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Posts Tagged ‘website video player’
By: rbouchez | Posted: Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
We watch a lot of web video, especially “how to”, so when something jumps out at us we’re quick to recognize! This Tripod Tricks blog post stood out for many of reasons (mostly good), but let’s start what they did in the blog post that’ll get them more love from Google from the time they hit publish.
Include Video Highlights & Take-aways in a bolded bulleted list- Google loves lists! An outline directly written from your video content, with important points in bold, will help search engines “understand” your video content. In addition, it’ll help those folks who are not able to watch the video! For example, folks surfing the web at work or on their phones may not be able to watch your video at that time, but an content outline could motivate them to share it right away or bookmark it for later.
Bonus Web Video Blog tip: Are you keyword savvy? Identify the keywords you’re targeting & include them in your bolded bullet points!
Thanks for stopping by! We’d love it if contributed your Web Video SEO tips & tricks in the comments!
Social Media Specialist for EZWebplayer.com
By: rbouchez | Posted: Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010
You now realize the importance of posting your own custom videos to web. You have seen the magic-like and simple management tools available at EZWebPlayer.com. You are ready to go. You are ready to start posting your own, informative, high impact, interesting, relevant, videos. You even know who is going to be writing the script, doing the talking, and where you’ll be shooting.
You only have one problem; no camera.
Here’s a fast and dirty guide to what type of camera will do the trick. Remember that because you are posting these videos to web, most of the expensive bells and whistles that can come on a video camera will be completely useless to you and serve only to jack up the price. So, I have grabbed a small handful of cameras that meet the simple criteria for shooting a video for the web. After reading some or all of these reviews, you’ll start getting an idea of what to look for.
Something you’ll notice right away is that most of these cameras are Panasonics. There’s a logical explanation for this and it has nothing to do with my like for the inexpensive Panasonic consumer cameras. Yes, I own one. But, the simple truth is that when researching for this and other camcorder articles for numerous forums over the past decade, I have found that Panasonic consistently goes after the lower price points. And when one is reading neutral forums like CNET, price is a big factor in consumer reviews.
The following camcorders meet simple requirements like
-ease of use
-fastest camera-to-computer video transfer capabilities. If you choose a camera that records onto a DVD, you might need a video converter program. Look on the web for a “Video Conversion” including the file extension of your camcorder’s video output file like “.vob” in the search. Remember that you want to end up with a Flash file format that looks like this “.flv” or “.h264”, or “.MP4”. These load up to the web the quickest, are the most compatible with all Internet browsers and are all supported by EZWebPlayer.
-best-for-web recording sizes; some more than others. Some cameras have many more recording modes than others. Most have at least two or more including 4:3 and wide screen. But a few have more than five shapes, sizes and pixel densities from which to choose. The more choices the better in my book. This helps you choose the best size and shape for your web frame needs. EZWebPlayer’s list of supported frame sizes is extensive, so no worries there.
-very good audio quality. This is true for virtually all new camcorder models going back several years. Consumer electronics developers realized early on the importance of incorporating best audio capture hardware and firmware. If you have an older camcorder under a layer of dust, stuck away in a drawer or closet somewhere, it probably still has great audio recording capabilities. Some with stereo, some without. The trick is keeping that good audio intact during the sometimes rough ride to the web, and the embedded firmware that governs the capture during recording is responsible for all that.
-compatibility for intended use. The last three items in this bullet list, all are inherently connected with brand name. There are low end camcorders out there flooding the market but under branding that is barely recognizable on the retail radar. If a brand name hasn’t been around a while, or can’t stand up to rigorous retail handling of merchandising and marketing, no one really knows how long it will last in the field. So, if you are reading this gear review as a manufacturer of one of these off-brand names, my apologies, but I don’t serve you; I serve our readers. If a product makes it to CNET and other third party review forums, it isn’t afraid of the light of day for which retail markets are known.
-low price
-reliability
Panasonic HM-TA1H $169
Information Link
Yes, this is a video camera. Some good, useful features on it, too.
Panasonic HDC-SDX1H $500
Information Link
This is one of the more expensive in the lower price point range. The industry still counts this as an inexpensive camcorder though, so I guess we too are expected to do the same. This camera is so new at the publication of this article that finding one might be difficult. But, it has a great lens system for zooming to the picture size and shape that you wish. And, it is one of those with a long list of frame sizes.
Panasonic SDR-T50 $270
Panasonic SDR-H85 $350
Samsung SMX-K40 $285
My goal in this article is not to talk you into buying a Panasonic or that single Samsung. It is to get you involved in the process of researching for your needs instead of walking into a Best Buy store and buying the cheapest camera that matches your current perception. I guarantee you that thirty-one days after you buy the wrong camera, your perceptions of what an adequate yet inexpensive camcorder is, will have changed.
Let’s get that perception thing straightened out before the purchase rather than after.
Some feature caveats that are of considerable cost that I excluded for this bottom end category include:
image stabilization, external microphone input and still shot features.
-Image stabilization is a feature you will want if you are going to be shooting video while moving instead of mounting the camcorder on a tripod and just sitting in front of it in your office or at home.
-The external mic issue is a hard one. Trust me; millions of individuals run into this issue every year. They find that sitting far enough away from the camera to let the lens curvature make their face look normal instead of capturing that security peephole hotel door image also creates some dirty audio echoes. The problem is multiple in nature; you are shooting indoors, so your voice bounces off the walls, and you are too far away for the mic to cancel out the echoes. This is a choice you will only make after hearing the audio quality from your test shoot. To guarantee you will have best audio available, you can always add another $500 to the price range and look only at cameras that have an auxiliary mic input. You will then start shopping for mics. That is another article for me, and another $200-$1,200 for your budget.
On the other hand, you can also walk down the computer isles of any large office supply store or even Wal-Mart and look at webcams. Just remember that all of the same rules apply regarding quality except for one very large element; web cams do not record to an onboard medium for later transfer. They record direct to your hard drive or stream direct to web. But, they can be extremely inexpensive and still achieve your goals.
-You may or may not need to shoot stills for your video. But, shooting stills requires editing (or post production) which we are not addressing in this article.
Here is a single webcam that I know delivers excellent video and audio quality. It is what our company uses for several internal and client related projects.

Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 WebCam $89
Also, since cameras are usually returnable at big box stores like Best Buy (my current favorite), make sure that you shoot and post the video right away to make sure that you have taken that camera’s video all the way through the process to learn of its compatibility issues. This allows you to walk back into that store more knowledgably to exchange the camera for the one you need.
By Stu Marks: Chicago Area Media Designer & video consultant.
More articles you might like:
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Creating Web Video that will Work for Your Business
-
Web Video Quick Tips #2: Interviewing an Expert
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Web Video Quick Tips #7: Don’t be a Space Invader
Stu Marks is a post producer and art director at EZWebPlayer.com and has been producing videos since the late 1970s. He has a BFA degree in Multimedia and Web Design from The Chicago Art Institute / Illinois Institute of Art at Schaumburg and is a media specialist for business and not-for-profit. Some projects of note include The Chicago Brick Oven, Adventure-Crew.com, Sea Eagle Inflatable Boats, Sword Publishers, Reformers Unanimous and the Midwest Christian Boys’ Football Camp. He currently resides in the Chicago area.


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.















Here are 10 reasons you should look elsewhere when 

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” (








