As my information Bluehost don't support ffmpeg encoder, But i want to try to install it ( i read about it somewhere). I want to know that will bluehost allow me to do this or ban me !!!!!!!!!!!
ffmpeg install
As my information Bluehost don't support ffmpeg encoder, But i want to try to install it ( i read about it somewhere). I want to know that will bluehost allow me to do this or ban me !!!!!!!!!!!
It's not going to work. Video processing requires a lot of CPU time, so you're going to keep hitting the limits, and having your account suspended. If that keeps happening, BH will eventually terminate your account for consuming too many resources.
I wouldn't say eventually ban you. If you managed to install it, they would deactivate you within hours; likely minutes. FFMPEG needs an extreme amount of CPU (and a fair amount of memory and I/O). Bluehost's Admins would notice it very quickly.
That being said, even if it were running on your account, it would take days to do anything significant. The new technology we use to prevent one account from harming another would "throttle" your usage down fairly heavily, to make room for other users using their accounts for standard web services. If you follow the Bluehost blog, you've probably already seen it: http://www.mattheaton.com/?p=208
Last edited by blundell; 11-10-2009 at 03:25 AM.
That's the easy answer, we know ANYTHING will get banned if it takes a lot of resources (and especially if it runs for days). However there is at least one very meaningful and useful use of ffmpeg that takes almost no resources at all (or more specifically is using less than operations that users are routinely doing for thousands of times).
I'm referring to the use of ffmpeg to extract a thumbnail for gallery from movies (I'm speaking about youtube-like small personal clips before somebody jumps in about copyright and stuff). Basically a frame is extracted (usually a keyframe because these are the sharpest) and converted if necessary to the right resolution for thumbnail. Extracting a keyframe is only a binary copy and converting a small (usually under one megapixel) picture to a thumbnail is something not so intensive. Certainly it is less intensive than converting a normal 2-5-10-12 Mpixel to a thumbnail and this is an operation done by all users of gallery all the time. What's more people are uploading hundreds of pictures at a time and many have tens of thousands of pictures in gallery while not many have more than 5-10-20 personal clips uploaded (and certainly nobody would upload hundreds of them at a time).
ffmpeg is also used to read the header of the video file and give some info in gallery (resolution, length, etc) - this isn't even worth discussing as it's only about processing a couple of bytes and probably much less CPU intensive than just displaying one single php page from gallery.
So, we know what happens if you hit hard the server. Now the question is: will ffmpeg get you banned just because "it's there" or it's a question of resources? I know there's a gray area where a customer might think it's not using too many resources but it's actually using too much but let's assume this is not the case, will very very very light use (or even not at all, just the existence) of ffmpeg (or similar) get you banned?
Kinda grey area
There is no reason why you would get banned if you get it to work, unless you overload the CPU, which is exactly what they do not want you to do.
Now, if they do find it, and decide (this really is likely) that you could potentially be an issue, they will probably suspend your account and ask you to remove it (they have a three strikes rule, so you should be ok if you don't anger them a lot) and then end of story, but a LOT of people get stuff to work on their servers that isn't supposed to, and then about 2/3 of them get suspended for overloading because though they made it work, they didn't make it not do what Bluehost wants to avoid in the first place.
FFMPG takes a LOT of resources, so even if you did get it installed, I can promise you they would notice fast.
My honest suggestion... don't do it.
As it happens, I have a degree in multimedia. Largely my focus was in audio, but I have done a lot of research on video compression for various clients.
ddwrt, you're probably right, those uses of FFMPEG probably wouldn't hit the server very hard. Pulling a keyframe, depending on how it's done wouldn't likely be that intense. Certainly pulling header information would generally be soft.
That being said, if they found it they would likely suspend the account anyway, to prevent issues for other users before they happen. The decision would be made by the Bluehost admins, who generally don't risk anything if it's avoidable. After all, there are another 500+ people sharing your box and everyone did flat out tell you not to.
Last edited by blundell; 11-10-2009 at 03:20 AM.
Get on a dedicated server that can handle video traffic
Originally Posted by sapa50
You WILL get disabled if you install FFMPEG.
BlueHost does NOT allow it on the server!
Sorry, but you are better off finding a dedicated server that will allow it.
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