Advice On Video Embedding Needed Which format is to be preferred

[mrdee 1]

I embed video clips into my website regularly.I have my own way of doing things which works without any problems (meaning it gives me no problem embedding it and watcing it), however, I am concerned about a few hings.My first concern is web space.Although I have a generous amount of web space, video clips can take up quite some space.Then comes compatibility.As I said, I never had a problem watching any video, but that was on my system (Windows) and with the browsers I have available (Firefox4, Google Chrome and IE().Here is the way I work at the moment:I have HTML5 available in my HTML editor, but I don't use it fully yet, because of browser compatibility issues.I also find it somewhat clumsy to upload videos to Youtube and then embedding them, eg. for all the Youtube logos splattered on your video as one objection.I use the free Flowplayer and upload the videos to my web space in .flv format, and then just let them play in Flowplayer.Would anyone recommend this kind of method or would there be certain objections, the argument being there are much better methods of doing things?I will gladly take any advice on board, as adjusting is not so much an issue to me, all the software I have easily allows me conversion to practically any format.Like I said, my main concern is saving web space (since I am not a great fan of uploading to Youtube), and I think the quality in .flv is reasonable, it does not exactly have to be HD quality, as long as it is clearly watchable.(Even if you think always using .wmv might save space, fine, as long as the quality is not as if it is playing on one of the first 1950s television sets).So, if anyone can guide me further on whether to keep doing things as I am now, or advise a change, I will be glad to listen.Thank you in advance.

[anwiii 17]

i have embedded videos in different file formats on my websites. my first concern is how the video looks and how i need to give the play, stop, pause controls to my visitor. the annoying videos i come across on other website is where no controls are given to the visitor except for maybe a pause option if you click the video itself.if you upload the video yourself, your two concerns would be space and bandwidth. the only way around this is to upload your video to a video sharing site and embed from there. you wont use up resources, but you will have to use the skin provided by the video sharing site. for example, youtube. this can look less professional though so it's not recommended for business websites. for personal websites, this would be the solution. you can also limit long the video plays, but usually this isn't an option. obviously the shorter the video, the less resources it will use.unfortunately everything is give and take.....so when you're getting something good from one option, you are giving up something else so in the end, it's about personal preference. there is no right or wrong way. it's based on personal preference, and yours seem to be to limit the resource.now you can also limit the quality of the video when uploading to your server, but i highly don't suggest sacrificing the quality of the video. at least that would be MY preference. you would do this through whatever video editing software you use.flv is a good format. i use that and mp4.... here is an example of a cheesy video i made in flv format using flowplayer... http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
i normally wouldn't promote this site public here but google banned the domain from the serps and it was not very good quality. i used animoto to make the video on my free account, and then used camtasia to screen capture it and then convert it to flv. i didn't spend much time on it, but as you can see, i only have the pause and play controls. it needs a stop button but this is a semi throwaway site i have so i didn't spend much time on it. it's only 30 seconds, so the resources it uses is close to nothing. if it was 3-5 minutes long, i think i would have considered uploading the video to youtube, and then grabbing the embed code from there. slv was good here as it shrunk my video file size down to around 2200kb the original file size was over 30mb but that was in camtasia format. if i were to have used mp4, the file size would have been over 3kkb which is about 50% more resources than using the .flv format

Edited April 21, 2011 by anwiii (see edit history)

[mrdee 1]

i have embedded videos in different file formats on my websites. my first concern is how the video looks and how i need to give the play, stop, pause controls to my visitor. the annoying videos i come across on other website is where no controls are given to the visitor except for maybe a pause option if you click the video itself.

One of my concerns too, but flowplayer deals with that quite well, which is obviously one reason why I use it.All controls are there, including volume and full screen.

if you upload the video yourself, your two concerns would be space and bandwidth. the only way around this is to upload your video to a video sharing site and embed from there. you wont use up resources, but you will have to use the skin provided by the video sharing site. for example, youtube. this can look less professional though so it's not recommended for business websites. for personal websites, this would be the solution.

The less professional look of the Youtube skin is exactly one of my concerns too.Granted, no resources are used.

unfortunately everything is give and take.....so when you're getting something good from one option, you are giving up something else so in the end, it's about personal preference. there is no right or wrong way. it's based on personal preference, and yours seem to be to limit the resource.

A consequence of the imperfect world we live in, I guess.

now you can also limit the quality of the video when uploading to your server, but i highly don't suggest sacrificing the quality of the video. at least that would be MY preference. you would do this through whatever video editing software you use.

No, I do not feel much like doing that neither.As I said, I am not aiming for HD quality, but it has to be watchable.

flv is a good format. i use that and mp4....

I do like to use flv too, but, I might be mistaken, but I have the impression mp4 videos are quite a bit bigger in size.
Or maybe, if push comes to shove, I might try to find (and experiment with) a file sharing site, store my files there and then let flowplayer link back to those.
(The place has to be reliable, of course).
Would that be an option, until I get the Ultimate Linux plan one day?
Although, as I said, web space and bandwidth are not really an issue to me (yet, but it would be when my number of videos increase).

Anyway, thank you for your explanation.
Had a feeling it would be a no-win situation.
Edited April 21, 2011 by mrdee (see edit history)

[anwiii 17]

Had a feeling it would be a no-win situation.

well, it's just a no WIN WIN situation. i would try to estimate how many videos you plan on uploading on a regular basis, figure out the average bandwidth being used, and then you can determine what direction you want to go. how many videos you upload and the bandwidth isn't your only concern though. it's how many visitors you project for the future too. so you can work out a formula to determine how much resources will be used up per visitor. after you do that, then all you really need to worry about is how many visitors are coming to your site. this will give a clearer picture which will allow you to make any necessary changes and prepare for them.....whether it's upgrading your hosting package, or uploading the videos to a video sharing site. i would start prepare for any changes now though because if you find you can't afford to upgrade, you will have to upload all the videos to a video sharing site and delete the videos you already uploaded to your shared server. so try to prepare now in knowing how many visitors you project coming to your site in the future and knowing whether you are able to afford an upgrade

it's a huge jump from the 1.99 plan to the 6+ plan. an alternative to jumping to a new plan is that you can open a support ticket and ask them to increase your bandwidth or disk space. you can get 5x more bandwidth for an extra $1 per month, and 5x more disk space for $1 a month. so if you go this route and increase both for example, you would be paying $4 instead of $2, but you would still not be paying the $6+ per month if you decided to upgrade to a new package level. as you can see, this option is a lot more affordable for your needs than jumping to a whole new plan.

[mrdee 1]

Yes, that is a good idea.It might not be that easy and a lot of trial and error, but some planning and calculation will make a lot of difference.However, I am already on the Logic Pro Plan (the $6.66 a month one), so I don't see myself running out of space/bandwidth for quite some time to come.But thank you for the tip about the upgrades for $1 a month extra etc., as this is not very clearly indicated on the Xisto customer site (or maybe I looked in the wrong place), I will definitely bear that in mind.Anyway, thank you for the useful tips.

Edited April 21, 2011 by mrdee (see edit history)