[Included] Video embedding

[MilesDB]

I am requesting 2 video embed BB codes:

1. [tube][/tube]
for YouTube, Vimeo, Hulu, Dailymotion, Google, Metacafe, RuTube

2. [video][/video]
for any size .flv video from any site with a direct URL like www.yoursite.com/cartoons/tom_and_jerry.flv

The second BBcode would allow us to play our own videos without necessity of uploading to third-party sites.

 

[Blandt]

Things will soon change, as the IIS reliability has already proven itself to rival that of Apache for php applications.

Hosting too , I can get an IIS VPS for the same price as a NIX (maybe few of dollars more/ month).

I will even argue it's cheaper to go Windows if video is a must for your site

 

[EQnoble]

nah there's more quality support available for nix servers as they control the major market share of WWW real estate.

Ill stick with nix...MS used to use nix servers to mitigate denial of service attempts against windowsupdate.
MS has enough of the market locked down with desktops.

Ill be honest , I'd probably go with a Mac server before I ever went with a windows server, now if my primary web-hosting provider wanted to let me demo one of those MS systems, I may change my opinion but only they could convince me to try it as they have never let me down and I have 24 hr a day service from a handful of linux masters. Linux is just so much secure than MS by the nature of it and it would be hard to convince me otherwise.

 

[Blandt]

nah there's more quality support available for nix servers as they control the major market share of WWW real estate.

Ill stick with nix...MS used to use nix servers to mitigate denial of service attempts against windowsupdate.
MS has enough of the market locked down with desktops.

Ill be honest , I'd probably go with a Mac server before I ever went with a windows server, now if my primary web-hosting provider wanted to let me demo one of those MS systems, I may change my opinion but only they could convince me to try it as they have never let me down and I have 24 hr a day service from a handful of linux masters. Linux is just so much secure than MS by the nature of it and it would be hard to convince me otherwise.

Things do change ... I'm in this business since the Amiga BBS and I'm really pleasantly surprised on how the cranky old windows is behaving. Without going into the whys and whens Microsoft did a good job with Win 2008. they even created a shell for us and gave us free licenses (YES FREE, head over to bizspark.com or websitespark.com and apply)
a 2GB VPS with a windows core install behaved very well and gave me less headache over Ubuntu/nginx installed on the same spec VPS (XEN). I'm not comparing the systems or anything like that, I'm just saying wayyyy less headaches in maintaining and administering the site.

As far as the security goes, Windows gives you the option to expose yourself (YES I agree) but you don't have to take the risk.

 

[EQnoble]

ok the most recent and final for now, I am now working on another sub-page of the media landing page...

 

[Booth]

So, I'm not up to date no this. Is automatic embedding an option in XF now?

Or will we have to hope someone creates something like AME?

 

[EQnoble]

No I think the populous doesn't want auto embedding, but I could stand corrected as I have been in my own little corner recently.

 

[Forsaken]

No I think the populous doesn't want auto embedding, but I could stand corrected as I have been in my own little corner recently.

Pretty sure they do; that doesn't decrease stability of the server, as it just parses the link to display the player.

Auto embedding is different from wanting to convert, encode and whatever else you want to do with a full fledge video solution; the second requires a decent dedicated as you require full control, and it does get resource intensive.

 

[Paul B]

No I think the populous doesn't want auto embedding, but I could stand corrected as I have been in my own little corner recently.

Personally speaking, the mockup you've put together looks great.

It's like a gallery but for embedded videos.

As Forsaken said though, it would only work with embedded video as most sites wouldn't be able to support hosting video for all sorts of reasons.

 

[EQnoble]

Pretty sure they do; that doesn't decrease stability of the server, as it just parses the link to display the player.

Auto embedding is different from wanting to convert, encode and whatever else you want to do with a full fledge video solution; the second requires a decent dedicated as you require full control, and it does get resource intensive.

The discussions I remember reading seem to point to wanting the option to embed with a default as the link....

With regards to the video solution I most recently made a mockup for - what I was suggesting up there is an option to host locally via upload... but also index embedded videos into a table with relevant information that can be called into fields all over the forum including that laid out page I mocked up. Yes hosting video can get resource heavy but that's why an option to switch off video and audio uploads could be disabled individually leaving only the option to index and have relevant information that's local site based from the forums users while displaying a video from countless providers also having the content providers logo as a link to give them credit and the traffic that they deserve for hosting it. Also remember for now, I dropped the issue of upload & recode running server-side, the user must upload a valid flv, mp4 or mp3 for the submission to be accepted and that is more cpu load lifted than the rest of this whole system would used combined.

 

[EQnoble]

Personally speaking, the mockup you've put together looks great.

It's like a gallery but for embedded videos.

As Forsaken said though, it would only work with embedded video as most sites wouldn't be able to support hosting video for all sorts of reasons.

Well yes but not just embedded videos...

Lets say I have videos at EQnoblesite.com/video with a video /movie.mp4 and you have this mockup idea running at your XenForo.. you simply put the address for the video file Eqnoblesite.com/video/movie.mp4 and enter all information as usual and use a SWF based flowplayer container which is lightweight enough to wrap the video from my server in a nice looking player shell with player controls. Flowplayer requires 2 small files on your server to run but the video load will come from any server that has a video to share big name domain or small.

With this system you can have unlimited options for source files and choose how much load you can handle and pick the configuration that works best for you simply by removing permissions from certain media options in an admin panel type of thing. It would be a giant step to moving into the modern age of the WorldWW. Xenforo has already put one foot ahead of everyone else with their modern approach to things...this next step could help leave the old ways of doing things behind.

 

[grant sarver]

What about the option to "retrieve remotely and reference locally" so that a user can upload to Youtube and then store a copy on my server? That would make it easy for the user and bring videos in with a known format. I know nothing of such things, I just hate it when a video disappears.

 

[Paul B]

I just hate it when a video disappears.

Although that can be due to them being deleted by the person who uploaded it, a lot of the time it's due to copyright reasons.

I for one would hate to have to monitor that side of things, potentially leaving me as a site owner liable.

 

[Blandt]

Youtube is blocked in several countries ... which only leaves us with the import option with the implicit disclosure that the uploader (just like the poster) is the sole owner and responsible for the object uploaded.

I like the import from youtube because it releases my server from tedious conversions, use youtube's instead

 

[EQnoble]

You would really just need to write a proper disclaimer saying if you are the copyright holder and this violates your copyrights then notify us (button= here) and we will remove it promptly and sorry for your inconvenience. You can't check the copyright on every piece of media that gets uploaded. I mean there is the obvious ones but even those sometimes are allowed to be posted for advertising purposes...(3 minute clips of 30 minute tv shows for example). Your usually safe since you tell your users to not upload copywritten material that they don't own the copyright to and allowing private companies to message you allows everyone's rights to be respected with less overhead...who knows they might even work a deal with you as your hosting may give them free relevant leads on bandwidth they don't have to pay for. Things happen.

 

[Forsaken]

What about the option to "retrieve remotely and store locally" so that a user can upload to Youtube and then store a copy on my server? That would make it easy for the user and bring videos in with a known format. I know nothing of such things, I just hate it when a video disappears.

From a cursory look at their agreement, that is against their terms, and would actually be against copyright of the content uploaders.

You can embed their content, but ripping and storing it locally is most likely out of the question.

 

[EQnoble]

which is why embedding their video and storing the embed with a chunk of data in an index was my suggestion, they still get all their credit ...original site still hosts the media your site lets users define their own description for it and there is a logo link next to the media that allows users to click and go to original hosters site/video=the_video. In this method only information refrencing the media is stored locally.

 

[grant sarver]

Well, I was thinking only of my users content uploaded to Youtube. But I can see where the other issues come in too.

 

[AmericanForum.com]

EQnoble ... your mockup rocks

 

[EQnoble]

EQnoble ... your mockup rocks

why thank you my brethren

 

[Jaxel]

I used to use AME on my own forum, but I've discovered that it was more problematic than good. Suddenly threads were bogged down with flash instances that will take an older computer down a few pegs. Its one of the reasons why I now use my own Media Library modification.

http://www.8wayrun.com/media.php?

I do plan on bringing this over to XenForo and you CAN host your own video files to it. You just upload a video to a specific directory and fill out all the relevant information. Here are some examples:

Flash Video: http://www.8wayrun.com/media/m1590-local-mp4
WMV Video: http://www.8wayrun.com/media/m1602-local-wmv