alowing people to upload videos to my website

[dylanparrin]

hi, I am thinking of making a video sharing website do I need to have a server for this? and how can I get started?

many thanks: Total Webmaster, Dylan Parrin :)

[Compguy Pete]

Dylan...

You haven't given this much thought have you... Please don't take that the wrong way.

Lets look at this in humorous word math we all said we'd never use in real life...

If you have 1 very popular video that is 10mb and it's getting watched 1000 times a day by your website viewers for 15 days straight how much bandwidth has that video used?

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Ok Time is up... that's 15gig of transfer you would need. this is also not counting the amount of transfer needed for the page loading the video, entry and exit pages and other videos these viewers may have watched.

So where am I going with this... Your not going to find a shared host who will pick up this type of project. I've looked at video hosts for other projects in the past and found them to be very pricy but if your looking at doing somehing other than offering your own version of Youtube you might have something to go on.

I was looking into this a year ago, back when I had a client who wanted to do Video based sales pitches to clients and the clients clients. Luckily we found a service provider who did such a thing and it's going rather well.

I hope this helpes... if you have a more detailed question in this line I'd love to try and help you out.

[janerikpaul]

Yes, well, I unfortunately do have to deliver video sharing within a custom website design. We have been looking into using YouTube API to both upload, share and then stream the video content, but unfortunately, the client does not want to have the YouTube logo visible anywhere in the video (which it automatically does at the beginning of the video).

So I would have though that somewhere, there is a component, that would allow a website to upload, convert a variety of sources into a standardized format for playback (perhaps Flash) whilest having the flexibility for the client to define where the content is stored. I realise this does create a significant load on the servers in terms of bandwidth, but if the client is happy to pay for infrastruction upgrades, then good on them!

Any further suggestions of answers? There seems to be a very obviously missing video upload component ... that I just can't find!

--------------------------------------------------------------

Jan-Erik Paul
Creative Director, Website Designer & Multimedia Developer
www.e-creation.eu (http://www.e-creation.eu) - just that little bit sharper

[Eye for Video]

Yes you can create an alternative to YouTube which will give you a much more professional look to the site and the videos...but it won't be easy. Your task is complicated by the fact that you want to allow users to upload their own videos.
For something like this you'll need server side software, something like FFMPEG,
http://www.noboxmedia.com/the-secret-source-build-your-own-youtube/
....before you start, better brush up on your Linux command line...
Another alternative if there are not too many videos is that you have the viewer ftp the videos to a private folder and you manually preview and transcode to your set specs, file format (.flv), screen dimensions, and bitrate.
So yes, you will need a server. But there are a number of host that have HUGH bandwidth allotments and well as for site file storage. Here's one I highly recommend:
www.lunarpages.com
Very economical, great customer service, unbelievably HUGH bandwidth. You might even find that if your bandwidth outgrows your (expensive, dedicated) conversion server allotment that you use one server for conversion and another, really cheap one (like Lunar Pages, less than $100 a year), to host your Web site, store the video files, and play the video out to the Web.

Here's a late add on link:
http://www.phpmotion.com/

Best wishes on your project,
Eye for Video
www.cidigitalmedia.com