Streaming Video?

Brad · Post by **Brad** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:04 am

I've been wanting to see the OPTION for streaming video versions on the Org for a long time now. Now, don't get me wrong, I am fully 100% aware of the quality issues. I put one of my videos on You--Tube as a test and was completely grossed out. However, You--Tube != The end-all-be-all of streaming video. When done right, you can really get some damn good looking results that begin playing either on the fly or after a few moments.

Now, I'm not suggesting that the Org implement it as a standard thing or even give the option to host/transcode/etc. I WOULD however like to see the ability to add an embeded stream to a video info page, and we could offer guidance on which streaming sites are suitable alternatives to You--Tube (like iMeem for example). We provide a simple set of instructions on how to add your videos to iMeem (or whatever), then tell them what embed code to copy, and then have a field + check box. Then on the video page, underneath the streaming video box, we can put some kind of text saying "This version of the video is meant to be a lower quality preview version of the video. We strongly advice you to download and watch the full quality version found below."

When you're approaching something like this, you've got to consider opportunity cost. Streaming video offers IMMEDIATE (typically immediate) gratification on the page that houses the info I was interested in in the first place, and allows me to decide whether or not a video is even worth downloading. If I like a video enough to KEEP it after I download it, then I am going to like it enough to download it after I watch it streaming.

Kalium · Post by **Kalium** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:40 pm

What are the valid elements in a video profile? Add embed to that list. Voila.

Corran · Post by **Corran** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:35 pm

Kalium wrote:What are the valid elements in a video profile? Add embed to that list. Voila.

Would you like to be the mod that goes around making sure no one is tricking people into downloading their videos by embedding videos that aren't theirs? Or maybe using this feature for embedding non-amvs?

I'm not against the idea of streaming, quite the opposite actually, but I'd prefer exploring local possibilities before we consider relying on external sites.

Kalium · Post by **Kalium** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:29 pm

Corran wrote:
Kalium wrote:What are the valid elements in a video profile? Add embed to that list. Voila.
Would you like to be the mod that goes around making sure no one is tricking people into downloading their videos by embedding videos that aren't theirs? Or maybe using this feature for embedding non-amvs?

I'm fully aware of the problems. I was sarcastically proposing the brain-dead answer. The next step is for people to just put links to streaming sites in the video profiles.