Will Head
If you’re producing video, you’d be nuts not to take advantage of hosting sites, but the one you choose depends on what you want to achieve…
Make any kind of video these days and the chances are it will end up online somewhere. Gone are the days when Internet connections and computers ground to a halt trying to download and play online video.
With broadband speeds ever increasing and even the cheapest of PCs capable of playing back video without dropping a frame, the reasons for not producing online video are rapidly declining. And perhaps the best bit is that it needn’t cost you a penny to actually host it, thanks to the upside down economics of the Internet.
Video, obviously, occupies a huge amount of space. Even using the best codecs and the most stringent settings, you’re still looking at around 7.5MB for every minute of standard-definition video, and double that if you want HD. Try hosting that on the Internet yourself, and as soon as you hit anything approaching decent traffic numbers your host will likely switch off your site.
Since each viewer needs to download the entire huge file to watch your video, the bandwidth required quickly adds up. While many hosts claim to offer unlimited bandwidth, most have small print that states they can cut you off if you use too much. Even if you’ve got a generous limit to play with, like 1TB per month, that still only equates to less than 500 viewers a day for a 10-minute clip. In short, video hosting is better left to the professionals.
The first and most obvious place to look for video hosting is YouTube. It’s the biggest video site on the Internet for a reason. If you dismissed YouTube on quality grounds a couple of years back, then it’s definitely time to take another look.
Previously, YouTube used to re-encode uploads into low-resolution, low-bitrate FLV format so the results weren’t exactly stunning. However, it has since switched to the new H.264 format and upped the resolution: there are now both 1080p and 720p HD options, alongside standard-definition and web-size videos. Provided you supply YouTube with a sufficiently high-quality source file, you shouldn’t experience any problems.
In fact, if you have any doubts about YouTube’s commitment to quality, then take a look at the 4K resolution that was recently introduced. With a resolution of 4096 x 2304 pixels, 4K packs in four times as many dots as 1080p – it’s seriously high res. You’ll need a high-end projector to get the most out of 4K, but the fact that YouTube supports it as an option shows how it’s really trying to shake off its previous low-resolution image.
The other thing that might put you off YouTube is the 10-minute clip limit. Originally YouTube would take longer videos, but in an effort to cut down on the amount of pirated material that was being uploaded and causing nightmares for the site’s owners, a limit of 10 minutes was imposed. The limit hasn’t vanished entirely, but has now been increased to 15 minutes, which is still a little on the short side, but much better than before. It’s also unlikely that anyone would watch for much more than 15 minutes while sitting at their desk, so it’s a good compromise.
Upload your video to YouTube and you’ll also be putting it in front of the most potential eyeballs. There’s little point sharing your creations online if you don’t want them to be seen, so the bigger audience you can get to watch your pride and joy, the better.
However, while YouTube offers decent quality and a massive audience, it isn’t the be all and end all of online video hosting. There are a huge number of sites out there that will offer to host your videos for you. Some are aimed at the mass market, but a couple have the independent producer in mind.
Vimeo, for example, is another place to showcase your videos online, and it even predates YouTube by four months, launching in November 2004. While YouTube is the home for all videos, regardless of quality, Vimeo is a little more refined in its taste. It’s more of a place to show off your very best work rather than upload clips of your dog farting.
There are more restrictions on the types of content you can upload to Vimeo, but if you’re creating original, high-quality material, you should be fine. The terms and conditions exclude the usual things such as uploading pornography or hate speech, but also things like game videos. If you’re unsure what a game video is, it’s a video of someone playing a computer game. Again, something you’re unlikely to have a problem with.
Vimeo also states that you’re not allowed to upload videos for commercial use. If you’re using it to show off your work in the hope of getting more business, that could be considered commercial use. However, it does state that independent production companies are exempt from this rule provided you are uploading work you’ve created.
With a free Vimeo account, you can upload 500MB per week and one HD video. If that’s not enough, then you’ll need to upgrade to Vimeo Plus, which gets you 5GB per week of uploads and unlimited HD videos for $9.95 (about £6.50) per month.
While YouTube offers exposure for all videos, Vimeo could be a better place to put the stuff you’ve taken time creating. There’s a focus on quality that you won’t find on YouTube and it may bring a better audience to your work rather than just raw numbers of eyeballs.
While both YouTube and Vimeo are great places for uploading one-off projects, depending on the audience you want to see them, Blip.tv is worth investigating if you’re producing more of a regular series.
Founded in 2005, Blip is the comparative new kid on the video hosting block, and its approach is somewhat different to that of other sites. The focus is on regular, episodic content rather than one-off pieces and it’s been designed from the ground up for commercial work. Blip will happily handle selling ads on the videos you create and split the profits with you 50/50. While YouTube, Vimeo and others re-encode any videos you upload before showing them off, you get much more control with Blip. The original formats you upload can be accessed directly without re-encoding and while it will create an FLV version for you by default, you can upload your own and it will use that one instead.
Blip’s focus on regular content also lends itself to the iTunes podcast directory, something that’s supported straight out of the box. Any shows you upload will automatically have an iTunes feed associated with them, so viewers can subscribe and download content for viewing later on iPods and iPhones.
With a free account, you’ll need to make sure you upload a compatible format, but opt for the Pro version for $8 (about £5.20) per month and it’ll automatically create an iPod version of anything you upload automatically.
Finally, Blip will play nicely with the other video sites out there – even YouTube and Vimeo – so you can upload your video once to Blip and it will then push it out to the other sites automatically so you don’t have to. You can automatically have your show pop up on up to 20 different sites, which is a real timesaver.
Whichever site you choose, the main thing to remember is that all of the sites allow you to promote your business effectively for free. Whether you want to create a daily video show or just show off a project you’ve spent the past six months working on, you can let the world view it. The more people that see what you can do, the more work you’re likely to get, so it makes sense to spend time sharing your content on the web.