I am very impressed with the quality Brad. You folks do a good job of bringing quality to the community! Thanks for your commitment to quality! Steve

Brad, You will have to start going on the road to teach video marketing. AJ

Brad, I have to admit after #4 the quality of the videos are all very impressive. I know about Youtube and Google Video, could you tell us the cost (if there is any) for the other sites.

Another comparison I should have included is the "upload" times.  The same 2 minute video took anywhere from 5 minutes to load, all the way up to 8 hours before it could be embeded.  WOW! Can you guess which one was 5 and which one took 8?  Watch for a post on that for sure... lol~  :-)

You forgot Veoh. Veoh would probably take hours to upload :)

Brad - the Viddler platform and the Google Video platform seemed to be much clearer for the viewing, and the initial load was much smoother than the others.  The audio was much cleaner on Viddler and Google, too. 

When I bumped these two to full screen viewing, there was less degradation in Viddler than Google.  But, on the other hand, there was a lot of "dead space" framing Viddler, too. 

Either one of these platforms would be my preference if I were going to produce and post a video.

That's my $.02.  Hope it helps!  Thanks for doing all the hard work!

Great blog I love it. I will say you tubes quality sucks I had a high end video and it didnt come out that way on their server at all. I am assuming they compress a lot.

Bradster - Great post, thank you.  I just bought a Flip Video upon your advice, love it, easy to use, checking into Mixpo.  Which is the easiest site to use?  I am tech-impaired, I will sacrifice quality for ease (Don't tell anyone I said that)

Question - Using AR Video can I put the award winning video that I am going to produce on another site, like American Towns, and on my website as well as AR blogs?

Actually, this was a test.  I wanted to see if I could break the network by putting 6 videos into a single post. lol~  Obviously it's working!!  YEAH!!!   What an upgrade it must have been if you can really view these and even comment.  :-))

Great Job AR Team, Thanks for your hard work all night last night!!  :-)))))))))))))))))

Steve - thanks, you should see a real difference depending on your monitor and settings.  I was pretty shocked.

Thanks AJ - I already am...  let's do lunch sometime soon.

Mana - I agree, there's a real difference.

Monika - I thought if I was going to try and break the network, 6 videos in a post would be enough!!  lol~
I should upload this to Veoh and embed it to make the test here fair. Thanks   :-)

Carol - that's funny, on my monitor, those two aren't nearly as clear as the last 2.  If you try reading the text in each video, that's where you can really see if the quality is up to your personal standards.  I can't read the text in the first few videos.  Maybe I should un label them and do it like a tasters test... hmmm :- My 4 cents change.  :-))

Heather - I think they have to use a method of compression that beats the "you know what" out of the video, but understanably so, look how many videos are uploaded to their server everyday.

Bradster - Great post, thank you. I just bought a Flip Video upon your advice, love it, easy to use, checking into Mixpo. Which is the easiest site to use? I am tech-impaired, I will sacrifice quality for ease (Don't tell anyone I said that)

Virginia - now you know I'm going to be partial to ActiveRain Video (Mixpo), but that's why I put this up, so that members would be able to make their own choice as to which one suits their needs.  They are all easy to use, you just upload your video to them all the same way basically.  So it does come down to quality, uploading time, and errors, and choice.

Question - Using AR Video can I put the award winning video that I am going to produce on another site, like American Towns, and on my website as well as AR blogs?

Regarding your question, they are looking into being able to create a file that you could in fact download to your computer, and then upload anywhere you want.  Not yet available, but keep watching the AR headline news. Have a great weekend, I'm off to the Seascape Resort with my wife, but available via cell...

Hi Brad thanks for doing a comparison on all these videos.  Well of course my Favorite looks like to still be the winner, Vimeo.  But in all fairness Youtube is pretty picky on the formatting and file types you upload, you have to play around with certain file types for different videos it seems like  .wmv can work great on audio clips or an .avi on web cam clips.  Anywhoo, I was really surprised and impressed with the activerain video, although it did take longer to load than the rest, the quality seemed great!

You might want to check out http://wuapi.com they are High Definition Videos also and the max upload is 4 GB :)

Thanks Brad - I thought the AR Video looked the clearest, I looked at them on my laptop with Firefox and on my hubby's with IE.  I did a video with AOL, pretty cool, but you just send a link not embed.

I may be asking for help next week -- Have a great weekend!

I like that for the 30 seconds you kept my attention on the A/R platform there was no jumping or skipping.  Wellcomemat seemed to have a better picture. 

Those were the only two I looked at...

I gave each one 30 seconds and 4,5&6 were the clearest, with AR being the easiest to read the type.  This was a great idea.  I'd love to see a post from you on the Flip vs the Vado.  Any chance AR will let you expense another toy tool?

Brad, how great your tutorials are. I love them!! True story.  Amazing stuff, and I'll check all of them out. I did enjoy the first three though...you had mentioned the google one to me. Thanks as always! ;-)

I stopped all of them at the "profile selection" point of the video to compare the text.  Vimeo was the clearest, Active Rain 2nd, Wellcome Mat 3rd, Google & Viddler tied for 4th,and youtube worst. 

I don't like that the control bar on AR/Mixpo is black unless scrolled over - peronsal preference from an old lady who does not find this intuitive :)

Audio was clearest for me on AR/Mixpo, with Wellcome Mat second and the rest about the same.

Hey Brad - you forgot ZIPVO! I may be a bit biased, but I think it's a great real estate video site. Check it out at zipvo.com.

Cheers,

James

Brad,  They all seemed really good except #5 didn't load or indicate that it was going to.  Perhaps it was my computer??? 

# 3 seemed to be clearest to me.  I am going to go back through it now that I've read the other comments and see if I agree or differ.

Thanks for putting all of them in one place so I can evaluate each. I have been hesitant to get started. This helps. Thanks

Brad - the sound on the YouTube one seems to be much better than the rest.

Thanks Bradster! I thought the AR video was the best, so that was with Mixpo? You'da man!!!! Thanks again. Have a great weekend! David in A-Town.

Brad: Thank you for sharing all the different options out there for video

Hi Brad. This is a great comparison. I liked the last 3 the best.

Thanks Brad...I wish ya wouldve included costs & time to upload...I am trying out viddler right now to put up my first video.

Brad, this is all ove my head. One at a time. :) bookmarked.

Brad, I'm kind of torn between wellcome mat and Viddler. I thought Viddler has a better format and plays much clearer.

Brad - You have to look at WWW.VMDIRECT.COM/LIVEBBB

Attached is a comparison of many video companies and I have done much research on this. It is really great - you can do podcast, video email with changing banners that will work great with e cards -

I CAN'T ATTACH HERE - You can go to the main site and get the PDF - you can also watch my new fit to fabulous blog - as a work 24/7 agent I gained 90 lbs from 1994 - 2000! I am now on my last 10 and I am sharing it now with a video blog - still learning the how to do it all -Just launched it last week - please compare - I know you will be impressed and John Cannon is looking at it as well to integrate with his awesome system -

I am posting my new e card on my blog in active rain at some point tonight - today - ???

Elizabeth, if Brad has not deleted you before you get this comment, I am offended by your blatant ad on this post. We on AR do not, in politeness, post MLM ads to fellow members. If you are indeed a member (no log in ?) please abide by the rules of ettiquette. Thank you and good luck to you.

Thank you for sharing, I enjoyed the blog

Thanks for going to the effort to do this. Bookmarking this and will come back and watch them all.

Justin - thanks for your comment and for testing these out.  I am coming to the conclusion that much of the quality in both audio and video depends on your computer, your sound card, and your monitor.  On my system both HP PC and MacBook Pro, the AR video wins hands down for quality on video.  The audio seems to be louder on Youtube, but their video quality is just blurry.  In a video where there is text and details, we need to consider what host provides the best views. Thanks for your input, you are the man!!  :-)

I'll check out Wuapi.com when I get some spare time, thanks. 

Thanks Brad - I thought the AR Video looked the clearest, I looked at them on my laptop with Firefox and on my hubby's with IE.  I did a video with AOL, pretty cool, but you just send a link not embed. I may be asking for help next week -- Have a great weekend!

Virginia - I agree. I haven't looked at the AOL Video platform, but their scrub did pick up 4 of my AR videos and placed them on their site a couple weeks ago. I was shocked!  Call me next week, I'll help you out any way I can.  :-)

Lane - I forgot to mention that AR Video has HD.  You might have had it set on OFF. 

If you place your mouse over the lower right hand corner of the video screen, you'll see an option to turn on the HD video.  It usually auto-detects your system, and decides whether it should be auto-on, or auto-off.  Try with HD, I think you'll see a HUGE difference. Thanks for at least checking out the two video hosts, it helps to know what you like and expect when uploading your media to these sites.  :-)

Brad, Thanks for the comparisons! We use some of these that you mentioned as well as AOL Video and ZIPVO. AOL Video is good quality and for us they seem to get picked up quicker and better in search engines. Also, we are very impressed with the quality of the ZIPVO platform. The google videos seem to take longer to upload for us. Just our opinion!! Have a good weekend!

Matt - that's what I experienced too. AR is the only one that lets us add links in the video as well.  When I say "Click The Blue Button to Find Out More" in the video, the other 5 videos won't let me put a button or link in them.  I point to where the button should be, then look like a dork because there's no blue button there.  Guess I better work on that pre productions stuff. lol~ I'd love to do a Vado vs FLIP comparison, what would we be comparing or testing? Let me know, I might be able to make it happen.  Thanks my friend.  :-)

Hi Teri - the first 3 aren't too bad, but the last 3 rocked if you're trying to actually read or see what the text in the video says.  If you try to read the text in the first 3, it's just very blurry, it gets better in the others.  However, I am seeing comments here that some feel the others are better, so I am trying to determine what causes that.  Is it the video card on their computer? Is it the Monitor etc.? This is a great way to test, compare, and get opinions and comments to come to a conclusion of what's best for Real Estate Video. Thanks for the sweet comment, have a great weekend, I'll be over soon and expect that we'll get to hook up when I'm there.  :-)

Michelle - now that's how you test Video!!  :-)  What a great report back on the results you found. Almost exactly like mine.  It's interesting reading these comments and the different results people are having.  Great stuff, thanks!  :-)

BTW - I think I can adjust the Black Scroll bar in the AR/Mixpo settings.  Thanks for that bit of info and opinion.  Preferences are important and the viewers should also be considered over our own.  :-)

James - I have heard of Zipvo.com, but haven't really checked out your site in any great detail.  I will now, thanks for commenting and sharing that here. I would be looking primarily at three areas: uploading time and file size limitations, playback quality and player compatibility, and features and tools for end users. Do you have any tracking or analytics abilities?  Are embeded files real time updated or does the code have to be reinserted when updates or changes are made? I'll test it next week when I return to the home office, I'm on the beach right now! (BIG GRIN!) :-))

Sara - I think we are continuing to get mixed opinions and comments, which is great!  AR is the perfect platform to test this stuff, and in the end, many find new or replacement tools in the process that meet their needs.  Gotta love it! The two that are NOT tested here are Veoh.com and Zipvo.com.  There may be others by the time this post gets to wherever it's going. :-))

Terry, thanks. It was nice to be able to compare these all in the same spot. It seemed nearly impossible and hard to test them in all their 6 different locations. I wasn't sure if having all 6 in one post would crash the system or my Blog. :-O  Looks like the upgrades to AR are proving to be very positive in that you were able to view all these videos.  Yeah!!  :-) You really should get started on Video, it's not going away...ever! 

Brad, I am so exceptionally pleased that you have shared this test with us. I'm about to get a video camera and want to be able to hit the ground running.

Trying to delete earlier post - I never meant to offend anyone. I am trying to help as I have been looking for video systems as well to use and found one to be very user friendly and work with many systems we use as agents.

Bo - the audio isn't too bad on any of the players, the quality of the video however has quite a range of responses.  The AR Video has an HD option that many here might not be aware of.  Each of the players has some different features, but the upload time are enough to drive you nuts on some of these sites.  :-)

David - I only used Bradster so I wouldn't screw up my existing account!  It's all I could think of in the heat of the moment  Video. lol~
The AR Video was done using the Mixpo Video (Which we are now calling ActiveRain Video), but I wanted to compare all the players to be fair and see what other members thought of each. 

Roland - no problem, hope you had the chance to compare them. If not, come back later and test the audio and video quality. Thanks.

Wayne - thanks.  The survey says...."The majority agree"  It's interesting to see that others here may disagree. That makes this test  better than expected because I assummed everyone would see what I see.  Not the case, now I have more research to do...  lol~ :-)

Jeremy - the upload times for these videos varied as I stated in the post. I was really comparing quality, so I didn't keep exact notes on how long each took to upload and then be ready to embed.  AR Video is the only one that uploaded and was ready to go in 5 minutes.  It's also the only one that has a subscription fee.  I don't see members mind paying once they discover all the benefits and tools plus the time and results they'll receive when using it.

Stephanie - take your time, I'm looking forward to seeing your AR Video productions.  I think doing "Community" and "Area" video is a great start.  People love to see video of places they have never been or may never get to go.  They also might consider visiting or moving to an area once they see some video.  Many uses for video in the Real Estate Market today.  :-) 

John - thanks for taking the tasters choice here.  As you can tell, there seems to be a wide variety of comments and difference of opinions here. It's all good. Whatever one works best on your computer, doesn't mean it's the one that works best on others. That's a conclusion I have determined thanks to this post.  :-)

Hi Elizabeth.  I see you are new to AR, and want to thank you for sharing your link to that video site.  I know that others here may see that as spam or hi-jacking so a friendly and respectful way to do it (just so you know in the future) is to just put the URL or Web address without making it a link.  I know your intentions were honest and sincere, and that you were not spamming or hijacking this post. Welcome to AR, and if you sign in before commenting, you'll receive points for comments made on others blogs.  Let me know if you ever need any assistance here.  I did like the video from your link, a bit salesy, but well done none-the-less. I do see our industry going in that direction. Thanks. :-))

BTW - Looking forward to seeing your new eCard on your next post.  I checked out your Blog and didn't see it, maybe you're working on the next post and will have it there.  Have a great weekend. 

Elizabeth, if Brad has not deleted you before you get this comment, I am offended by your blatant ad on this post. We on AR do not, in politeness, post MLM ads to fellow members. If you are indeed a member (no log in ?) please abide by the rules of ettiquette. Thank you and good luck to you.

David - I appreciate your looking out for me and my Blog.  Elizabeth is new, and is still learning the ropes here in the rain.

(I remember doing the same thing when I was new and having that person gently inform me how it was perceived and that it's a no-no)

She sent me an email apologizing and asking me to remove her comment.  Her intention was only to share with me another topic related site that has some pretty cool stuff. Sometimes new members don't understand how all this stuff works, and they need us to help them and at times, show them the way. Thanks for being a great community contributor, and such a good friend.

Hope to come see ya soon...thanks David.

Brett, thank you, glad you enjoyed this post.

Bob and Carolyn - come back anytime, you're always welcome. Once you review these, I'd love to hear what the results are. See if you can read the text in any of the videos.  Which one has the clearest and highest definition?  You can select HD on one of the AR Video player to see the Highest Quality they make available in their player.

Brad,
Thanks for the comparisons! We use some of these that you mentioned as well as AOL Video and ZIPVO. AOL Video is good quality and for us they seem to get picked up quicker and better in search engines. Also, we are very impressed with the quality of the ZIPVO platform. The google videos seem to take longer to upload for us. Just our opinion!! Have a good weekend!

Hi David - thanks for comparing and watching these. I has AOL pick up 4 of my AR Videos, I was shoked. Very cool. I have to check out ZIPVO, I have heard some good things about them.  I am trying to not be bias with ActiveRain Video, that's why I wanted to compare the others.  I still like AR Video best, but that's because I AM BIAS!!  lol~  You guys have a great weekend. Thanks David.  :-)

Vickie - when you get that camera, you'll never be the same!! lol~  Let me know if you need any help with the camera or with video, I'd be glad to help. Have a great 3 day weekend.  :-)

Trying to delete earlier post - I never meant to offend anyone. I am trying to help as I have been looking for video systems as well to use and found one to be very user friendly and work with many systems we use as agents.

Elizabeth, that is not necessary. My friend David and I have seen many spammers come into posts and try to hijack them.  I understand you are new, and now David does too.  I know you meant well, and that your intentions were friendly and helpful. I will not delete your comment. That would not be helping any other members as they wouldn't get to see what site you referenced.  There is much to learn in this great community of ours, and I welcome your questions and comments anytime.  I'm happy you have chosen ActiveRain as a place to connect with others, and promote and grow your business.  If you ever need any assistance here, let me know, my door is always open to you. Have a great weekend and please don't worry about your comment, it's ok. 

BTW - The video on VMDIRECT.com was pretty well done.  Thanks for sharing.  I think as long as your references and referrals are topic related, it's ok to mention them in others posts, just don't create hyper-links to them in the future, that's where some people can and often do get really upset

I will tell you what - I posted my concerns before I left for the movies and I could not wait to get home and make sure I was not kicked out of my new play area! Thanks Brad and David for making me still feel welcome. I am learning the ropes and will promise to follow directions!

I wear many hats in my life now. I am an agent and have been since 94 with Coldwell Banker TRIAD, in Burlington NC -  am still listing and selling to feed my family but I have left ranking #1 in my company, left listing 90+ homes, left closing 150+ units with no team and I have left working my average of 32 hours a week! I started all over prospecting for speaking and training to live my true passion. Helping other agents to live that life I was living! I know what it takes to be the best agent you can be and I want to help agents to do that! Back to my earlier post, as an agent I hated going to a seminar where the person was there to PUSH products on me! I wanted to be motivated to love my business and to be given new and fresh creative ideas to lead generation and ways to improve my business! That is what I was doing. I research just as you do Brad and I do it to save agents time from doing it. You can't list and sell homes when you have to worry about how to do this or that or what is best. I found the system I use to be the best price and the best quality. It uploads fast and the email video links work like the ecards and the best part is putting both together. It will make a very impressive statement. It also is a part of another whole community of contacts with HELLOWORLD community. More leads to find me and more leads to find you!  I am teaching a webinar on that but I am almost scared to state that and so I will not post the link.

So, with all of that said...Thank you for making me feel welcome. I plan to be here with everyone and help all I can -also Brad here is my real estate ecard - I have two - one for real estate and one for speaking! BTW FYI you can have as many free cards as you want but only one card can be made per email account.

I guess what I am trying to really convey is that I am not trying to sell you on anything. I am hoping that ActiveRain will open new doors for me to help others and to venture into more speaking and training. (Yes, that was a plug - HIRE ME!!!)

Brad, it took me all day to get to these. Of course I like the Mixpo because of all the links. I am enjoying video's but they take so much time to upload, then save, then submit. I wish they were all faster.

Really like the ability to choose specific scenes on WellcomeMat rather than being forced to watch the video linearly. How soon will the ActiveRain video platform be rolling out?

Liz - If you need any help with the "ropes" here in the rain, just let me know, I'm happy to help you out anytime. You sound like a busy person with the same desires as many of us here, to share and help others.  Awesome!!  I am familiar with HELLOWORLD, I think more and more our industry is going that way and accepting the fact.  Great technology is only considered great when implemented with positive results and rewards. Some of us have to be the pioneers of this stuff. lol~ 

When I come to NC, maybe we can have you as a guest speaker to join us.  Can you send me a BIO? What are your "speaking passions" and "experiences" you'd like to share with members here?  Shoot me an email, or give me a call, I'd love to find out more about you.

Welcome once again Liz, you'll get out of AR, much more than you put into it, so invest your time and experiences here, and watch what happens.  :-)

Missy - the time really is an issue, I agree.  I have found that 2 minute or less videos take the least amount of processing time and get the most views at 100%.  We just keep learning as we go eh?  Templates on AR Video seem to save a lot of time, are you using them?  If you need help with Templates, let me know. Thanks Missy, good luck in the M2T contest this year!  :-)

John - wellcomemat is cool that way I agree.  AR Video is out now.  Full integration is the next step, let me know if you need any additional info, we have many signing up now even before the full integration.  :-)

Google Video doesn't work.  When it doesn't work after loading for 2 hours, they give you an innane message,

COMPLETE

Uh huh!!

Lenn - sorry to hear that. I have seen it take even longer with these hosts depending on the size of the file and length of the video being uploaded. AR Video is the only one I have seen that uploads and transcodes in most cases just minutes. Two hours to upload a video is just wrong. Let's look at your options. Let me know when you have a few minutes so we can investigate an explore what will work best for you. Thanks Lenn. :-)

Wow! So interesting... Thank you so much for sharing. Keep up the good work.

And let me share with you my favourite service called StreetView.

Hey Brad- Thanks for this post. I was a film major and instead of set design I want to bring more interest to film and real estate. I started blogging one year ago on active rain. I told all my good Friends about it. Mara Hawks has been a great contributor and realto that lives in Alabama. We are coming to Inman. You have a big part in it by showing us the ropes. I joined www.HelloWorld/lynnepope so I could do some of the video world,pod, real time conversations and I think if I had read your blog first I may have tried some of these first.

I am learning. All the more reason for going to Inman

Lynne Pope

www.teamatthebeach.com part of Pat Kitano and Kevin Boer www.SoCalblognetwork.com

Diana - thanks, I'll have to check that one out.

Lynne - make sure you find me at Inman in SF in July, I'd love to meet you and discuss this more in depth. Maybe you'll let m do a "VIDEO" interview with you there. lol~  Thanks for your comment, they're always welcomed.  See you in July. :-)

So now there are 9 video hosting sites mentioned on this post, six of them demonstrated for you here.  It's an interesting result that we've discovered, and now I think more and more are understanding why quality is important with video.  The competition is only going to get better, therefore the quality must be the best you can offer for your readers. :-)

Thanks for aiding in my research.  I have a goal of having a studio online in the next 30 days. 

i'm sure this will help.

Let me know if you need any assistance setting that up, I have been fortunate to work with with some other online studios that have done exceptionally well on the internet.  These are the folks that have convinced me that video is the way to go now, and in the future. Glad to help out if you need.  Thanks and best of luck to you and your studio.  :-)

This is just what I'm looking for to kick off my video blogging.

Tracy - there are some great tools available and sites that will host your videos, but after comparing these, a few questions have come up. If you have any, call or email me, I would never send you down the wrong path and I'm here to support your video needs always. :-))

Hi Brad..I know it will be a while before you can get to this question so I "marked " my comment so I could find it!

I am dying to try this and I have a domain but it is tied to my website on Point2. So if I use that will it screw up  my website? I am a total stupe on this stuff even though I do muddle through....stubborn I guess!

Joan - love your mark!  :-)  If you point to the AR nameservers, it will replace everything on your website. May I suggest getting a seperate domain name, so that doesn't happen?  It really depends on what you are trying to do and what you want the end result to be.  We are still testing and fixing a couple minor issues, that should give you a bit of extra time to figure out what you want as the end result. You can call me anytime. Thanks Joan.  :-)

WellcomeMat is really nice with the extra option to skip things that you don't want to see.

http://www.viamediatours.com

I like WellcomeMat too, the chapter concept is genious.  It's one of the answers to the age old problem of people not watching the entire video, especially the 5-10 minute ones.  Now they can sort throug