Thanks for a wonderful post, very helpful indeed! Can I ask your opinion on what you feel is the best option for hosting the videos on your blog either YouTube or using the Flash plugin, the reason why I am slightly concerned about using the YouTube embedded code is if YouTube closed down your account for any reason then I would lose all the video content on my blog. Your opinion would be great.

Thanks

Most of the information for the plugin I use for my flv videos can be found here:

http://www.mac-dev.net/blog/

The basic format for getting the player to work on your blog after installing the plugin, is this:

[flashvideo file=LINK-TO-YOUR-VIDEO.flv /]

You just add that to your blog post or page and it should work.

Hope this helps!

Gideon Shalwick

So glad you’re finding the info useful!

Just let me know if there is anything else I can add…

Gideon

You’ve helped me so much and I really just wanted to sincerely thank you again.

Cheers
Michelle

Do you know a way to ‘mask’ the path of the video so that people can’t potentially steal/download the video by just entering the URL?

I’m not using Amazon S3 services. Just uploaded the flv video file to my server.

Thank you,
Nat

Have you seen this video that I created?

http://gideonshalwick.com/how-to-embed-flv-video-files-on-your-blog-without-using-services-like-youtube/

It may answer some questions for you…

Gideon

Cool! Thanks for the resource. I will check it out…

Gideon Shalwick

I find your tutorials very informative! Since you are very interested in online video, I want to suggest our service called Nimbb. Here is the link:

http://nimbb.com

Our service allows recording short videos using a webcam and embedding them in any site. For advanced need, you can program the Nimbb Player using HTML/Javascript and use our API. Tutorials and documentation here:

http://nimbb.com/Help/Api.aspx

If you are interested in testing our service to create a screencast for your readers, please contact me back.

Regards,

Benjamin

No problem at all!

Just let me know if you have any specific questions you’d like me to answer ok?

Talk soon!

Gideon Shalwick

PS: Just checked out your website – looks real cool! Do you know my friend Fran from http://www.HighOnHealth.com? You guys might be able to share some stories

You are pointing me to all the best resources, thank you so much!

I’ve just created a video for you to help answer your question about embedding an flv video on a static website here:

http://gideonshalwick.com/how-to-embed-your-own-flv-videos-on-a-static-website/

Just leave a question underneath that video if anything does not make sense…

Best regards

Gideon Shalwick

The Amazon S3 service is right for anyone who want to host their own video files for whatever reason, as apposed to hosting it on free sites like YouTube.com for example.

The Amazon S3 service is particularly useful if you want to run a video membership site, because it means that you’re videos are then not freely available as they would be on sites like YouTube.com.

Amazon S3 is the cheapest hosting you’ll find anywhere, and you only pay for what you use. So, it really depends on what kind of traffic you’re expecting. Either way, it will be cheaper than most hosting packages for getting the same amount of bandwidth and space.

Gideon Shalwick

iMovie would be okay to get started with? I’ve spend WAY too much already:)

And… when I looked at getting the plugin, it said it works for 2.7 and I’ve got 2.8 installed on the blog I wanted to run it on, do you think that would still work? Would you use the beta version or the older one?

I SOOO appreciate the time your saving me!

Maggie

Who would you say Amazon’s S3 service is right for? Anyone with a closed membership site?

I found their pricing info hard to interpret if you’re not a really techinical person. Any idea what something like 10 videos about 20 minutes each would cost?

Thanks again, solid stuff.

I have a Mac but wrongly assumed there would be sufficient software included with the machine…I can only find iMovie at the moment although I believe the video camera itself came with a program for editing which I’ve not looked at yet.

I might need to take a few hours to go over some of your tutorials and check what I’ve missed in my haste to get a move on!

I have not used Premier Pro yet, but I’ve heard that it can do an ok job, as long as you know how to use it

These 3 videos may be of help to you:

http://gideonshalwick.com/how-to-convert-high-def-videos-to-flv-so-they-play-quickly-and-keep-the-same-clarity-part-1/

http://gideonshalwick.com/how-to-convert-high-def-videos-to-flv-so-they-play-quickly-and-keep-the-same-clarity-part-2/

http://gideonshalwick.com/how-to-convert-high-def-videos-to-flv-so-they-play-quickly-and-keep-the-same-clarity-part-3/

Just let me know if you have any other questions ok?

Regards

Gideon

I basically asked “is there any tips you have for a great quality > compression ratio when using HD footage”?

I use Premiere Pro, are you familiar with it at all?

I record using a Flip Mino HD and I find that it does a great job. The only issue that I have is when I export it, I have to use .h264 codec to maintain proportions. If I try something like the WMV or Quicktime, it ends up looking stretched – even when I specify the resolution.

Sorry if this is outside of the scope of this post – I don’t mean to digress compression ratio?

With the green screen stuff, I hope you have a good enough camera (HD is recommended), and also the right software (Sony Vegas for PC and Final Cut Express for Mac).

All the best!

Gideon

Now I feel confident I have the technical side of things at least ‘doable’ in my mind, I’m off to buy some green material tomorrow and some lights! Lucky I have a great little digital video recorder already.

Thanks again, you are very generous with your knowledge and time.

It’s pretty easy once you’ve done it a few times.

The hardest part is getting your original video into the right format (flv) while still looking crisp and clear

All the best!

Gideon

I’ll give this a shot and thanks for the heads-up about the Amazon S3.

Best regards,

Clément