Embedding video into my website

Right now I have various video extracts hosted externally (mainly on UTube)

with embedded links on my own website, so that my visitors can view them on my

website.

 

What I really want to do is to host these video files on my own website so

that I don't need to rely on the service/quality of an external supplier.

 

I know that this is possible, can anyone please tell me how to do it? And what

I need in the way of software?

 

Many thanks.

I think a html program such as Dreamweaver will be able to incorporate video to your web site, dont know if you have to redo everything from scratch do? Also i think that if you embed this video to your own web site you will have more download data, and that mean probably more $$$ to pay to your provider or host, but im not sure about that...it is just my personal limited knowledge on the subject. it could be simpler probably : )

What file format do you use? If you have not made a commitment, I suggest Quicktime 7's H.264. The code to embed it is explained here: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/embed.html

Put in some Flash video player like Youtube does, then you don't have to worry about people having their players/file associations/codecs in order. Of course people then need Flash, but people usually have it these days.

Thanks for the responses.

I'm happy to pay for the extra bandwith but minimising it, and maintaining image quality at the same time is important, so the Quicktime H.264 suggestion seems to be ideal.

 

*Put in some Flash video player like Youtube does, then you don't have to worry about people having their players/file associations/codecs in order.* This makes sense too, I wonder whether you can be specific about exactly what I need to do?

There are few Flash encoders due to licensing issues. I only know two products for the PC: After Effects and On2 Flix Pro.

 

H.264 is an ISO standard, and videos using it can be created with a wide array of applications (some free).

Newsflash: even Adobe, the owner of Flash, is migrating (from On2 VP6) to H.264

 

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/coming-soon-web-video-in-high-definition/

Hi Gary,

 

Here are the steps:

 

1) Encode your video in FLV format. You can use the free Riva encoder, although it's somewhat finiky/buggy.

Free Riva FLV Encoder 2.0

http://www.rivavx.com/index.php?downloads&L=3

 

Lots of other encoders are around, search on "flv encoder"

Keep the audio rate at a multiple of 11.025 khz (22.05khz, 44.1khz).

 

http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=FLV_Video_Compression

(more info)

 

2) Test your video in an FLV player, like the free Riva one.

 

3) Upload video to your site.

 

4) Get a FLV player for your website. There are some free ones and some commercial ones:

 

Here's a good one with a "jukebox" interface:

http://components.earthscienceagency.com/components/flvplayer/

and a free one

http://components.earthscienceagency.com/components/free_flv_player/

 

Another inexpensive one:

http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=Flash_Video_Player

 

 

5) Add some javascript to your page to create the flash object. You need to do this so that your users don't get that "Click to enable control" message on Windows.

 

I like swfobject for this:

http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/

 

Here's what it typically looks like on a web page:

 

-- in the head tag somewhere --

 

<script language="JavaScript" src="swfobject.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

 

-- in the place where you want the video to go --

 

<div id="video1"></div>

<script type="text/javascript">

var so = new SWFObject("player1.swf", "video1", "539", "284", "7", "");

so.addParam("loop", "false");

so.write("video1");

</script>

 

The "video1" is the element where the video gets inserted. The script calls the swfobject to create the control to avoid that "click to enable" message. The first parameter is your video player from #4, then the id, then the width and height, and what flash version to be compatible with. The player you use should tell you the width and height to use.

 

Let me know if you need more info.

It's been a while since I did this so I don't remember many details, but nice that Todd filled in with an example.

 

h.264 is a nice standard, but the problem is that it has been gaining popularity only in recent times and thus many users may not have it installed. Publishing video always has this problem, only the simplest codecs can be assumed to be available. Flash is not an ideal solution, but works for Youtube and has in my experience been pretty nice for the user in terms of compatibility.