Is it possible to encode a video on client machine with a click of a button on the browser?

Question

Hi guys,

I have this strange request from my client and they want to perform video encoding using the clients' machine instead of the server to reduce the workload of the server. I wonder if this is possible? For example I have this video and then I click on the download button to download, which will download the video in its current format, then when it finishes the download it will encode into another format so that it is playable with the clients' media player such as windows media player and such.

From my experience as a programmer for more than 10 years, I do not think such a thing is possible..at least not one which is cross-browser compatible...i was thinking perhaps activex may be able to do this, but i have no prior experience in activex to be able to tell whether this is feasible or not. Appreciate your comments and thoughts on this. Thanks !

Answer 1

Take a look at Sorensen Squish

Sorenson Squish gives you the encoding power of Squeeze directly in your browser. Don't have access to Squeeze? You can still get virtually any video encoded and uploaded with Squish.

Note that it's currently only available as part of their CDN offering, but a standalone product is promised "soon". Saying that, I checked this out a few months ago and it was "soon" then too :)

Answer 2

easily done. If there is activex which plays back the file - there is another activex which transcodes the file. The only difference is the contents of the directshow graph.