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Free Yourself From Your Video Upload Provider - How An Org Can Self Host Video Without Headaches

Why Don't More Organizations Self Host Their Videos?

If you think about it, there are a number of things that real estate video upload companies like Youtube or others dont do well. It seems that you always have to deal with their branding and their requirement to cut and paste content. This works for a few videos...but is this really an efficient method for organizations to manage content?

Let's say that your brokerage or local REALTOR Board wants to host property videos on their own web server for their agents that have flip cameras, video capable iPhone, or other traditional video cameras. The agents can be located anywhere and the board doesn't want to have to hire a full time video professional to manage conversions or cut/paste video embed codes. What now?

Using a Automated Video Conversion Widget

the config menu for the widget

Vidlisting (via the platform provider ForSaleByLocals) has just released two possible solutions. One is a small, personalizable web form widget that you can place on any page and will let your team of REALTORS upload a video, convert it into any or all of 6 video formats (swf Flash, flv Flash, wmv, iPhone ready MP4, Quicktime MOV, or mobile 3GP) and automatically send the converted video files to a directory on your organization's web server. The widget can be completely personalized including the ability to choose beween a standard size and a "sidebar" size that fits in the sidebar of wordpress blogs. You can also choose colors and even input a custom background color for the widget. You can also password protect uploads if you like so only those users with the password can upload files via the widget.

Using An Video Conversion API in Your Web Pages or Custom Apps

The other solution is a web based automated video conversion application programming interface (API) ideal for real estate web developers. Using the very simple API, you can now convert video programatically just by using a simple URL. You can even override your own preconfigured defaults when needed. The complete technical documentation for the video conversion API is available as well...note that the documentation is for technical users that have a basic knowledge of programming or scripting languages.

Conversion Is Fast And Safe

Unlike some real estate video companies that often have waits of several days to process their video, Vidlisting has a cluster of dedicated video conversion servers. Files are sent to the first open server and processing of multiple video files can happen in parallel.

Best of all, we take care of of inspecting the uploaded video files as part of the upload process so that only valid video file are processed. We also maintain a wide range of video codecs that often make video conversions from different sources difficult.

Preconfiguration for the FTP process takes seconds and can be accessed via the FTP Configuration menu item on the Configuration menu at http://social.vidlisting.com

What Are Some Other Possible Uses Of These Features?

- Use the widget to collect video from participants of a special event or conference in a standardized format for inclusion on a blog or webpage

- Include the widget in the sidebar of a hyperlocal website for a given neighborhood or area. Allow the neighbors and local businesses to upload video content that ends up on your webserver in a common format and known location (no more trying to keep up with different youtube channels) (h/t to Jim Duncan)

- Build a web app or iPhone application that lets users convert video, FTP it to your own server, and display it on your own webserver after conversion.

Let me know any thoughts you may have about this service.

Tony
The Real Estate Video Social Network

Summary of Recent Changes To The Social Network

Posted by A. Grey | Vidlisting.com| Real Estate Video Mentor on 08/30/2008 12:10 PM

Comments (4)

videos, api, real estate, hosting

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4 Comments on Free Yourself From Your Video Upload Provider - How An Org Can Self Host Video Without Headaches

AUG

2008

So I just completed ( first draft actually) a Video that I want to put on my web site. It is created out of Power Director. Problem is that this AVI is about 75 MB and my web site will only allow 20MB.

I do not fully comprehend why it is this large. It is about 6 or 7 clips that are 7 to 15 seconds apieace.

Any Suggesstions?

SEP

2008

Hi Herb...it could be a multitude of things having to do with the type and configuration of the file. I'm not so familiar with Power Director but there should be something that tells you what the output codec is. You may want to experiment with the outputs to fnd one that meets your quality and file size needs.

I'm also thinkig that if there isnt a way to control output, you can always upload the file to http://upload.vidlisting.com and our automated video checker will put detailed configuration information about the file in the post processing email. We'l be able to read it here as well and be able to better help you.

Tony

Thanks Tony,

I do have the ability to produce the movie in a variety of formats with Power Director. I chose Mpeg4 as it gave me the smallest file size with the same quality.

I quess a few questions that pop up in my mind about file size is this.

What causes file size?

Are they different from one device to the other?

Which is better Point and click? Flip video? or Cam-corders? File size wise.

What is the difference in videos when it comes to a downloaded video ( like youtube ) and a flash video or similar.

If you were doing short video's which avenue would you select and why?

SEP

2008

Herb

File size is product of dimensions, format, quality (just like with photos), and frame rate. Files are really just groups of 1s and 0s inside a container (file format). Basically the fewer 1s and 0s inside a file, the smaller the file. The trick after conversion is to be able to use a format that reconstructs those 1s and 0s into an image that most resembles the original file (quality). Given the same file format and quality, it simply takes more 1s and 0s to fill any single image with larger dimensions and since videos are simply images that change 12-30 times per second (frame rate), these factors determine the overall file size.

Because the 1s and 0s are inside a container there shouldnt be a variance in file sizes across devices that can read that file type. Note that camera brands dont matter, there output formats do.

Our case likely isnt representative of most people with their own videos. I dont personally use one format. We initially download our videos from the camera with as little compression as possible. The file sizes are huge (dozens of GBs) while we edit them so our editing computers have huge amounts of memory and hard drive space. We only change the file type to the final format after all of the editing is complete.

I hate to say. "depends"..but it does. My point is that there isnt a magic format and it takes some experimentation to find a good mix of quality and file size. That mix may change depending on the environment that the video is to be used (videos shown on an HD TV will need to be more quality oriented than file size oriented whereas videos online have definite file size limitations). The final format is determined by how the video will be used - online? flash. iphone? H.264 format. Multiple videos to show to a client? perhaps WMV9 or an HD capable format...

Give me a call at 360-362-1032 and can discuss your particular needs and various formats.

Tony

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