pros and cons of quicktime movie or YouTube on your website?

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Level 4

1,445 points

pros and cons of quicktime movie or YouTube on your website?

Hello All,

I want to add a short movie to my website and I have watched the tutorials on adding a quicktime movie and a YouTube movie to your website.

However, they didn't say what the pros and cons were. Is it better to add a quicktime movie to your site or a link to YouTube.

How easy or hard is it to add a link to Vimeo?

Thanks for all your help and suggestions.

Mike

21.5 inch iMac intel-LaCie d2 Quadra 1 TB, Mac OS X (10.6.3), Canon HV20 daisy-chained into the LaCie into FCE4(21.5 iMac)

Posted on Aug 17, 2010 1:11 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 17, 2010 1:17 PM in response to Michael Ryan.

Hi Michael,

The pros of hosting the movie yourself on your .me website is that you have control over the content in your movie; if you put copyrighted music in your video and upload it to youtube and they recognize it (and they usually do) no one will be able to view the video on youtube without being logged in to youtube as you.

The cons are that if you upload movies to iweb, you'll be using some bandwidth every time someone watches it, and there is a limit to what is include with the mobile me subscription.

Adding a youtube video embedded in your site is easy. Just use the HTML snippet (or did they update one just for you tube?) and copy the "embed" information from the file on you tube, and paste it in the html window. 🙂 easy as pie.

I don't know anything about "Vimeo" but any links are easy if you're leaving your site and sending a clicker to the page with what you want to show. Embedding is easy if they give you embed tools at the site you want to borrow from (like youtube does). 🙂

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Answer 2

Wyodor

Level 6

19,930 points

Aug 17, 2010 1:28 PM in response to 2cute2b2smart

YouTube and Vimeo use a Flash videoplayer when you embed your movies, whether you use iWeb or not.

http://roodhout.dailynews.webege.com/Vimeo.html

I like to have control over my movies :

http://cultureclub.dailynews.webege.com/Movies.html
http://ipad.dailynews.webege.com/Movie.html

More (Flash) video sample for your pleasure to study and nim :

http://www.wyodor.net/iFrame/
http://www.wyodor.net/MoreEmbed/

Recommended reading : [Using the iWeb HTML Snippet|http://www.wyodor.net/blog/archives/2009/07/entry_213.html]

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Answer 3

Michael Ryan. Author

Level 4

1,445 points

Aug 17, 2010 2:02 PM in response to 2cute2b2smart

Hello There,

So if I get this right... I have a web hosting service I don't use mobile me. If I upload a quicktime movie then every time someone watches the movie it will use bandwidth? If I have a link to YouTube or Vimeo then the movie can be watched tons of times and it won't be a problem for my website?

Mike

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Answer 4

Aug 17, 2010 2:06 PM in response to Michael Ryan.

That's right. Assuming that all web hosting services limit both the amount of space your website data takes to host as well as transfer limits on that data being viewed. 🙂

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Answer 5

Aug 19, 2010 2:12 AM in response to Michael Ryan.

Something else to add. You may also want to think about speed and compatibility.

The YouTube movies start almost instantly when viewed and you don't have to wait for the movie to load to skip to a specific point in the movie. So if you're watching a movie that's 9 minutes long and want to go to the 8th minute you have to wait for the QuickTime movie to load past 8 minutes to get there. With YouTube you just drag the slider to 8 minutes.

However as previously mentioned YouTube normally uses Flash so isn't compatible with some browsers especially iPhones, iPad's and other mobile devices.

Also YouTube only allows movies up to 10 minutes in length so anything longer would have to be cut up into smaller parts. QuickTime isn't so limited and theoretically is only effected by size.

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Answer 6

Michael Ryan. Author

Level 4

1,445 points

Aug 19, 2010 1:27 PM in response to David Schultze

Thanks, David

You have come closer to the kind of information I have been looking for. My movie would be about one minute long. I'm not running a massive site (I'm probably getting maybe 500-800 hits per month and not all of these people would be interested in viewing the movie).

It sounds like Quicktime might have some advantages for me (short movie, I don't think that would be lots of bandwidth).

So if I use Quicktime people with iPad, iPhones will be able to see the movie?

Any thing else I should be aware of?

Thanks, Mike

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Answer 7

Aug 19, 2010 1:52 PM in response to Michael Ryan.

Not really.

The QT movies play nicely with the portable devices and as you're only using small movies you shouldn't have any problems with load times.

One thing I notice with mine is that connection speeds of less than 3Meg make the starting time of a movie a bit slow but YouTube is almost instant. You might want to upload some and do some testing.

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Answer 8

Roddy

Level 6

17,265 points

Aug 20, 2010 8:14 PM in response to Michael Ryan.

The new player from JW LongTail Video will play most types of movie file in all browsers and on the iPhone/iPad.

The player is free and the embed code is created online......

http://www.iwebformusicians.com/HTML5-Media-Players/JW-Video-Player.html

I have only tested it with MV4 and MOV so far. You can reference a movie on your Mac, YouTube or your server and have a choice of 5 skins and autostart id required.

"I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link."

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