, I opted to restart my comp (OSX) and my first thought was that I would have to give it up. But for some reason, I could not. I positively knew there was nothing more to try out. I tried out all possible codes, was tearing the support to the max. I definitely knew there was nothing I could try anymore. Nonetheless, I started FF and went to my testing files. Opened the streaming file, clicked in the timebar and - IT WORKED!

What a joy it was at 4.00 am!

Now the next step is to purchase the commercial version and play even more with FLOW!

I may suggest that you could have an issue with metadata in your video.

Instead, try using the streaming movie featered in the demo files, here: http://flowplayer.org/demos/streaming/index.html

The movie itself: http://examples-s3.simplecdn.net/videos/Extremists.flv

I have put this video on my server (for testing purposes) and I can click in the bar, the time pointer skips to the point where I clicked, but after a few seconds it jumps back to the beginning of the video.

I guess in my case it is something with the setup of Apache and mod_flv

Here is my code, with this you can at least click in the time bar:

<a href="../Extremists.flv" style="display:block;width:425;height:300px" id="player"></a> 

	  <script>
	    $f("player", "../flowplayer-3.0.7.swf", {
		  plugins: {
		    pseudo: { url: '../flowplayer.pseudostreaming-3.1.1.swf' }
		  },

		  clip: { 
			autoPlay: false,
			provider: 'pseudo',
			url: '../Extremists.flv'
		  },

		  canvas: { 
			backgroundImage: '../robot.png' }
	    });
	  </script>

When I replace this video with a video which has NO METADATA, then I CAN NOT click in the time bar!

This way you should be able to find out if your video's metadata are fine or not.

Hope this helps!
Greetings!

Short update: the support has been able to install mod flv successfully!

But there still was a problem installing H.264
They have installed this too, but afterwards the apache server would not start :(

httpd: Syntax error on line 36 of /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf: Cannot load /usr/local/apache/modules/mod_h264_streaming.so into server: /usr/local/apache/modules/mod_h264_streaming.so: undefined symbol: mp4_split

Any idea anyone?

Thx!

Hello!

I have instructed the support from my hosting company to install both H.264 and flash STREAMING modules for Apache (in my VPS) and they could not compile it.

The server runs on Centos 5, it was Apache 2.0.x and it did not work.

They have installed Apache 2.2.x and it still would not compile.

The support suggested that Debian would suit better for this.

Could you guys help on this please? I have no idea about Linux, therefore the hosting company seems to have great support. Still, any input from your side would be helpful and highly appreciated!

The modules in question are:
1. H264 Streaming Modulehttp://h264.code-shop.com/trac/wiki
2. mod flvhttp://tperspective.blogspot.com/2009/02/apache-flv-streaming-done-right.html

These modules are listed at Flowplayer Documentation page:http://flowplayer.org/plugins/streaming/pseudostreaming.html

Please guys help me out!

Thank you very much!