playing converted youtube videos

[fine0023]

I have a website that is used primarily in schools. A while ago, I had tried downloading some youtube videos (and converting them to wmv and mp3 or mp4 files) and had put them on my site. This way, they wouldn't be blocked in schools because they wouldn't be coming from youtube. The problem was the videos played but took forever to load because the file sizes were too big. I want to try converting youtube videos again. I recently heard about progressive download. Is flash the best way to go with this, or would quicktime or something else work best? Someone also told me something recently about Squared 5 - MPEG Streamclip video converter, but I don't know much about this.

[incredible1]

Flash also supports MP4 - which can be compressed more fully
Here is a free online encoder
www.flvencoder.com
or
http://www.flvhosting.com/index.php?sc=29
free mp4 compressor.

I would look at compressing the files then using an MP4 Player to embed into a web page

Or, if you want instant streaming, look at RTMP Flash Media

Info on that is explained here
http://www.flvhosting.com/index.php?ssp=10

[fine0023]

Thanks for the advice. I just was wondering if you could just clarify a couple things since this is all very new to me. So you're suggesting I convert to mp4? I'm not real sure on what the difference is between those first two options you gave:

www.flvencoder.com
or
http://www.flvhosting.com/index.php?sc=29

Can I do progressive download with both of these? Do they both allow me to convert to mp4 so that the file size of the youtube videos can be reduced?

How do I use an mp4 player to embed the videos?

[Eye for Video]

fine0023,
If you have the video file that you have downloaded from YouTube, there is absolutely no need to convert the file at all... You will already have it in the best quality and most commonly used format (.flv).
If you re-encode, you risk degrading the quality. Also there is no reason to reduce the file size unless you had trouble downloading from YouTube initially. And if you did have trouble downloading (start, stop, buffer, etc), it actually has more to do with the video "bitrate" than the video file size. For more info on video bitrate:
http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=243645
Those original downloaded files will progressive download just fine from just about any Web server, nothing special needed there.
incredible1,
Your suggestion that flvencoder dot com is the solution to every video problem sounds an awful lot like spamming to me....
as I mentioned in another one of your posts, I don't think your information is always on target... for example:
Flash also supports MP4 - which can be compressed more fully
some Flash players may play mp4, but certainly not all of them...and what does
which can be compressed more fully
mean?? .flv, .mvw, .mov, can all be compresses down to almost nothing... none can really be compressed "more fully" than another....
So how about this... If you have good information to share with us... give us a good, clear, technical explanation/solution to the problem (this is a Web Developer Forum after all) WITHOUT the spamming links to your Web site...
Best wishes,
Eye for Video

[fine0023]

Okay. a few comments here.
First of all, who is this "bruce123456" who always posts these weird comments? In another unrelated post I made, he wrote the following response:
"Hi! There are many problems mostly facing in Bowser Internet Explorer But this type of problem really I have never faced please contact to any pro user of internet to get help!"
Second of all, Eye for Video, it sounds like you know your stuff. I guess I'll have to take your word that I don't need what this "incredible1" is offering (whether or not he's just on here to get people to his site), but I do have a few questions. Why do so many people use something like this to convert youtube videos to different formats? You make it sound like there is no reason to do this. Also, the reason I wanted to reduce the file size was because when I played the videos on my website, they took way too long to get started. From what I gathered from your comments on that other thread, you're saying the solution is to reduce the display size? And that I don't need to do anything special to get them to progressive download? I just wanted to make sure I'm following you correctly. Hope to hear back from you. Thanks.

[Eye for Video]

fine0023,
Just be careful when clicking links embedded in posts, even here in the Forum. Hover your cursor over the link and look down in the bottom left corner of your browser to see where that link will really take you. Motivations can vary from malicious to attempts to improve Search Engine ranking of their websites by posting lots of incoming links to their site. If in doubt... first look at the number of posts a person has.. it'll give you an idea if they've been around here for awhile and are able to withstand the "Peer Review" that the Forum affords. Also, you can click on the posters name and view all the other posts by that person.. are they just posting spam, advertisments, or is it real help for other Web Developers?
Now onto your questions/problems..
Why do so many people use something like this to convert youtube videos to different formats?
A gazzilion more people don't do any conversion because the BEST format is the format that YouTube uses.... so why would you want to convert it anyway?
I wanted to reduce the file size was because when I played the videos on my website, they took way too long to get started.
Now is this the problem with the video files AFTER you had converted them or in the original YouTube format?
took way too long to get started
What exactly do you mean by that? are you saying that the entire file had to download before it started to play? Is this the converted file? What was the file format? Was this from a regular Web server host? Did the file play file once it started? or did it stop/start, stop/start?
Reducing the display size would allow you to reduce the video bitrate while maintaining quality... but it's not clear if you are having a bitrate/Internet download speed issue or something else..
So to clarify a few things...
How are you getting hold of the original YouTube video file? What is the file format? What have you used in the past to convert the file from one format to another? What format did you convert to? What were the settings used in the convertion, the bitrate and display dimensions specifically?
Who is your Web host and do you have any other "working" videos posted on their service?
Do you have a link where I can test on-line and see the problem for myself? If you don't want the link to be public, send me a private message and I'll take a look.
Best wishes,
Eye for Video
www.cidigitalmedia.com

[fine0023]

How do you suggest I download the youtube video in the original YouTube format?

[Eye for Video]

Well... the best method is that you get permission from the owner of the video and they send you the original...
am I missing something here... are these videos that you have permission to re-broadcast?
How did you get a copy of the video?
EfV

[mauzer67]

I have a website that is used primarily in schools. A while ago, I had tried downloading some youtube videos (and converting them to wmv and mp3 or mp4 files) and had put them on my site. This way, they wouldn't be blocked in schools because they wouldn't be coming from youtube. The problem was the videos played but took forever to load because the file sizes were too big. I want to try converting youtube videos again. I recently heard about progressive download. Is flash the best way to go with this, or would quicktime or something else work best? Someone also told me something recently about Squared 5 - MPEG Streamclip video converter, but I don't know much about this.

Just use some proxy site man.. you can find here newest proxy sites (http://proxy-zone.net). go there click at any link and in new opened website type youtube url... enjoy :D

[fine0023]

Yes, of course I would only be rebroadcasting videos for which I've been given permission, but sometimes it may be easier to get permission when you are not asking the owner to go to any extra trouble (like asking them to send you the original).
If you have the video file that you have downloaded from YouTube, there is absolutely no need to convert the file at all... You will already have it in the best quality and most commonly used format (.flv).
Based on what you'd mentioned here, I thought maybe there was some standard way to download the file from youtube without converting it to some other format (and then you wouldn't have to ask the person to send you the file). Is there a good way to just download the file as .flv, or would it be best to just ask to be sent the file?

[MrSnowDrop]

@fine0023
You only have to use a better video player in your site. Some time ago i had the same problem of endless download while streaming the video from my site, but when i changed the videoplayer the problem was magically solved.

Take a look here:
http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/

Don't convert YouTube videos, they're already converted from an original RAW file and if you do that, quality will be very poor. Besides, nobody has any permission to obtain the original RAW file.

Good luck ;)

[fine0023]

Thanks for all the input. I'm not sure about how exactly it would work with a proxy site. From what I've read about that so far, it sounds like that might be tricky to make that work on a consistent basis. Regarding the videoplayers, I wasn't planning on doing actual streaming, and wouldn't really know much about how to actually do that. From what I had gathered so far, it had sounded like progressive download would work well enough for me. I was just wondering if I need the person who made the youtube video to send me the file, or if I could just get their approval and then somehow download the original file, since I've been told it's best not to convert it.

[Eye for Video]

Skip the proxy site stuff... and using a different video player will not make a difference because you still have to go to YouTube to get the video... which the school may block.
YouTube continues to make it harder to save the downloaded videos... but if you want permission, it would still be the best and most ethical to contact the owner of the video and ask them for a copy. Once placed on YouTube, it's watermarked with the YouTube logo... which sort of represents their ownership of the video.
But there are programs that can download and save the videos for you, such as this one recently highlighted in PCWorld magazine:
http://www.freemake.com/free_video_downloader/
I'll let you decide on whether or not to use a program like that.
Best wishes,
EfV