phpMotion Video Sharing Software Hosting

[robertwatcher]

I recently put in a ticket about running the free phpMotion video sharing software on JaguarPC's Semi-Dedicated servers (I currently have a phpMotion installation hosted with another company that I want to move here if possible - www.robanmotion.com). The ticket reply was:

You can host such kind of web site on our SDX server. The requirements you have mentioned we do provide every one of those except on the SDX server we do not allow the back ground process to run. As far as I know, PHPmotion doesn't require any background/hidden services. It uses the command line binaries like ffmpeg, mplayer to convert and play videos and that is allowed but only on SDX and VPS servers.

However when I asked on the phpMotion forum about having to run a background process, the reply was:

Yes, phpMotion sets off the converter in the background. If it didn't a user who uploads would need to wait until the video is converted before continuing which could take ages.

So that to me would imply that all video sharing websites would require that converting process to run in the background that way.


So what is strange to me is that when I did a search on these JaguarPC forums, there were threads that said that several people hosting here, are using phpMotion or other video sharing software on the semi dedicated servers and there have been no issues. Are there any of those ones doing so, floating around the forum who could clarify this discrepency for me so that I can make my choice as to whether I am able to move my www.robanmotion.com website to Jaguar SDX or not?

[JPC-Masood]

The process of converting video in the background is not really a background daemon process, so yes you can host this on our SDX servers. This video conversion is allowed on our SDX hosting plan. And Welcome to JaguarPC

[robertwatcher]

Now that makes sense. I kind of wondered if it was technically a background process but not really. Thank you for that answer.

I appreciate the Welcome again. I have been with JaguarPC for 2 years with a reseller account (which I will be keeping) and sing highly the praises for the dependability and support (most of the time lack of needing it lol) that I have had during that time.

So many hosting companies are great for a month or two and then their servers slow down, they don't respond to tickets quickly or accurately, or they cut you off without notice when resource issues come up - - - I don't believe any of that to be the case with JaguarPC from my experience.

The reason that I ended up starting the video sharing website with another hosting company last month wasn't because I wasn't happy with Jaguar - it was because I saw nothing on their website that would indicate that they had or allowed the required components to run such a software - - - plus I wasn't familiar with Semi Dedicated hosting. A friend that I recommended to host a reseller with Jaguar last week, told me that he noticed that the SDX hosting and found out through support that it had ffmpeg presinstalled - so told me to check into it. So that is what I am doing.

Because of the high cost each month of running a VPS (when there are no financial returns on running this video website), I regrettably had to change my JaguarPC reseller hosting plan to the smallest Plus one (from the Pro) to keep my monthly costs managable. I am so glad that I am able to move this video site over JaguarPC where I know the service and support and now that I am aware of the SDX and am able to use it instead of an expensive VPS - that helps out a lot.

Nice sob story heh (canadian)

[robertwatcher]

It's funny - when I posted the above reply from Masood N. | Chief Technical Officer on the phpMotion forum, one of their moderators responded with:

This is what I consider a background process (from uploader_finished.php)

//else load convertor in background
exec("$path_to_php $convertor $uploaded_file_name> /dev/null &");// (>/dev/null & part is what sends to background)

Maybe they don't consider it as such but it definitely looks like one to me

and then he also followed up with:

By the way JaguarPC are great, I've been with them on a VPS for a while now (not with a video site though).

which is a good thing

[robertwatcher]

Glad to say that the transfer of my video sharing website (for family and friends only) from a VPS with another hosting company, to an SDX on JaguarPC over the weekend - went well. A few little hickups in getting the settings right, but I am very pleased with the effort the jaguar staff put into making sure I got it running properly.

www.robanmotion.com

So now I know - phpMotion does run on JaguarPC Semi-Dedicated servers. Hopefully it will continue to be a good experience.

[robertwatcher]

All runs well, but I'm afraid that the video conversion isn't up to the results that I got on the last server. With identical settings, the video is choppy in areas where it was smooth when uploaded and converted on the different system. JPC staff are trying to resolve this for me I am pleased to say.

If anyone else is hosting a phpMotion or similar video sharing website with JaguarPC, could you comment on your results with the video conversion? Thanks

[robertwatcher]

The folks at JaguarPC moved my website to a new server and thankfully, the issues on the other server of choppy video are gone. I appreciate them sticking with me to get this resolved.