3

I am implementing a blog to share courses, lectures, tutorials or talks.

The video sizes might be bit a bit big - so i was wondering what is a good quality plugin for wordpress that would allow to play videos smoothly , with different dpi settings and such.

I want to host the files on my hosting - and play them.

Is that a bad option, should i go to youtube ? 3rd party ? what are the + and - of each. Are there any copyright issues, limits, "fair usages", forced ads ?

Any tips on the video thing is extremely welcomed.

I live in one of the top 5 countries with slowest internet, so optimizing this can be crucial.

Thanks for any advice you guys can share

Regards

Improve this question

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
4

I just finished a Wordperss site that had a similar need for playing video. I would recommend going the Youtube route. Youtube will handle hosting, file conversions and with iframe embedding you can be sure the most devices possible will see your videos.

On the Wordpress side of the equation, there are many helpful plugins that work with Youtube. My personal favorite is Tubepress.

Tubepress is great for making a playlist of just a few specific videos, or showing an entire archive of videos in pagination style. The customization available for displaying videos inline or in modal made it an easy choice for my custom theme.

If you're quite sure you're up to the challenge of hosting, properly encoding and serving video on your own, I'd recommend a two front assault. Use Flowplayer as your easy-to-use Flash player for older browsers, and then embrace HTML5 for the newer browsers.

The best possible resource for all things HTML5 Video is Dive into HTML5

Improve this answer
2
  • Hello PNMG - and thank you for your reply - did you take a look to kaltura.org/project/community_edition_video_platform , it looked quite professional, so i am considering doing some experimenting with it. do you recommend it / have any experience with it
    – mireille raad
    Dec 2, 2010 at 19:11
  • I remember looking at Kaltura before choosing Flowplayer. I decided to take charge of controlling video encoding and hosting. I would definitely consider Kalture for a personal project, but most of my clients needs can be met with a mixture of Youtube hosting and Flowplayer for more branded video experiences. As far as fair use and copy right concerns: if this is a large concern for you or your client host the files on Youtube. Youtube is responsible for monitoring their content. If there is a problem, Youtube will be held responsible (and just pull the video).
    – PNMG
    Dec 2, 2010 at 21:07
2

Are you planning on converting the videos to .flv yourself? If not I would go with youtube/vimeo etc, it's easy to upload a video, get the embed code and job done.

If you have internal hosting (or better still a server and someone to manage it on the university network) then http://videopress.com/ might be worth a look.

Improve this answer
2
  • with video press - i should publish to wordpress.com blog and then pull the video the self hosted using the id - this feels bit weird to me. as for youtube and such - i am wondering about ownership - ease of download and how safe it is to rely on 3rd party
    – mireille raad
    Nov 27, 2010 at 22:14
  • Sorry - Videopress is actually installable on your own server if you have one but it takes some admin skills. It does all the conversion etc but it's not for a beginner. If you are doing it yourself and have no one to assist with server configuration try wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stream-video-player. This still requires some technical knowledge, but is a really very good. If that one still seems too much, you'll have to upload to Vimeo/youtube etc and use any plugin to embed the videos into a post.
    – Chris
    Nov 29, 2010 at 13:24
1

I would suggest that you put your videos on Youtube & Vimeo or similar video hosting server. These server has the hardware and bandwidth to stream your movies.

IF you choose to host these videos on your own server, you should create custom post types - I think. I'm pretty sure I saw some tutorials on thos, but I can't find it now.

But here are tuts for Custom Post types:

http://wpengineer.com/1969/impressions-of-custom-post-type
http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-use-custom-post-types
http://justintadlock.com/archives/2010/04/29/custom-post-types-in-wordpress

OR you can use a plugin like JW Player: http://www.tubepress.net/wp-jw-player

Improve this answer
3
  • are there any limits to youtube uploads ? like max upload/month quota or fair usage, max file size ? what about the content of the videos i upload there. i have a crappy internet connection - so the upload in FTP i can resume, same options in youtube ?
    – mireille raad
    Nov 27, 2010 at 22:19
  • I've never uploaded a movie to Youtube, but I don't think you will ben using FTP. But here are some links you can look at: youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/07/…, gigaom.com/video/youtube-doubles-upload-size-limit, youtube.com/watch?v=aCAdwQm6FBc
    – Steven
    Nov 28, 2010 at 11:28
  • Youtube has a web based interface for uploading movies. All you need is a web browser to upload to a Youtube account.
    – PNMG
    Dec 2, 2010 at 21:11
0

jwplayer is good for this; http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/jw-player/jw-player-for-flash-v5/15995/jw-embedder-reference-guide#levels

upload 1 or more different versions of a video and it will detect the users' speed and select the appropriate quality.

also breaks down into html 5 for iphone/ipads too...

(try and avoid their wp plugin though as we've found it a bit dodgy and built it the player directly in our template)

Dc

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.