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Posts Tagged ‘video on your website’
By: stu | Posted: Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
The Challenge; One size does not fit all.
The Fix; Custom sized video player.
Back before video was the ubiquitous animal that it is today; showing up everywhere from billboards to pocket sized movie players and everywhere in between, there was TV. TV was one shape; 5:8 ratio. Sure, it came in all sizes, from the little black and white TV/AM/FM/Cassette Player to the giant 27 inch, in cabinet color model that sat right there on your shag carpet (please don’t ask what shag carpeting is, I’ve got socks older than you).
It made no difference what Hollywood studio was producing the TV show you were watching, they all had one camera configuration for TV shows and that was a 5:8 ratio lens and tube config. There were no chips, there were no CMOS capture plates, there were no wide screen or ultra wide, no HD. 5:8; that was the made for TV shape.
Today, there are many more choices and for good reason. Manufacturers are competing. RCA, Phillips, Panasonic and Sony all want to be unique. And with the new transistorized technology that started popping up thanks to NASA and other large scale funded projects, manufacturing engineers were able to present to their respective marketing designers new and varied product ideas.
Today, we have so many different digital video camera CMOS plates that there is no longer a true standard. By the time computer and web based rendering gets done with a video file, there really is no telling what the precise shape of a video file might actually turn out to be. The obvious answer is a web player that is versatile.
This is a screen shot of EZWebPlayer’s setup window for your video file. I have circled the custom fields where one can enter any value. This is a powerful setup tool that every video player SHOULD have.
Here’s a sample of what happens when one’s web video player can’t match the custom shape and size of their video.
Here’s a sample of properly matched video in a player with custom sizing.
It just makes so much good sense, one is left wondering why the heck doesn’t Youtube have this. How long will it take for the rest of the web video world to catch up to EZWebPlayer’s forward thinking?
Click on the SIGN UP NOW button on this page to get your own free trial account.
Stuart Marks
Executive Art Director
Business Video Applications
For more tips on rendering your video for the web under real business conditions, check these links;
By: rbouchez | Posted: Tuesday, January 4th, 2011
Whether your website is marketing the latest gadget to hit the industry or just expressing opinions in a video blog series, adding video to your website is the best way to get your viewers to stay longer on your site. When adding video to your website you’ll want to ensure the video file is encoded properly. A couple things to keep in mind when exporting your HD video to a web video player are to keep the video ratio consistent and achieve an acceptable balance between bitrate for both video and audio data streams and the overall size of the video file. If the frame width and height values are not keep consistent the video might result in a distorted picture, black bars on the top or bottom and could even affect the frames per second of the video causing issues during playback. The video hosting site will have to stream the compressed video file and then decompress the file during playback, so a large file might be difficult for some users who have slower connections and systems. I will be using Adobe’s CS5 to demonstrate some example render setting to use when exporting your HD video to a streaming file for the web.
|
Video Frame Size |
Video Bitrate |
Audio Bitrate |
1minute File Size |
|
1280×720 |
VBR 2 pass - Target 3.5M, Max 5MB |
160kbps |
26.1MB |
|
1280×720 |
VBR 2 pass -Target Target 2.5M, Max 4MB |
112kbps |
18.6MB |
|
1024×576 |
CBR - 1MB |
96kbps |
11.3MB |
|
768×432 |
VBR 1 pass Target 3.5M, Max 5MB |
80kbps |
7.69MB |
HD Render Settings Example 1
HD Render Settings Example 2
HD Render Settings Example 3
HD Render Settings Example 4
By Mike Pudlo: Chicago Area Video producer and Creative Writer
By: rbouchez | Posted: Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
When adding some nice bells and whistles to your web videos by way of fun but purposeful motion EFX, the time line can get bogged down and you might find your computer crashing a lot.
Following some professional secrets will reduce your crashing and maximize your processor’s ability to render the video in a shorter time.
A) Close all unnecessary software programs. These are programs not being used to edit the project at hand.
B) Pre render high activity timeline elements on their own time line, then bring them into the main timeline as a single element.
C) During rendering of the main timeline, you can choose to only render a smaller segment at a time while you go to the kitchen or break room for filling up your coffee cup, instead of relying only on the whole timeline being rendered while you go watch a movie or clean out the garage.
My process for the final rendering session goes like this:
-I empty my machine’s trash
-Reboot, keeping my MS Office closed so that Outlook doesn’t hog resources during rendering.
-I then open my editing program and execute final renders.
If you do all of this and still have problems, start by deleting all of your PREVIEWS, then reboot, etc. Obviously, you’ll have to re render your pre rendered segments again unless you chose to save those specific renders. But, your machine will be running leaner when you do.
Incidentally, most professional editing suites are devoid of all other software other than those environments necessary for post production tasks and editing . There are even many editing suites that have a separate machine for high level tasks like operating After Effects. The only other program they might have on all of their machines is a file sharing program to move files around amongst their various tasking machines.
So, you can enjoy near the same CPU leanness by simply shutting down unnecessary programs.
If you’re still having problems, buy a new computer with lots of processing power. The more, the better. And, keep it off of the Internet; another pro trick. Free of charge. Your welcome.
By Stu Marks: Chicago Area Media Designer & video consultant.
Flickr Photos credits:
ATC Don’t Panic by Sarabbit
By: rbouchez | Posted: Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
Agenda:
- What you’ll need
- Audio first
- Shooting tips
- Get the footage onto your computer
- Publishing formats
- Upload video to your website
1.Video equipment needs
A Suitable Video Camera.
Records digitally to tape, DVD or Card.
Good zoom ratio so the camera doesn’t have to be close to the front of the room.
An external audio port so the camera can receive input from the existing sound system. XLR is best and most reliable.
A Good Tripod
Heavier is better, but more expensive.
Good Isolating Headphones
Blocks outside noise from the wearer’s hearing.
Seals around ear.
Editing Software
There is often free video editing software on new computers.
Using a direct capture to the software can save money on recording media by recording directly to the computer hard drive, but does not offer a backup solution if the computer crashes during the recording.
Media Ready Computer
Good sound card.
Fast enough to handle editing video.
Large enough hard drive to handle over an hour of video.
High Speed Internet Connection
Even the slowest high speed connection should be suitable.
Faster is better, speed = time.
Subscription to EZWebPlayer.com
www.EZWebPlayer.com
2. Audio First
A word about the audio-video relationship.
Worship service recording is a unique event. As a video, there is nothing like it in the entire media arena. The genre’ handles a very unique content and therefore has both special limitations as well as a few caveats like no other media event.
For this reason, the video can suffer more on the visual side and get away with it, such as only using one camera, and that being locked down on a medium wide shot. A single camera angle locked down might be preferable to a single camera angle being manually operated by an inexperienced volunteer or novice. Eventually, the video library should show marked improvement approaching professionalism for future viewing generations.
The audio, however, must be near perfect from Day One. Those viewing the video must be able to enjoy the music as well as understand every word and inflection of the important message.
Patch the sound system into the video camera via a cable. No wireless.
- Make sure your camera is receiving the audio signal from an original output source of the sound system, as apposed to taking it from another recording device like the CD, tape or digital audio recorder, or another computer.
Constant monitoring of the camera’s audio via headphones insures quality
- Use headphones that completely cover the ear.
- Make sure the headphones are plugged into the camera.
Make sure the audio source is raw, board out, audio. No extra effects or extra sweetening at all like reverb or inappropriate equalization. The finished video file will be naturally compressed somewhat during rendering.
Don’t allow the camera to be an audio source for any other output. No daisy chaining from the camera. The only output should be to the headphones.
Turn off the camera’s auto audio limiter and record manually.
The audio limiter employs top end compressing that can cause strange phasing effects when recording in an auditorium that generates natural echos and ambiance, and bottom end boosters that can increase background noise and cause his and rumble. It is much better and easier to becom accustomed to properly setting and monitoring the sound manually.
If the camera has manual settings for two channels, check for balance.
Single channel recording is preferred to problematic stereo. Good mono is better than bad stereo.
3. Shooting Tips
Camera movements should be smooth or not attempted at all.
Virtually anyone can learn to smoothly operate a tripod-mounted video camera. Practice makes perfect. Until a practiced hand is available to operate the camera to follow the movements of a lecturer who does not stay behind the podium, a static shot is preferable.
A standard tripod has friction settings that effect the pan and tilt of the head. These settings should be such that the start and end of each movement executed without an initial jump or ending stop-jerk.
Zooming in and out a lot is not a good idea. If multiple cameras are being used, it is better to already have the chosen zoom set before coming to that camera.
Operator fatigue is a real issue.
Use a larger view finder instead of the eye piece.
Having more than one camera operator might be a useful way to keep production value high while training more camera operators.
Wearing comfortable shoes is a must.
Wearing dark, plain clothing helps the camera operator be less of a distraction to those seated in the auditorium.
4. Getting the footage onto your computer
Before editing or posting to the web site, the footage must first be transferred from the camera or its media, to the computer’s hard drive. Which video editing software you own may effect the way your footage gets from camera to computer hard drive, but mostly they are the same.
If your camera is so equipped, you can simply plug it into an available USB2 or Firewire port on your computer, and execute a standard file transfer through your computer’s operating system like Windows or Mac, if the camera outputs to an editable file format recognized by your editing software. This is not common, but as technology changes it may become common.
The standard operating procedure for conventional video editing environments is to execute a “capture”. In Adobe Premiere, the command path would be FILE > CAPTURE.
Remember that you get what you pay for, but three of the more common free programs are;
Windows Movie Maker. This program came free on some bundles installed with Windows XP.
Apple iMovie
Avid FreeDV
Also, it has been common practice in the past for companies like Sony and Canon to include fairly decent editing software bundles with some of their consumer cameras.
5. Publishing formats
Publishing your video makes reference to rendering or developing your video for a Web Ready state, just like developing an old style film for viewing in a theater. In this case, you need to make sure that your video is assembled the way you intend your viewers to watch it.
Cuts, edits, transitions, graphics and audio video matching might be something you did not intend on manipulating: hoping that your camera would spit out a watchable product virtually direct from camera to web. In some cases, this might be possible. But, just in case you would like to change or add something, now is the time.
Most publishing software packages allow for various levels of video editing.
This is a sample of Adobe’s Premiere Pro CS4 timeline. All of the simplest editing environments will have some characteristics of this sample. Visual clip manipulation, audio control as well as transition effects and titling are all here.
When finished editing, you will most likely be faced with a list of choices no matter what editing software available to you.
Since publishing to the web is your goal, many of the overall technical decisions are already made on a higher level. You want a small file size with a premium quality. Fortunately, you have the luxury of trial and error in case web pixel values and the rendering thereof is not your strong suite. Don’t worry, it’s not mine either, and I’m a business video producer with a degree from an Art School.
Rendering video is an art form in itself and many institutions have full timers devoted to doing just that; rendering videos for web.
So, do what I did, and simply try some of the default file types suggested by your web video publishing software. The one that was defaulted for me in Camtasia for the previous video clip in this PowerPoint presentation was MP4. And sure enough there was no tweaking needed in either Camtasia or PowerPoint. It worked smoothly the first time, so I stayed with that.
6. Uploading your video to your website
We recommend www.EZWebPlayer.com.
Upload your first video.
Follow the instructions for installing the one time code set on your web page.
We hope you found this tutorial helpful! Thanks for visiting!
By Stu Marks: Chicago Area Media Designer & specialist in Church Video Consultant, Chicago.
Reposted 11/3/10, originally posted to blog.EZWebplayer.com & *updated 7/2/10
Flickr image by Jim the Photographer
Agenda:
- What you’ll need
- Audio first
- Shooting tips
- Get the footage onto your computer
- Publishing formats
- Upload video to your website
1.Video equipment needs
A Suitable Video Camera.
Records digitally to tape, DVD or Card.
Good zoom ratio so the camera doesn’t have to be close to the front of the room.
An external audio port so the camera can receive input from the existing sound system. XLR is best and most reliable.
A Good Tripod
Heavier is better, but more expensive.
Good Isolating Headphones
Blocks outside noise from the wearer’s hearing.
Seals around ear.
Editing Software
There is often free video editing software on new computers.
Using a direct capture to the software can save money on recording media by recording directly to the computer hard drive, but does not offer a backup solution if the computer crashes during the recording.
Media Ready Computer
Good sound card.
Fast enough to handle editing video.
Large enough hard drive to handle over an hour of video.
High Speed Internet Connection
Even the slowest high speed connection should be suitable.
Faster is better, speed = time.
Subscription to EZWebPlayer.com
www.EZWebPlayer.com
2. Audio First
A word about the audio-video relationship.
Worship service recording is a unique event. As a video, there is nothing like it in the entire media arena. The genre’ handles a very unique content and therefore has both special limitations as well as a few caveats like no other media event.
For this reason, the video can suffer more on the visual side and get away with it, such as only using one camera, and that being locked down on a medium wide shot. A single camera angle locked down might be preferable to a single camera angle being manually operated by an inexperienced volunteer or novice. Eventually, the video library should show marked improvement approaching professionalism for future viewing generations.
The audio, however, must be near perfect from Day One. Those viewing the video must be able to enjoy the music as well as understand every word and inflection of the important message.
Patch the sound system into the video camera via a cable. No wireless.
- Make sure your camera is receiving the audio signal from an original output source of the sound system, as apposed to taking it from another recording device like the CD, tape or digital audio recorder, or another computer.
Constant monitoring of the camera’s audio via headphones insures quality
- Use headphones that completely cover the ear.
- Make sure the headphones are plugged into the camera.
Make sure the audio source is raw, board out, audio. No extra effects or extra sweetening at all like reverb or inappropriate equalization. The finished video file will be naturally compressed somewhat during rendering.
Don’t allow the camera to be an audio source for any other output. No daisy chaining from the camera. The only output should be to the headphones.
Turn off the camera’s auto audio limiter and record manually.
The audio limiter employs top end compressing that can cause strange phasing effects when recording in an auditorium that generates natural echos and ambiance, and bottom end boosters that can increase background noise and cause his and rumble. It is much better and easier to becom accustomed to properly setting and monitoring the sound manually.
If the camera has manual settings for two channels, check for balance.
Single channel recording is preferred to problematic stereo. Good mono is better than bad stereo.
3. Shooting Tips
Camera movements should be smooth or not attempted at all.
Virtually anyone can learn to smoothly operate a tripod-mounted video camera. Practice makes perfect. Until a practiced hand is available to operate the camera to follow the movements of a lecturer who does not stay behind the podium, a static shot is preferable.
A standard tripod has friction settings that effect the pan and tilt of the head. These settings should be such that the start and end of each movement executed without an initial jump or ending stop-jerk.
Zooming in and out a lot is not a good idea. If multiple cameras are being used, it is better to already have the chosen zoom set before coming to that camera.
Operator fatigue is a real issue.
Use a larger view finder instead of the eye piece.
Having more than one camera operator might be a useful way to keep production value high while training more camera operators.
Wearing comfortable shoes is a must.
Wearing dark, plain clothing helps the camera operator be less of a distraction to those seated in the auditorium.
4. Getting the footage onto your computer
Before editing or posting to the web site, the footage must first be transferred from the camera or its media, to the computer’s hard drive. Which video editing software you own may effect the way your footage gets from camera to computer hard drive, but mostly they are the same.
If your camera is so equipped, you can simply plug it into an available USB2 or Firewire port on your computer, and execute a standard file transfer through your computer’s operating system like Windows or Mac, if the camera outputs to an editable file format recognized by your editing software. This is not common, but as technology changes it may become common.
The standard operating procedure for conventional video editing environments is to execute a “capture”. In Adobe Premiere, the command path would be FILE > CAPTURE.
Remember that you get what you pay for, but three of the more common free programs are;
Windows Movie Maker. This program came free on some bundles installed with Windows XP.
Apple iMovie
Avid FreeDV
Also, it has been common practice in the past for companies like Sony and Canon to include fairly decent editing software bundles with some of their consumer cameras.
5. Publishing formats
Publishing your video makes reference to rendering or developing your video for a Web Ready state, just like developing an old style film for viewing in a theater. In this case, you need to make sure that your video is assembled the way you intend your viewers to watch it.
Cuts, edits, transitions, graphics and audio video matching might be something you did not intend on manipulating: hoping that your camera would spit out a watchable product virtually direct from camera to web. In some cases, this might be possible. But, just in case you would like to change or add something, now is the time.
Most publishing software packages allow for various levels of video editing.
This is a sample of Adobe’s Premiere Pro CS4 timeline. All of the simplest editing environments will have some characteristics of this sample. Visual clip manipulation, audio control as well as transition effects and titling are all here.
When finished editing, you will most likely be faced with a list of choices no matter what editing software available to you.
Since publishing to the web is your goal, many of the overall technical decisions are already made on a higher level. You want a small file size with a premium quality. Fortunately, you have the luxury of trial and error in case web pixel values and the rendering thereof is not your strong suite. Don’t worry, it’s not mine either, and I’m a business video producer with a degree from an Art School.
Rendering video is an art form in itself and many institutions have full timers devoted to doing just that; rendering videos for web.
So, do what I did, and simply try some of the default file types suggested by your web video publishing software. The one that was defaulted for me in Camtasia for the previous video clip in this PowerPoint presentation was MP4. And sure enough there was no tweaking needed in either Camtasia or PowerPoint. It worked smoothly the first time, so I stayed with that.
6. Uploading your video to your website
We recommend www.EZWebPlayer.com.
Upload your first video.
Follow the instructions for installing the one time code set on your web page.
We hope you found this tutorial helpful! Thanks for visiting!
By Stu Marks: Chicago Area Media Designer & specialist in Church Video Consultant, Chicago.
Reposted 11/3/10, originally posted to blog.EZWebplayer.com & *updated 7/2/10
Flickr image by Jim the Photographer
By: rbouchez | Posted: Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
As a professional or novice web video producer or photographer, your opportunities for fall color captures is wearing thin. Get out there and shoot, shoot, shoot.
At Shutterstock, 30 seconds of HD “leaves falling”, or a printable photo of the same genre’ gets the owner $50, with the lowest price payable to get that at the $250 tier. The buyer has to buy at least $250 worth of product to get fall photo or video.
Just when do you think a buyer needs that footage? Think about it. If you are looking at an ad in a glossy magazine right now that features a color or B&W photo of fall leaves, that photo was not shot this year. The editing and production staff of the print world was working on the 2010 October issue of Shocking But True in Hollywood magazine in March of 2010. There aren’t any fall color leaves in March in this hemisphere. As a matter of fact, there aren’t any fall leaves any where on this planet in March.
Photo and video archiving is all about opportunity. The paparazzi rush around from Hollywood train wreck to Hollywood train wreck because they only make money if they capture the event. It’s all about the opportunity. Lady Gaga’s streaked hair and other-worldly shades being seen in front of some mundane location like a 7-11 while she and her denim and leather bedecked entourage’ buy 99 cent slurpies is, unfortunately for this generation, an Event. Someone who shoots that and is the first to submit it to Shocking But True in Hollywood magazine close to deadline gets the lion’s share of $500 if they are lucky and good.
Since orange, red, plumb, yellow and rust colored leaves falling is a sellable commodity, and there is a bunch of those things falling right now, now is the time to shoot them. You most likely won’t sell any footage right now because everybody can shoot them right now, just like you. But, you might enter an autumn color contest right away and win a great award. The best selling goes on long after the last leaf has landed gracefully on your local library’s front lawn.
Remember your CP filter for great color in sky, grass and of course the star of your show, leaves.
For video, shoot a variety of shots. One can never guess for what exactly the art director is looking. It is most likely that they have a specific layout in mind and are looking for the closest capture that fits their idea. If you think that your shot will best serve YOU as income by being the perfect shot around which art directors all over the buying world will design an entire campaign, just keep wishing on that star and gathering moonbeams in a jar, Bunky. Art Directors who make the big bucks do most by coming up with really killer ideas, gathering footage that fits into their layout and then pitching it to The Board.
So, shoot slow pans zoomed all the way out. Put on a fisheye lens and just let the camera roll while the leaves fall. Come up with unique shots as well as standard shots standard shots. Think like an art director. Where will the text go? Will this be used as a green screen fill? If so, where will the talking head go? Or where in the shot will the logo and catch phrase slide in? And, don’t forget sound. Video is only half of the video. Your video capture can be worth a lot more if you shoot with natural sound being captured as well. This takes even more planning and work, and usually a lot of patience, but the geese taking flight through the upper center third of your shot in the distance is not a distraction, it’s a Godsend. By the way, most of your sound should be clean, not filled with openly bumped air movement, “shshshshshshshshshshshshshshsh”. This is not what makes you extra dough. The sound needs to be interestingly natural.
For stills, it’s much the same, only easier because there’s no movement. The movement is implied in still photos, not real. It’s a theater of the mind much like radio. What I mean is, you must capture shots that spark emotion. A tree full of fall color setting in the midst of a green field is very pretty and a very sellable commodity; go shoot it. But while you’re out there, also look for the same tree next to a river or lake. “Water always does the work for you” I often tell my students. Water shots can emote sensuality, action, and passion of all sorts. The Lincoln Memorial Mall in Washington DC is one of the most photographed scenes in the world. The reflecting pool that multiplies the fall color leaves with the alabaster architecture in the background is unique, grandiose, fiery, patriotic and certainly passionate.
Look for opportunities everywhere you go. T
he background you choose is one of your most unique opportunities to grab attention to your work. The fall color sugar maple doesn’t only exist in a purely natural setting. Modern man has adopted the sugar maple into his environment. So a very common scene for video would be cars passing in front of your off centered shot of a row of sugar maples marching away into infinity with an American flag waving in the distance. Kill the flag and insert a busy city scene of corporate America at work with its reflecting glass canyons. Kill the glass canyon and go for the city park with pedestrians, bicyclists, skate boarders and vendors obliviously enjoying the scene in which they are a major player. Don’t forget to capture a few country and farm scenes to help round out your fall archive for 2010. Ooh, and the county fair. I just can’t stop. The possibilities are endless.
And, you’ve only just begun. Rockwellian Americana is only the beginning. The human factor transcends nationalism. Go for pure human texture. The different ethnic children at play. The couple “spooning” under a maple with the checkered picnic tablecloth nearby. A boy and his dog, or a girl and her duck, or a man and his vending cart or a lady and her giant wicker basket of wheat on her head.
And, you need to display your work or all of that hard labor was of no use, right? So, post everything to a forum that gives you complete control of the viewer’s moment in front of your work. Nobody else’s ads, videos or photos to distract, and no way to steal and use without permission. And whether you need a Flash web player or not, EZWebPlayer is the best I’ve seen yet for serving up images to literally any viewing audience in any web forum. Email link, web served, or downloadable flash video; makes no difference.
So, to summarize,
Get out there and shoot NOW for next year’s autumn color imagery market.- Be versatile and diversify. Shoot a broad spectrum for multiple uses.
- Shoot both still and video.
- Expose your work in a forum that you control. Make sure to make use of your own website video player on your own site (if you have one) or simply send out an email link and let EZWebPlayer do the heavy lifting; hosting directly from their servers.
And, if it is too late for you and the fall color scheme for this year, start setting up for your winter scene captures. I wonder if there are any geese left in the north when the snow starts falling.
By Stu Marks: Chicago Area Media Designer & video consultant.
By: rbouchez | Posted: Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
If you’re shooting & posting web videos on your site you’re probably thinking life is pretty good out there on the cutting edge! You might be right but, chances are, you’re also missing out on a ton of Web Best Practices you can only get with text on that page!
Your catchy title just isn't enough!
No script for your video? No problem! Use a traditional Outline format with bold headlines and brief descriptions. Outlines are easy to skim and a well developed outline can add an air of credibility to almost any post!
Here are 5 ways to take back to get the credit your content deserves and make your Videos or Video Blog Posts even better!
- Bolded (or html) headers: if they’re keyword focused you will improve your SEO dramatically!
- Bullet Points: Open up your content to those who are not able to immediately watch a video. They might be at work, on a mobile device or whatever, but if you show them there’s good content in that video, chances are, they’ll bookmark it, share it or come back to watch!
- Pull out Quotes & Key Phrases: Because I’ve been disappointed by so many videos with big promises and no payoff, it’s rare if I stop to watch a video. Show me you have an expert making a good point or two and I’ll click play!
- Highlight Controversy: If you’re out to get comments or go viral, “controversial” is where it’s at! Pull out the most heated arguments, bold them and throw them right up under your video!
- Add Brief Descriptions: Make your content more attractive, not just to search engines but to folks looking for something to quote. Include short, punchy, “retweet” friendly sentences to encourage sharing! Keep them under 130 characters, with spaces, so shortened URLs may be included.
Bonus Video Blog Tip: DON’T include “video” in your title unless it’s a post about video. DO include “video” in your category & tags! Why not in your title? Folks who are not in a position to watch a video won’t click it. They’ll assume there’s no content other than the video and in most cases they’ll be right – but since you’ve added key points in text to yours, they won’t be left empty handed!
Thanks for stopping by!
By: rbouchez | Posted: Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
First let’s get something out of the way and address the question “Should your business be on Youtube?”
Answer: Yes!
YouTube is a great marketing channel, there’s no doubt about it… but that doesn’t mean it’s a great content channel for your business!
Here are 10 reasons you should look elsewhere when adding videos to your website .
1. Bad Ads
Certainly you know videos you post on Youtube may be subjected to distracting, and possibly even competitive ads right on top. Even worse, ad previews on popular videos force you to sit through a commercial that has nothing to do with the video and for the small business owner, this is actually a missed opportunity! Those should be your ads, but instead they are from a 3rd party and they reflect badly on you. Of course, if you are a “premiere” product, they certainly cheapen your brand!
2. Control embedding: Share Everywhere! …or not!
To embed or not to embed… that is the question. On YouTube, you only get 2 choices (yes or no), but if you use a custom player like EZWebPlayer, you can literally decide not to allow embedding on specific sites, you know – like your competition’s website, on a complaint site or even other sites that may be housing inappropriate content.
3. Quality
Youtube is hit or miss. Sometimes video plays great but more often then not I find myself suffering through YouTube’s stop and go loading process which just drives me crazy!
4. Flagging & Copyright
Let’s face it, that “flag” button is a prime target for sabotage and Google isn’t exactly known for for it’s great customer service! I’m not suggesting you upload copyrighted material – please do not – what I’m saying is this, if anyone sends a take-down letter to Youtube, whether it’s in the right or not, your audio will be yanked first and questions will be asked later… if at all. This is not a risk you should be willing to take for your business videos!
5. Backup
What happens when you lose a Youtube video? What happens if your video is the subject of a take-down notice? Well… it’s just gone! You are left to find and re-upload that video.
6. Youtube’s Video End Page Sucks (for you)
This is the “other videos you may be interested in” end page which is basically competition for your content. You don’t want someone sitting there watching random Youtube videos on your website, especially if they’re your competitors videos! With a custom web video player you choose the action at the end of your video. Perhaps you would just like the video to stop on an information page or maybe you’d like it to play again from the top. Your choice.
7. SEO (more of a tip)
Ok, Youtube is the second biggest search engine in the world, and that’s great, but Google is still the first and they love blogs! Don’t rely on a YouTube Channel to deliver your videos! Setup a blog and embed your video on it. It’s a fact that Google indexes text better than video and that means you should at least include an outline of content with the video on your page. This will improve your page ranking exponentially!
8. Length
Youtube just raised it’s time limit to 15 minute, but that not appropriate for every project. Realtors, for example, may want to host walking tours or elaborate interviews and how to videos. For photographers, while a demo reel should be kept under the 15 minute time limit, sponsored programming won’t make the cut! It only takes a couple of segments and sponsored messages to land you way past the 15 minute mark! Wedding videos? Forget about it!
9. Live Streaming
You’ll need to turn to 3rd party vendors like Ustream to get streaming functionality and that’s just another account and more you have to learn! Choose an Online Video Player that offers uploaded or streaming video in the same simple to manage solution.
10. Statistics
Measuring clicks, views, referrers or whatever it is that you use to gauge success is key! Yes, you can get some stats from YouTube, but get used to “insufficient data” for videos with lower views and, quite frankly, other online video players will actually give you stats that are worth reading!
So what can you do about it? How do you get someone who’s watching your stuff on Youtube to click over to your site?
Steer those distracted Youtubers over to your website where they can watch your pristine high-quality web videos featuring your brand & your ads! It’s “E-Z” …here’s how:
- Use Youtube’s annotation tool.
This will let you send a click-able message to you viewers right from the video they’re watching! Create a note at the beginning of your video that says something like “For a better ad-free viewing experience click here! Watch this video ad-free at www.MyWebsite.whatever” (Link to YouTube Annotation Tool How to Video) - Insert at teaser line in your video’s description pointing to your blog or website. The more relevant content you can offer, the better!
- Create an introduction for your video! No, don’t start your video with “Hey, go to my website and watch this!” – you’ll lose viewers. You need to be a little more clever than that. Create an introduction that pumps up your viewers about the upcoming video and, rather quickly, suggests that there is a better quality version available for them to watch & share over on your website.
- Offer a second link option. In your tweets, for example, you can say something like “Check out my video: How to tell time on Youtube http://bit.notly or Ad Free on my site http://bet.ter.video”
- Edit in a promo onto the end of your Youtube video, now you may be thinking “Why would I do that when the video is over?” …and that may be true, but hopefully that person will stick around to watch it, or perhaps they will share or bookmark your video. If they want to see it again they’ll go to your website and watch!
Thanks for stopping by!
By: admin | Posted: Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
You’ve already been told by several trusted individuals that you need a video on your website, or you have several videos that belong on the web, and you need a quick and efficient way to start posting them.
Now what?
FORMAT FOR WEB VIEWING
Your video needs to be converted to a web friendly format that is small in size but rich in both visual and audio delivery. There are literally dozens of video formats in the world but only a handful that are web friendly. I suggest the following formats; MP4, FLV, FV4, h.264 and Quicktime.
Since your video may not have started out as one of these, you need a converter. Free or inexpensive converters are available on the web. Conducting a search for “VIDEO CONVERTER” should result in many hits from which to choose. Download, install and start converting.
CHOOSING YOUR PLAYER
This is a little like shopping for your Converter, only more important. The Player you choose will be presenting your video content either as an integral part of your web site or as a portal for all web videos and your web videos are only being temporarily featured therein. The other content is an unknown and not under your control. Not good.
Unless it is your intention to create a global web video portal, it’s better to pick and choose the content to which your viewers will be exposed. EZWebPlayer is just such a player. Feel free to conduct a search like you did for your converter, but take it from one who has been there and done that, EZWebPlayer has the features you need and then some.
Go to www.EZWebPlayer.com, click on the FREE TRIAL button and get started. The install procedure to your site is a revolutionarily simple process. For each page upon which you’ll be playing videos (yes, it supports multiple sites for no extra charge) simply fill out the data fields with your connection info, and start uploading your videos. It’s so simple, you’ll actually enjoy this part of your web video configuring.
Viewers can either be presented with that one important video, or choose from a drop down menu. Videos can start playing automatically or wait for the play button click. Title, description and even views count are completely customizable.
And what about advertising? Woo hoo! You’ve hit the jackpot. For no extra charge, you have at your fingertips the ability to insert images and videos over or in between your video features; WITH LINKS. Yeah, really.
For more info and to also see the new Word Press Plugins, go to www.EZWebPlayer.com. There are samples and other videos to see.
There is only one, uncomplicated video player for your web site that is both simple to install and simple to operate and doesn’t require one to learn a new coding language. And that would be EZWebPlayer. A Player for beginners and beyond.
By Stu Marks: Chicago Area Media Designer & video consultant.
Follow the instructions for installing the one time code set on your web page.
Upload your first video.
We hope you found this tutorial helpful! Thanks for visiting!
By: clintpollock | Posted: Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
Mike Pudlo, video producer for IncreaseSalesWithVideo.com discussing how to get your videos streaming online in a flash. Whether you are filming in HD or still using that NTSC camcorder this series will help with your rendering settings, server options and overall a better understand of rendering HD and NTSC videos.
How to export High Definition video files to upload and stream on your website.
So what is HD?
HD stands for High definition, a 16:9 aspect ratio, providing a wider screen then the Standard 4:3 (SD) And this is where size does matter, similar to how the higher a digital photo’s DPI setting are related to the quality of print, the more the dots the better the picture, or in video more lines better the video.
720p, 1080i and 1080p are all HD settings – the number stands for the vertical lines that create the image and the letter describes the type of scan used to display the picture. P for progressive, one whole frame per capture, or I for interlace which captures the top ½ of a frame which merges with the bottom of the next frame to complete the picture.
Today, I’ll be using Adobe’s Media Encoder from CS5 to demonstrate this process.
Before we get to deep into the render settings, we’ll have to select what file format we want our video exported as. For HD there are primarily two container types, Flash Video (FLV/F4V) or H264 (mp4). The file format I want to use is a flash file using the h.264 video codec, creating a F4V.
While you can export a full 1080 HD video, good luck getting anyone to truly appreciate the full quality video unless they have a 20+” monitor, live in Amazon Cloud’s server room and operate a very high-end processing pc. Not to say that a great looking picture isn’t achievable it just won’t be true HD as many proclaim to stream.
It’s important to adjust the width and height dimension of your video accordingly. Theoretically you can use any width and height but non optimal dimensions can cause poor image quality and even reduced frame rate. Use a multiple of 16 for the best looking video to upload to your website.
I’ll be using 1280×720 for my video dimensions which is also many of the mainstream video hosts accepted ratio for playback.
The overall goal for your exported file is to have a high quality looking and sounding video that can be easily streamed and viewed by anyone with a highspeed internet connection. Highspeed is the key. HD video requires a lot more bandwidth then the standard SD video.
I’d recommend using at least 1.5MB per second and up to 4MBps for your bandwidth. If you are using the 1280×720 dimensions I mentioned earlier then I’d stick with at least 2.5MBps data rate.
For audio, I have found that 44.1megahertz and at 96kbps with the AAC codec provides a rich audio through the majority of the web video players.
Once you confirm the frame rate is the same as the source and you are ready to export.
It’s always a good idea to save your preset and name it accordingly.
There are a handful of video editing software programs but not all of them will export HD file into the best streaming format. A useful free program to convert your HD video files into a
streaming format is Prism Video Converter, some other pay to use programs to research are VirtualDub and AVS converter.
I hope this helps get your video uploaded to your website.
Mike Pudlo
Video Producer
www.IncreaseSalesWithVideo.com
www.EZWebPlayer.com
By: clintpollock | Posted: Sunday, July 25th, 2010
Let us assume for a moment that you want or need everyone that you can grab to watch the video on your website. If you are in business, or are responsible for promoting your church videos, this is an easy assumption.
Then, here are some simple guidelines to not only grab viewers, but to keep folks coming back as well as exponentially grow your list of followers.
Information Content is King
Content is King!
In your video collection provide a service if possible. Providing a service creates in your archive real value to the viewer. This can be done in every video, or just one video a week or month. Short, informative videos a resample to write, assemble and publish. You can use PowerPoint to create slides that bullet point and feature your information.
Giving back to your community is a real asset to your business, to you, your employees, those who watch your videos, and of course, your community at large.
“What service can I provide?” you might ask.
Realtors can publish seasonal landscaping tips, tips on selling homes, making property more valuable, etc. Churches can publish holiday celebration events around the community, specific community safety information, time change reminders, recycling locations, leaf removal services, the list is endless.
Your Geographic Uniqueness
If you want to benefit from a growing list of followers, you are in competition with tens of thousands of other video sources. But, this does not mean that your videos have to run higher and jump further, with ever more expensive special effects, new camera techniques and custom jingles such that you find yourself spending thousands on outsourcing and gear. No, the strength of your content is in your unique information or location, not your abilities as a video producer.
If folks see your video, but are too far away to take advantage of your geographically based business or church event, then don’t worry about marketing to them. Market to Your Crowd. Your crowd is that group of folks who can best benefit from your message or product.
If you are a real estate agent, then you can hardly spend time marketing to the whole world, when your properties are right there in your tri-county area. You may market broad enough that folks moving to your area will catch your message, but most of your market lives close enough to shop at the same stores you do. You’re really marketing tom
Target your marketing to your crowd.
you neighbors.
Include information that locals, or those who want to become locals will be looking for. Schools, churches, shopping, recreation, lower tax base (where is that, by the way?) etc.
Any national parks nearby? Shoot a welcome segment in front of your local claim to fame.
Break it up.
Using the same format for every video can become boring unless the content is so good that it is always looked forward to. If your content is not killer, like hang gliding or underwater scuba diving, then make sure to use interesting visuals to break up your boring talking head shots.
One week, shoot from your church or business parking lot with your building in the background. The next week, shoot from a local venue. While you are at an away event, shoot a segment there for future use, etc.
Interview employees, customers and trusted vendors. Children are great video sources. Just make sure that Mom and Dad are involved in the agreement to put little Mildred and her cat Fluffy on screen.
Realtors have an endless supply of materiel in the form of new properties.
Feature your;
- best
- least expensive
- most potential
- largest
- easiest to move into
- closest to town
- best from out in the country
- in the neighborhood voted most colorful or economical, or friendliest.
The list is endless.
Also, you can use the Press Release Format. Cover related but varied topics. Talk about events or programs that are in your industry but not about you. Car dealers are known for donating their cars for dignitaries to ride in during parades. That’s a great PR move. Realtors can host business mixers at their office or a large hotel suite. Video your happy clients at one of these mixers and get their permission to place the video on your web site. Most happy customers are glad to help.
If your church has an Easter egg hunt, or a summer picnic, the pastor can interview some kids, adults and families having a good time.
Smiling, happy positive faces and comments from the heart are what grab folks and keep them coming back.
Smiling, happy positive faces and comments from the heart are what grab folks and keep them coming back.
Be Direct, Clear and to the Point in Your Message
Communications 101 always deals with this one, important fact: you are dealing with the general public when you publish a video. Dealing with the public can be both simple and complex, depending on what you’re used to doing, and what you’re trying to get across in a short video.
This is not the time for vague innuendoes, half truths, talking down to folks or complaining about a competitor, or the government. Strong, narrow messages, if they are necessary at all, are for smaller venues behind closed doors, not for the public venue. Unless your goal is to purposely alienate a segment of your market, and thereby drive them away, be inclusive.
Find positive and beneficial ways to tell your story and make your offer. Feature the obviously positive benefits that pretty much everyone would agree is a good thing. Example: Some churches use busses to bring children to Sunday School. What many folks don’t understand is that this is not a money making venture for any church, but an increasing financial liability. Also, most churches don’t transport children to church whose parents attend elsewhere. These two facts are important to share with the community. A) Your church is not out there stealing kids from other churches, and B) Your church is not in this for the money, but simply sharing the Gospel.
If you have a difficult or complex issue that needs explaining, you might consider only touching the high points that need less educating. But, if your product or service is visual, then here is your moment to shine, because video was obviously meant for this element.
Keep it Short
All video consultants agree that web videos designed to increase interest in a product or service work best when they are short. The powerful, short web video is probably the best returning asset in the marketing arsenal today.
Obviously, if you are publishing your 50 minute church service, the short video part is out. Long programs work best archived and then pointed to using short teaser videos. You can create a short teaser of any long event that includes high-lights and important statements, with the full video only a click away; especially if you choose the right player venue on which to post your videos. For example, EZWebPlayer.com includes simple, one-click advertising links where you can insert web links into videos at customized locations around your video.
Realtors can benefit from producing a monthly testimonial video that is short. Testimonials of real people bragging about the benefits of your product or message are the most powerful content available. And, testimonials are always short.
This concludes Part I of Care and Feeding of Your Web Video Archive
In Part II, we explore;
Archiving; a Momentum unto Itself
Frequent Additions Build Core Viewers
Socialize Your Archive
Networking 101
and Nurturing takes Commitment
By Stu Marks: Chicago Area Media Designer & specialist in Church Video Consultant, Chicago.
LINKS:
Chess piece photo by Daniel Y. Go
Crowd photo by Steve Crane
Smiling Happy Faces By Swamibu
www.EZWebPlayer.com
www.techmynd.com
www.digitalbuzzblog.com
By: admin | Posted: Monday, May 3rd, 2010
Simple posting of powerful and comprehensive videos becomes as ordinary as a phone call.
Simple posting of powerful and comprehensive videos becomes as ordinary as a phone call.
CHICAGO – May 1, 2010
This year’s release of EZWebPlayer 2.0 has removed the mystery and difficulty of posting custom videos such that the distance between seller and buyer, or story teller and viewer has significantly shrunk.
With more than 9.4 Billion videos now being viewed online as of late 2009 figures from ComScore, any tool that makes posting videos to one’s own site effortless and as simple and ubiquitous as a phone call will certainly get some attention.
According to initial statistics, the early weeks of the Web based player are proving a rich ground for growth for those needing an outlet for their custom videos. The new player environment is being received well by business owners, non-profits and web designers alike.
One web manager of the largest full contact football camp in America (declared so by the Riddell Corporation), the Midwest Christian Boys’ Football Camp says, “Making the switch to automatic coding was so simple, the biggest worry was whether or not to save the old code.”
He went on further to say, “Our once annual football video posting has become a daily task now, because posting video to our own site is no longer the bottleneck. I can finally get back to simply producing the video. I no longer worry about the posting to web function.” The Football Camp’s video page can be found at www.KnowFearFootball.org.
The hundreds of users who jumped on board during the early release and marketing to the company’s own email list include church organizations, small businesses and even a government military agency seeking an efficient way to post their field communications on a secure browser.
Customer service manager, Stu Marks says, “It seems we’ve stumbled on virtually a new market segment formerly unserved by current technology. Reminds me of the 1987 Dian Keaton movie Baby Boom with the gourmet baby food.”
The big difference seems to be in the way code is handled. One way or another, anybody responsible for posting videos to their own site will be required to create or manipulate specialized code before posting it to their site in order for their viewers to see the all important video message. Stu Marks also commented, “… as a matter of fact, I see other web players moving in this direction for the future. I imagine that all web players will work this way eventually. We’re just the first.”
Another difference in this player over others is the seamless isolation the player affords to your viewers. Your videos, and only your videos play on your site. No distracting You Tube menus or scrolling advertising offers. Your video becomes a seamless part of your web site. Just click on the VIDEOS button, and there it is.
Other features include
- URL Security. No video hijacking
- External Server Compatible
- Blog compatible
- Sharing on demand
- Large server space
Please connect with us!
Clint Pollock
President | EZWebPlayer.com
The Non-Tech solution to putting videos online
www.EZWebPlayer.com
By: clintpollock | Posted: Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
One of the most important parts of putting video on the web is to ensure it has been rendered properly. We would like to lend some best practices that we have learned during our tenure of creating web video. File size, quality, bit rate and more, all come into play. There is no all inclusive guide out there that has all of the answers. Testing is the primary way you can get your render settings just right.
Video on website is a balance between quality and file size. Yes, the majority of people have good connections. However, something like DSL can stutter even a well rendered file.
In this document we will outline video rendering best practices that will help you avoid issues with file buffering and more.
Video Editing Software
There are many desktop video editing suites and packages out there. Most are capable of creating video that will work with Flash (Our players are created with Flash). We use Adobe Premiere to edit video. Information and screen shots provided below will be based off of Adobe Premiere CS4 but, the values mentioned are industry standard terms that usually apply cross platform.
Working with Web Video – Exporting from Your Video Program.
When working with web videos there are several properties that need to be addressed for a streaming file to play correctly. I recommend using FLV or H.264 (MP4) formats to create your streaming web videos. MOV does work but we have seen issues with those files. FLV and MP4 videos are smaller in file size and offer the same if not better quality then the MOV files.
The ‘pixel aspect ratio’ of your video is important to maintain when encoding your timeline.
1920×1080 (High Definition)
720×480 (NTSC, 4:3 and 16:9)
- Our flash player plays videos best at 720×480 for NTSC and 800×450 for HD
- You can render your video any size you want as long as you keep it the same ratio.
The bitrate setting can vary depending on the overall production requirements.
- Our bitrate settings range from 500 – 1229kbps.
The audio settings are stereo, 32 – 128kbps. For longer videos, reducing this setting will help reduce file size. Changing this value usually can be done without noticeable quality loss unless one is working with extremely high fidelity gear, which would be seriously hampered by most Internet connections any way.
When working on an NTSC timeline, I’ve found that Premiere creates black bars on the right/left sides of the outputted FLV to accommodate for ratio differences. To eliminate this, render out a full quality .mpeg2 and use the Adobe flash encoder or embed the new mpeg into a timeline and then proceed to export the FLV/MP4.
High Definition
We find that MP4 files typically work best for High Definition. This term is thrown around in the web world, but the truth is the only way you can really get high definition is by having a 24in monitor. The files you play through the SinglePlayer or MultiPlayer that are labeled High Definition will be much better quality than your standard render, but there is no possible way to render a 1920X1080 file and send it to users unless you are using the Google or Yahoo vehicles . File size becomes a real problem here – a 5 minute video can become hundreds of MB’s. If you plan to offer a High Definition render be sure you offer an alternate option for users who have trouble. Ensure your web host is capable of sending these files to the viewer fast enough. Don’t forget to watch your bandwidth and storage usage with your web host – these files will eat it up. In our opinion we are not yet ready for the regular person/business to display HD web video. 50MBps home lines are coming so it won’t be long. I expect that in the next 1 or 2 years HD video will become more prevalent.
The other thing to keep in mind – FLV/MP4, etc are all rendered and compressed. The viewers computer must decode the video. If people have a slow computer, they are low on RAM, and have a lot of programs running, it can cause the computer to hiccup. This is no fault of the flash player, but the fact that the person’s computer is unable to handle that high quality of video.
Video Size & Long Videos
From the above example you can see that video file size starts to add up quickly. For this reason you want to have the right kind of render to fit your web hosting provider and your visitor’s Internet connections.
30-50Mb for a 5 minute file is typically ideal. It is also a good idea to split up videos. In other words, running a 30 minute video may not be the best idea if you are using HTTP download (which most use). The reason why – each time the user clicks play the entire file starts downloading. If they only watch 5 minutes there would have been a lot of unnecessary file transfer.
You can easily use the SinglePlayer or the MultiPlayer to split up files into “chapters” and allow the viewer an easy way to see the parts of the video they desire. 5-10 minutes is your standard Internet Video Length.
Making videos short can ensure your viewers run into less viewing problems.
Buffering
In order for the user to watch the video, it must download to their computer. There has to be a little bit of a buffer for the video to play smoothly. If your video can’t buffer as fast as you can watch it, your video will stop until the buffer catches up, only to stop again. You can see the SinglePlayer buffer below. Since this is a long video I feel confident it will buffer fine for most. I have tested these videos from DSL connections in rural locations and it has a hard time keeping up. There is still a LOT of people living in remote areas with slow DSL or Satellite connections. You don’t want to forget about them.
Clear your cache
Once the video fully downloads to your computer, it may store that and not try to download your new version next time. Be sure to empty your Browser cache each time you upload a new video. This forces your computer to go through the download process again.
Hosting your Video Files
It is important to use a fast web hosting provider. You will need at least 100KB bandwidth to send people video files. The easiest way to find out how fast your host is – upload a file that is larger than 10 MB to your host. Then download it through your FTP or HTTP and see how fast it is. This shows my web host is sending me 275KB/Second which is fast enough to handle several downloads at a time.
I have my web content on one host, and my video content on another. I use http://www.streamhoster.com/ but there are many out there.
Flash Streaming
Do you have large and lengthy video files? Your next step will be using a Flash Media Server host. Flash Media Server will stream web video in real time. This is different than HTTP download – instead of sending the user the entire file, a Flash Media Server streams it to the user as they view it. In addition, you can have multiple render settings within one file. It is possible to have an HD file, a standard render and, a small render all in one file. The Flash Media Server determines which stream it can send them and handles it automatically. This is of course more complicated to setup, render, and use but may be necessarily if you have large files or lengthy content. Click here to get an easy to use RTMP Video Player.
Adobe CS4 Example Render Settings:
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H.264, Wide Screen. |
H.264 4:3 |
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We hope you found this tutorial helpful! Thanks for visiting!
Clint Pollock
President | EZWebPlayer.com
The Non-Tech solution to putting videos online
www.EZWebPlayer.com
Connect with me !
More Web Video articles you might like…
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How to export High Definition video files to upload and stream on your website.
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WordPress and EZWebPlayer: Uploading Web Video to Your Blog is Better than Ever!
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Camtasia Tip: Create a High Quality Web Video Without Black Bars
