Need advice on embedding videos...

[HowlingWulf]

I have some .wmv files I would like to host on my server and embed on my site. Should I keep them as .wmv and embed with media player (free) or convert to .flv and embed with a flash player? Does it matter? I'm a little new at this.

[Cleo]

JW Player will link to different movie types and play them as a Flash movie.

[HowlingWulf]

I looked at it. It's like 30 euros per domain.

[Ms Naughty]

I bought Easy FLV http://www.easyflv.com/ because I had no real idea what I was doing with flash movies and it made it possible to just start using them without trying too hard.

That said, there are probably other free or cheaper bits of software out there that will convert flash videos for you and the results may be better.

In terms of bandwidth, I think flash vids have smaller file sizes.

And people are used to flash vids thanks to Youtube.

[HowlingWulf]

easyflv looks nice, especially the html encryption. I wouldn't want the vids hotlinked.

What I'm really asking is: I can either embed the video as wmv or as flv. Does it matter which? Embedding the wmv's is free, but there must be some reason Youtube and others use flv.... compatibility?

[LD]

I tried embedding wmv's, and could not make it work without requiring user to download MS Silverlight. Someone more technically inclined might know more. FLV's are so common now, I tend to think they are more compatible. I know you can compress the hell out of them for small files, which is an advantage.

I use JW as Cleo mentioned. I got the commercial license for 1 domain. Love it!

[Cleo]

I embed H.264 vids using JW Player in the paysites that I manage instead of turning the movies into flv vids for a few reason. JW Player can use a bunch of different types of images as the cover image and a bunch of different types of movies files as the movie source.

Reason one is it is easier since I can change out the movie just by taking a screen shot of the new vid and naming it cover.png and change out the movie without having to re-encode the movie as a flv vid.

The other reason is I make the movies also available for download for use with ipods, iphones, AppleTV, and whatever so I just provide a download link to the same movie file that JW Player is linked to.

You can use htaccess to protect flv, mp4, h.264, and just about anything except wmv files so I never use wmv files.

The designer I hired used Easy FLV for the preview on a paysite tour that she did for me but when it comes time to replace the movie I'll be using JW Player so that in the future I can change out the movie more easily.

Either works just fine and to the surfer they never know the difference.

Now if Adobe and Apple would get their shit together and release Flash the iphone Flash movies would be perfect.

Personally I would stay away from MS Silverlight as not a lot of users have it installed and it isn't even available for anything except Intel Macs and Windows machines.

[HowlingWulf]

Thanks I am going to be using FLVs. I do have software to convert my wmvs already.
Cleo, what do you use to grab a screen shot of the vid? I wish these players would just show frame 1 instead of a blank screen automatically...

[Cleo]

Originally Posted by HowlingWulf

Cleo, what do you use to grab a screen shot of the vid? I wish these players would just show frame 1 instead of a blank screen automatically...

If all I need is the first frame I can use ThumbsUp for doing batches but usually I don't want the first frame so I do screen grabs.

I'm a Mac user so to take a picture of the movie at the frame I want and just press Command-Shift-4 and drag to select the area that I want and it saves as a png to my desktop.