What is the best way to stream video via a website built with ASP.NET?

Question

I am looking for everyone's opinion on what is the best way to stream video from a website built with ASP.NET. Some notable items include:

• The ability to stream .avi, .mpg, and possibly .wmv files
• The ability for someone to upload a video directly to a shared server and have it stream without any additional work needed (no compression needed, etc.)

I thought that Silverlight might be a good way to go, but I would greatly appreciate everyone else's opinions (please include pros/cons if you can).

Thanks!

Answer 1

Some obvious options come to my mind:

• Flash - it's a popular industry-wide standard, but isn't native to Microsoft's .NET Framework.

• Silverlight - implementation and consumption of it favors .NET developers, but, while it's slowly picking up steam, it's not a widely-accepted standard yet and is greatly overshadowed by Flash's seniority and popularity.

EDIT: Being the .NET developer that I am, I'd go with Silverlight in a heartbeat.

Answer 2

I would use the asp:mediaplayer, which is in fact Silverlight.