How do I stream .flv files from SQL database

Question

I want to store .flv files in the database and not in the file system.

This is what I can do right now:
Successfully convert .wmv and .mpeg to .flv with ffmpeg.
Store images in SQL Server and show them on my page with an httphandler.
Same with .avi and .mpeg videos. (It's up to the user's software if he can view it though)
Play .flv files in the browser if the file is located in the file system and not in the database.

What I can't do is:
Stream .flv videos to JW Player directly from the database. (Stored as binary data)

I've searched the internet for two days now but I can't get it to work. It feels as if I'm almost there though. The JW Player opens up and starts to "buffer", but nothing happens.

I know there's no easy answer but if anyone has done this before, or something similar, I'd like to know how you did. I feel I've got too much code to post it all here.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I got it to work but I have no idea as to how efficient it is. Is it better to stream from the file system than from the database in terms of connections, efficency, load etc. I could use some pointers on this!

I'm using JW Player here, hence "swfobject.js" and "player.swf"

httpHandler:

public class ViewFilm : IHttpHandler
{
    public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
    {
        try
        {
            // Check if id was given
            if (context.Request.QueryString["id"] != null)
            {
                string movId = context.Request.QueryString["id"];

                // Connect to DB and get the item id
                using (SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["ApplicationServices"].ConnectionString))
                using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("GetItem", con))
                {
                    cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
                    SqlParameter sqlParam = cmd.Parameters.Add("@itemId", SqlDbType.Int);
                    sqlParam.Value = movId;

                    con.Open();
                    using (SqlDataReader dr = cmd.ExecuteReader())
                    {
                        if (dr.HasRows)
                        {
                            dr.Read();
                            // Add HTTP header stuff: cache, content type and length
                            context.Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.Public);
                            context.Response.Cache.SetLastModified(DateTime.Now);
                            context.Response.AppendHeader("Content-Type", "video/x-flv");
                            context.Response.AppendHeader("Content-Length", ((byte[])dr["data"]).Length.ToString());
                            context.Response.BinaryWrite((byte[])dr["data"]);
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            throw new Exception(ex.ToString());
        }
    }

    public bool IsReusable
    {
        get { return false; }
    }
}

javascript
The function adds a player to <div id="video1"> and can be called e.g when a user clicks a button.

<script type='text/javascript' src='swfobject.js'></script>
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
function vid() {
  var s1 = new SWFObject('player.swf', 'player1', '480', '270', '9');
  s1.addParam('allowfullscreen', 'true');
  s1.addParam('allowscriptaccess', 'always');
  s1.addVariable('file', encodeURIComponent('ViewFilm.ashx?id=10'));
  s1.addVariable('type', 'video');
  s1.write(document.getElementById("video1"));
}
</script>

Answer 2

Not sure exactly how literally to take "stream directly from the database", but would it work to set the source "file" for the JW Player to "ServeFLV.aspx?id=123", and have ServeFLV.aspx retrieve the bytes from the database, and write them out to the response with no markup?

Answer 3

If you're using SQL Server 2008 you could use varbinary(MAX) FILESTREAM which would allow the files to be managed by the database but still give you access to a FileStream from .NET.