Do I need a Video Server?

If i'm going to place 12 videos on my site (each max 2 minutes long)... do i need a video server? what's the difference in using a server and just placing a .wmp file or .avi file on the web server for people to click and open?

also, how do i determine which format my videos should be in?
AVI, WMV, FLA ????

thank you for your help.

There, in reality is no such thing as a video server. Its a package, with high bandwidth and storage.

How big in size (mb) are these videos? i don't see why 12 small videos on sensible traffic would require anything drastic.

Continually bear in mind..

• Size of videos
• Traffic / #of downloads
• Delivery (eg, download, stream, flash, etc)

These are all important variables, without such we cant ecver really answer your question.

the videos are 10 MB each
traffic...i'm not sure...they are new
delivery....it could be any of these

i'm in the planning stages and need to budget for bandwidth and/or hosting if another server is needed. i can estimate 18000 view/mo on the video page ... maybe 1/2 will view the videos (9000)/mo....300/day. as far as delivery goes...which is best? downloading 10mb could take a while...what's the difference in streaming and flash?

also...ultimately, it will be more than 12 videos. it could climb to 200+. I just need a general guideline ... or formula (e.g. 200 videos, this number of mb, this much traffic = need or no need for 'video server' and this much bandwidth.)

thank you.

I suggest you use a Flash video player to play the video files. Flash is efficient at this sort of thing and is also widely supported. What type of site are you creating? To be honest, expecting that kind of exposure is an extreme over-estimation unless you've got a few seriously popular sites to introduce your own.

WTF? Did you just recommend flash Ryan? Am I dreaming? :0