is a streaming server necessary to play iPhone streaming video?

I am a noob with regards to this. I just wanted to know if a streaming server is necessary to play streaming videos on the iPhone.

e.g. I have a couple of mp4's hosted on a server. Can i play those files directly using MPMoviePlayerController with the URL http://xxxx.xx.mp4?

Are there any commercial solutions for hostin开发者_StackOverflow社区g videos for the iPhone?

Yes, you can play the file at url http://xxxx.xx.mp4 directly using MPMoviePlayerController, and it also does all streaming for you.