I am almost completely ignorant about the various sites out there for hosting video. I know they are there but haven't explored the specifics. In the past when I've wanted to share a video I've put it up on Photobucket.

I want a place to host weekly short films like a VBLOG, where my students can dial in and see themselves doing their experiments and such. I don't have the time or resources to host it myself and set up a dedicated web page. I want to be able to do a quick edit and post it for the class to see but would like something Better (in terms of image quality) than I see on YouTube.

Is one site better than another in terms of quality, speed, accessibility? Please dont limit your answer to Vimeo or You tube; I'm sure there are others I'm not familiar with.

And....free would be best!

Thank you for your help
Bob

Hi Bob, you'll be able to do that right here at DV Info Net pretty soon. As I've mentioned before, we're in the process of setting up a video hosting platform with encoding quality that will rival the best video hosting sites elsewhere on the web. It'll accommodate the needs you describe above perfectly, and of course, it'll be completely free to all DV Info Net members. When it's ready to launch, you'll be seeing a lot of buzz about it here... so stay tuned.

Oh yes, i'm looking forward to that.
Thanks Chris.

Paul.

The DV Info feature sounds very promising, though I was hoping to get up and going within the next week or two so I still need a suggestion for a good immediate solution.

Vimeo works wonderfully, don't have to go looking anywhere else really. HD quality, fast and your video is downloadable if you choose. Plus you can easily incorporate your video into your blog by simply copy/paste a simple code. As good as premium services and free :)

Thanks. Can I create an "account" and have people go to it directly, or must I email the link or embed it in a web page? It looks to me like I have to email the URL or embed it.

What I would like is for them to go to the page, search for "Public school X" and see a list of videos.

You can create a channel in Vimeo and give it a name which will be incorporated into the url.
If you want you can create a password-protected album too.
Or you can embed. It's simply a matter of copying and pasting code from the player window.

I'm sure that the DV info video service is going to be fantastic when it arrives. I don't really see that it's going to be in the same territory as Vimeo etc ie this site is highly specialised not a general entertainment site.

For now, I'd throw down behind Vimeo. Quality's much better than YouTube. Don't know if you're interested in HD, but YouTube doesn't support it... Maybe sometime in the future.

I've uploaded about a dozen and a half videos, most in HD and I'm pleased with it. One nice feature is that visitors can download the original video you uploaded for an even higher quality viewing experience than the Flash video they play on their Web site. You can choose to allow or disallow downloads for each individual video.

One thing to note if you care about HD, last time I checked, embedding an HD video is not supported. Embedding an HD video results in embedding an SD version as I understand it.

I will go for Vimeo as well, however there is some limitation about vimeo.

Vimeo allow 500MB upload/week.
Vimeo only allow 1 HD Video upload if you are not paid user.
Vimeo take some time to process after you uploaded(20-90mins)

Vimeo only allow 1 HD Video upload if you are not paid user.


Since when ?
I've got more than one HD video on vimeo and i haven't paid any money, i haven't been asked to either.
Also 500mb a week every week is a lot of video.

Paul.

Anyhow, I tried the "V" site and it meets my needs fine for what I'm doing. People can go to the channel and look at the content. Yes, there is a processing delay of about 30 mins from start to finish but that is not a limitation for what I'm doing.

Since when ?

since they start their Vimeo Plus thing

Presenting Vimeo Plus (http://vimeo.com/plus)

I will go for Vimeo as well, however there is some limitation about vimeo.

Vimeo allow 500MB upload/week.
Vimeo only allow 1 HD Video upload if you are not paid user.
Vimeo take some time to process after you uploaded(20-90mins)

That's 1 HD video upload/week.

I just tried to get the paid version of vimeo, not available in UK yet though.

Paul.

Yes, they said that international service will be available in a few weeks.

Hi Bob, you'll be able to do that right here at DV Info Net pretty soon. As I've mentioned before, we're in the process of setting up a video hosting platform with encoding quality that will rival the best video hosting sites elsewhere on the web. It'll accommodate the needs you describe above perfectly, and of course, it'll be completely free to all DV Info Net members. When it's ready to launch, you'll be seeing a lot of buzz about it here... so stay tuned.

Will we have any option(s) to do our own compression, rather than having it done "for" us?

I would really rather know what the parameters are for creating compliant files, and do the compression myself (let my computer crank for hours/days on end to make compression as efficient as possible, quality/size wise, instead of a quickie compression done on a server). I'd also like to take advantage of tricks like using non-square pixels (anamorphic video) to improve quality for a given file size (which often is very efficient for low bitrate stuff). I don't know if anyone has noticed, but the quality/detail of HD video on Vimeo, while currently being among the best on the web, usually isn't really any better than a very well encoded SD video could be at the same (or even lower) bitrate.

Ideally, I would like to be able to upload videos, using H264 compression at any PAR (like 960x720, for 720p material), and AAC audio, in an MP4 container, without the video then being re-compressed on the server.

Can you give us an idea of what kind of time frame we are looking at for this to become available?

People, here's a web link to Wikipedia's comparison of video services, might find it useful.

Comparison of video services - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_video_services)

I just tried to get the paid version of vimeo, not available in UK yet though.

Paul.

I was 'gifted' plus by a guy called Mark for $75 - very fast and very honest. Well worth the extra $15(£8 UK) and I've been told plus won't be available outside US until Christmas.......

I'd also highly recommend Vimeo - their video quality is very good.
I'm based in Australia, so unfortunately I'm still waiting for Plus to be
released here.

I was 'gifted' plus by a guy called Mark for $75 - very fast and very honest. Well worth the extra $15(£8 UK) and I've been told plus won't be available outside US until Christmas.......

me too

he can afford to be honest, he's making a killing but good on him for spotting a market like that

me too

he can afford to be honest, he's making a killing but good on him for spotting a market like that

Absolutely right, good for him!

Any news on Video Hosting at dvinfo.net? Is it ready yet?

Jeff

Does anyone know to what bitrate Vimeo recompresses their video? Their guide suggests H.264 at 3 MBits/second. I've uploaded H.264 files with rates as high as 7 MBits/second, but there seems to be recompression.

Does anyone know to what bitrate Vimeo recompresses their video? Their guide suggests H.264 at 3 MBits/second. I've uploaded H.264 files with rates as high as 7 MBits/second, but there seems to be recompression.

Vimeo re-encodes its HD videos with the VP6 codec (flv) at around 1-3 mbps. So they are probably using a VBR of 1.5-2 mbps.

Take a look to see the HD comparisons of Vimeo vs. YouTube at: YouTube Is The New Vimeo | Vidlivery (http://vidlivery.com/2008/dec/07/reviews/youtube-new-vimeo)

Youtube just released 720p capability...looks better than anyone now IMO.

YouTube - Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY&fmt=22)

Hi folks!

I've made a page comparing the embedding capabilities available from various video hosts:
Video Embedding Tests (http://www.virb.com/kareltests)

I've not included HD because most people are unable (yet) to view HD in real time (or even not at all), these services are in their infancy, and till it settles down most video creatives will expect to deliver content in SD. Or maybe you guys will disagree?

I'm still improving the site, so any suggestions gratefully received. I hope some of you find it useful, and if so, pass it on!

Cheers!


p.s. Someone has posted elsewhere "if you upload an flv to blip, it will not re-encode the file". I'll be trying that out soon.

Hi Bob, you'll be able to do that right here at DV Info Net pretty soon. As I've mentioned before, we're in the process of setting up a video hosting platform with encoding quality that will rival the best video hosting sites elsewhere on the web. It'll accommodate the needs you describe above perfectly, and of course, it'll be completely free to all DV Info Net members. When it's ready to launch, you'll be seeing a lot of buzz about it here... so stay tuned.

This is wonderful news. I look forward to it.

Happy Christmas and best of luck in 2009.

Regards,
Pavel