Streaming video increases sales –
definitely. But are you using the right stuff?
I will explain you all today what you should look in
for a software, if you are deciding to put your videos
online. What are the options, what you should look for.
First of all there are two methods of putting videos
online. The first one is by using streaming video servers
like Quicktime, Real Player or Flash Communication.
This method is the best choice if you have a pretty
heavy user load. By pretty heavy I mean, say atleast
3000 viewers from various locations are watching the
video on your website at the same time. Busy websites
like cnn.com, bbc.com use this technique. This feature
generally involves a monthly fees that you have to pay
to hire the streaming video server and the cost generally
varies from one host to another depending on your required
bandwidth.
|
Pros:
1. Ability to handle huge user load.
2. Immediate random access to different parts
of a movie.
3. Video remains on server (cannot be saved by
viewers).
4. Live Streaming. |
| Cons:
1. Not easy to setup for the average person.
2. Monthly charges. |
The second method is relatively simple and uses Flash
Video (FLV) progressive download as the technique to
show videos online. For this the user have to encode
the source video (MPEG, AVI or any other format) to
FLV format and then use a video player interface to
show that video online. Simply put, the user have to
upload the FLV file to the webserver in a specific location
and embed a Flash Video Player interface on the webpage.
When the Flash Video Player’s play button is clicked,
it will start playing the FLV file.
| Pros:
1. No special streaming servers are required.
2. Consistent high quality playback at any connection
speed.
3. One time charges only.
4. Easy to setup and maintain. |
| Cons:
1. Limited user load.
2. Limited time length of videos (1 hr maximum)
3. Videos are downloaded to user’s computer. |
Considering the cost and ease of setup this method
is suitable for most online entrepreneurs who are planning
to sell an ebook or a report or a membership site or
any info-product. There are a lot of software available
which will do the job for you, however you have to be
bit careful when buying such a software. Here are list
of things that you should check before clicking that
buy button. You can skip the questions that you feel
are not applicable for you.
1. Does the software run on all versions of
Windows (98/Me/2000/XP) without installing any additional
stuffs (.NET framework etc) ?
The recommended expected answer is “Yes”. You should
not need to install anything extra other then the software
installer itself.
2. Do the video players come in various window
sizes? How many of them?
The software should have at least 3 different video
window sizes that are considered to be standard. 160
X 120, 240 X 180 and 320 X 240. Additional wide screen
sizes like 240 X 135, 320 X 180 are also recommended.
There should be atleast 10 video players ( bordered,
borderless, with controls, without controls) packed
with the software.
3. Very Important - What is the size of the
video players themselves in KB?
When your visitor comes to watch the video on your
website, be sure he does not have to wait for the video
player to load itself. There are a few video players
which are almost 100 KB in size compared to some which
are only 3KB in size. Now, my experience says, your
visitor will love to watch the video, but would not
like to wait on the player to load itself and its skin.
So always settle for a software that comes with feather-light
players. The maximum allowable size is 20 KB, the recommended
size is less than 5kb.
4. How complex is setting up of the players?
You should check if the players are using additional
files like XML or PHP, and in that case you should verify,
how easy it would be for a normal person to set it up
on his server.
5. Does the software generate the required
code for embedding the players?
The software should generate the required code for
embedding the players on the webpage. Infact it would
also point out the necessary files that should be uploaded
to your webserver.
6. Is the generated code compatible with blogs
like Blogger/Wordpress?
Verify if you can paste the generated code straight
in the “publish” box of your blog and add videos to
your blog. Same is applicable if you wish to add videos
to your CMS like Mambo, Drupal or Joomla, or if you
intend to add video to a forum running on vBulletin
or Phpbb.
Lastly your budget. You would find many decent software
available under $50 for streaming video. Any streaming
video software that uses progressive download technique
and costs well above $50, you should check out what
other benefits the software is giving compared to the
ones sold below $50.
Thats all for now. More to come!
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