video clips on a wepage...advice sought

Subject: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 09:09 AM

I have decided to put some video clips of me doing a floor spot on my webpage. I have just sent for a video camera, but I don't know much about it.

Does anyone have any good advice to offer? Any hints and tips?

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: johnadams
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 09:34 AM

Do you want advice on the filming or on the web bit?

J

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 10:42 AM

I used Moviemaker to put together some videos for youtube. They are absolutely nothing fancy, but fun to do and folks seem to enjoy them: click here. The program is really simple to use. Not sure if you want something "put together" or just raw performance?

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 11:17 AM

I want whatever I'm likely to be able to manage.

every aspect john, really...

try and think ofthe stupidest thing to to do and I'll probably do it. also I don't want people to have to wait a long time to download.

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: Rasener
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 11:20 AM

Jumping in on Big Al's request. I would like to know how to put a video (legal) onto my website. I am using Frontpage. Is there anybody that can provide the info on how to do it?

Many thanks in advance.

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 01:16 PM

The youtube suggestion may be relatively easy but..
I understand by posting clips to youtube you are giving them certain rights..

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 02:47 PM

that doesn't bother me - I can't give my stuff away!

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: Barry Finn
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 03:07 PM

You can't just donwload from your computer or camcorder onto U-Tube?
Do you need a software program to do this?

I was thinking of doint the same thing.

Barry

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: Shaneo
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 03:11 PM

I found that the easiest way of transferring video is from YouTube,
If you have any kind of video camera then you can edit it easy with Windows Movie Maker, which comes free with service pack 2.

I had not got a clue when I started the first time.
Start an account with youtube
follow the east instructions to upload your video
When your video is on youtube it's easy to then put it on your site.
Why not practice with any video fro youtube now.
Open your site builder-add text-edit html-go to youtube-right click the code for any video-select copy-go back to your site and in the text box right click and select paste.
Thats the easy way.
this

is how it will turn out on your site.
As you can see, I made a right bags of my first video , so make sure it looks half decent before puting it on your site.

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: johnadams
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 03:30 PM

Assuming that you've shot something you want to share and it's in your camcorder, you need to digitise it into your computer. Most digital camcorders these days will come with a wire and possibly some software to do this. If it's an analogue camcorder you'll need an interface box.

The captured video usually is in a raw format and will need to be compressed into something more suited to being downloaded from a web page. This will usually be Windoze Media, or Quicktime or Real Media. Also Mpeg 4 is a good format but hasn't caught on as much as I thought it would.

The best way to do all this simply on a Mac is to use iMovie. On a PC I don't know - katlaughing is using Moviemaker - I think there's also a version of Quicktime Pro for the PC and there is a free Real Producer package for the PC. Any of these programs should allow simple editing, topping and tailing, and exporting to a suitable format.

When you export, there are lots of variables and it can get very confusing. Some settings are good for sound at the expense of picture and if it's a folk club performance that would be good. You'd need a different setting for a video of a morris dance or folk tradition, where the visual is more important. Trial and error.

There are also setting for whether the file you are uploading is a 'download' a 'progressive download' or a 'stream'. Forget streaming (you need a server). Downloading means the viewer has to wait until the whole thing is saved before they can watch it. Progressive download is the most appropriate because people can watch it as it comes down.

A Windoze Media file will take up roughly 2Mb per minute depending on settings.

I'm not an expert in this but I'm attending training courses and learning as I'm going along.

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: Stewart
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 03:40 PM

I've just slogged though the process of putting a video on my website. So this is what I finally came to.

First, I used Windows Movie Maker (seems to be included on most Windows PCs) to edit and then save the clip as a Windows Media Video (.wmv) file. It's not the most sophisticated program but it works.

Then you can simply put the file into your page as a .wmv file. This works, but when you play it from your web page it most likely will want to download the whole file before playing it on Windows Media Player or Winamp or whatever viewer you use. Sometimes it will play it as a streaming file, but not always. You can buy various viewers to embed in your web page that will play it as a streaming file, but most of these, in my opinion, are not worth the money or trouble (I did try some demo versions).

So the process that I've come to consider the best for me is to use a redirector file. This will cause it to play in Windows Media Player or Winamp as a streaming file (it starts to play before the file is completely downloaded, that is while it is downloading).

To create a redirector file - the directions are given HERE.
You create a simple .wvx file, which directs the video to the browser's viewer as a stream. The other thing you need to do is set the proper mime types on your web server: for .wmv files the mime type is video/x-ms-wmv; and for the .wvx files is video/x-ms-wvx.
Just follow the instructions in the link - it's not too difficult, I got it the first time through.

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: GUEST,John Robinson
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 06:32 AM

I use iMovie on the Mac (which I found easier to use than Movie Maker, although the two bits of software are very similar in functionality). Upload to YouTube and then link the YouTube video to our website, myspace, etc as an embedded video.

The registration process with YouTube and the uploading process is really straightforward and the instructions on the site for this and the upload process are pretty good. YouTube handles the streaming for you so folks don't have to wait too long before the video plays - hence it's my preferred option.

Not really relevant to the main discussion but - I did complicate the process on one video by importing it into ProTools to tweak the audio and got the frame rate wrong which caused some odd effects - but we live and learn.

Hope this helps Al.

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: GUEST,Dan Colgan
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 02:17 PM

Folks I got what I wanted to work but the flash player stops the video constantly. Is there a suggestion anyone can make to keep the video more consistent...maybe a buffer setting?

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 02:27 PM

The basic way is to do a 'Quick Capture' from the camcorder to You-Tube (thus by-passing any editing software on the PC) and then embedding the URL into your website, altering the dimensions to suit.

Alternatively, do the filming on a digital camera and directly upload the video file; I did this with some clips of Rene Zosso a friend sent me & they've come out pretty good, considering.

More elaborate, seek out some bog standard editing software, but watch out for latency between sound & image, a common fault with You Tube!

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: GUEST,The Plough
Date: 09 Jan 08 - 03:17 PM

you can also do it to MySpace..

www.theploughatstaining.co.uk/

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: Jack Campin
Date: 09 Jan 08 - 05:39 PM

Don't put Windows Media files on your site unless you want to annoy the hell out of anybody who isn't using Windows, in fact probably anybody who isn't using the same version of Windows you are.

I have sometimes managed to get them to play on my systems (most often with either sound or video but not both) but it was so hit-and-miss I simply don't bother with sites that use it any more. There's always going to be a site offering the same as you in a portable format.

And if you're trying to sell something with the video, you might bear in mind that Mac users tend to have more disposable income. (The tendency does not include me...)

Subject: RE: video clips on a wepage...advice sought
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Mar 08 - 05:39 AM

hi i've just downloaded the realplayer which is (as the webpage said) supposed 2 be able 2 download the video clips from youtube. but when i trie downloding, the button "download this video clip" didnt appear. so i use the mouse's right clip and downloaded the video. though the downloading was done, the downloaded video still couldnt be opened by the real player. i am so out of idea. if anyone could help me, plz..........
thz......