video storage

Question

I am working on an .net client server application, a new requirement is to allow user upload/copy videos into the system, there will be about 50 videos (500 MB each) per year. The application stores data in SQL 2005, but obviously storing the half GB video in SQL server is not great idea. Any suggestion on how to manage the upload/copy and storage of the videos? Is there any existing commercial package/solution which can be easily integrated in?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

1. Create a header record in a table, grab back the ID of the inserted field.
2. Create a file in your 'storage' directory with this id.
3. To retrieve, for an arbitrary row, get the id, then retrieve the file with that id.

Works for me, and lots of others. I think this is the most common way of doing this.

That said, lots of SQL storage engines, SQL server included, have good BLob storage engines - though 500MB might be a bit much, especially if there's rapid turnover.

Answer 2

Before answering I would like to state that I am by no means an expert in this area and so my answer may be flawed in many ways.

You might consider storing the files in the filesystem and storing a reference to the path of the video file in the database.

Answer 3

I think storing in files system is better and store their path in you database :) the problem is you won't be able to move them without having to update you database but it is still better than storing 500Mb or more in your database