Best options for web video

[s1deus]

Hello, I am starting a small site and would like to be able to publish video to it. I would like the video to appear in a proprietary player and not a youtube or metacafe player. Does anyone know any services that will allow you to publish video to your own site. I've used paid solutions for work, but they are very pricey so I am looking for a free solution. Any ideas?

[tedscoffee]

If you have Flash CS -- it comes with a basic video player which you can use on your website free of charge (of course you need to have Flash CS first).

Most free solution is not 'proprietary', if you want an unbranded player, you can consider some standalone website video player software, for example, this FLV Video Player software (http://video.a4desk.com/), which can automatically convert your mpg/avi files into .FLV format, let you choose a web video player skin, and automatically generate the HTML code for you to publish on your website.

[s1deus]

Thx Ted, but does Flash CS offer true streaming? I know I read of people implementing some type of http stream but it's never seemed to work for me. A few years ago, I implemented something with flash, and I had a user tell me the file was downloaded to their desktop.

I don't know if that's the case nowadays.

Thx.

[tedscoffee]

All the videos on Youtube are using FLV format -- so I believe the streaming is true.

Here is a streaming video sample (http://video.a4desk.com/templates/index.php?id=vp002a) created using the other software. You might experience some delay which is what is called 'buffering', but it should just be few seconds delay, then the video starts playing.

[aj_nsc]

JWPlayer is great. Xmoov offers a fantastic HTTP streaming script for it as well. It's not true streaming, but you've got to figure out for yourself if you want to actually offer true streaming, or if HTTP streaming will serve all your purposes. If you are just display a video to users that you posted online, HTTP streaming is all you need.

Google the terms above. Xmoov HTTP streaming works well out of the box, but it can take a bit of tweaking for some peoples purposes so you'll need to be proficient in PHP if you need to modify it at all. But if you need any help, I've implemented it recently and am quite familiar with it.

The added benefit of JWPlayer is that it's skin-able and there are both free and commercial (although still quite cheap) skins out there to download.

[s1deus]

Thanks Ted.

Aj, the problem I have with http streaming is that it requires the file to be downloaded to the users computer, which I have had problems with in the past, though this seemed to be on one rare occasion. Also you cannot scrub the video with http streaming.

I am googling xmoov now, but I am wondering if true streaming is doable on a budget. Or, through http streaming, if can you force the download of the video file to a specific folder or area? I mean isn't the default setting to the browsers cache? So why is it I had files downloaded to someone's - read that as client - desktop?

thx again

[criterion9]

What do you mean by "scrub the video"? Http streaming and buffering allows you to skip to a new position in the media.

[aj_nsc]

Thanks Ted.
Aj, the problem I have with http streaming is that it requires the file to be downloaded to the users computer.


With a good secure implementation of XMOOV, I have made the video files on a clients website (which are HTTP streamed) just as secure as actual streaming files.
Anything can be downloaded to the users computer if they want it badly enough, streamed, HTTP streamed, regular video files, etc, it's just a matter of how difficult you want to make it for them to get their hands on it.


Also, they aren't downloaded to the users computer in a recognizable format, especially not the desktop.

As criterion pointed out, you can certainly jump to different parts of the video, as long as it has the video has the proper metadata which can be injected with a very simple utility.

And as you correctly pointed out, streaming is not cheap.....go with HTTP streaming and do it properly and you'll be very happy.

[s1deus]

Thx all, I will give XMOOV a shot.

And yes, files were downloaded to a users desktop. It was really a rare thing. I have actually never seen it before anywhere. And I tested everywhere.

[incredible1]

there are various players that can play flv of course
There is also one that plays youtube videos without the youtube logo and player being needed

Its here
http://theflvplayer.com/ytplayer2/
and its free

The player above can play either youtube URL or FLV or MOV or MP4 videos
In this case, view source you will see the URL to youtube video
so1.addVariable("movieName", "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s0F9pi8Vfo");
The above setting is simple to change. Get rid of the youtube logo and use the FLV Hosting Youtube Player
http://flvhosting.com/downloads/ytubeplayerHD/