Many times I come across questions in on-line video forums and e-mails asking a common question, How do I put my videos on the web? The problem is that the question is a loaded one but this is my attempt to give direction to those with limited budgets.
Since, many of your budgets for putting videos on the internet are probably small, you’ll probably want to put downloadable videos on-line and you can use a regular web server to do so. This is the same server that you would use to host your website. These videos will be downloadable streaming movies and not real-time streaming videos (To learn more about the differences in the two visit www.GeniusDV.com and look under Video Compression Tutorials to find my article on Downloadable vs. Streaming.)
Basically, the videos placed on your web server need to be downloaded to the user’s computer before viewers will be able to view them. If you are posting your videos through your web hosting service you’ll probably have a size limitation on how large you video files can be. It’s usually a file size limit around 10MB to 15MB. To keep your file size down you’ll want to use a Video Compression tool. You can use Video Compression tools such as Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite, Canopus ProCoder or Popwire’s Compression Master.
Another option for adding your music videos on-line is to purchase an inexpensive monthly video hosting service from a company called WebFlix Cinema. They have hosting plans to host up to three videos in the Windows Media, QuickTime format or MPEG1 format for $5.75 per month. All you do is prepare your movies with your Video Compression Tool and use an FTP Client to upload your compressed videos to the WebFlix Cinema servers. You don’t have to worry about setting up a webpage.
WebFlix Cinema creates a page that hosts your video and provides you with a link to the video. It’s a really simple to use service. If you don’t want to purchase a video compression tool you can send your videos to WebFlix Cinema and for an additional fee they will compress your videos in Windows Media, QuickTime or MPEG1.
The company is able to host downloadable and real-time videos on their servers. For the price it’s the best solution that I have seen on the web for video hosting at such a small price. The company also provides an on-line forum to provide tips and how to’s for their customers as well as to receive user feedback on how the service can be made better.
For more detail about WebFlix Cinema’s streaming services go to www.webflixcinema.com
To learn more about streaming your music videos, visit Genius DV for details about our Video Compression class.
