Video Embedding Comparison Tests
Posted on December 15, 2008 in Internet | No Comments
Filmmaker Karel Bata compares Video Hosting platforms head to head:
Vimeo.com
Teenage Zombie Movie 1 (teaser) from Karel Bata on Vimeo.
ExposureRoom.com
View in HD Download 380p Version Visit Karel Bata’s ExposureRoom Videos Page
YouTube.com
Virb.com
Shooting People.org
Blip.com
Dailymotion.com
MetaCafe
Tennage Zombie Movie 1 – Teaser – video powered by Metacafe
Decide for yourself. Your needs will be different to mine, but here’s some things to look out for:
- resolution (sharpness), pixilation, and other artefacts.
- frame rate (jerkiness)
- The sound quality and level. Some sites encode to a noticeably quieter level than others
(and what on Earth has Revver done??) - The design of the embed window. Some are much cleaner than others.
- Whether a user definable poster frame / thumbnail is available.
- Resizability – an important factor in designing a web page.
- What happens once the video has played out. Do you want links to other people’s sites appearing?
The uploaded file was a Quicktime 640×380 H264 keyframes=all bitdepth=max uploaded file size = 37MB
Tests here are confined to this one video. Most people don’t yet have HD capable computers and connections, so SD is still the best delivery format available for streaming video to cash strapped independent filmakers, and will remain so for a while.
An HD sister site is being prepared.
When available, all videos had the same thumbnail uploaded at the hosting site. Most sites include this in the final embed, some do not. And some create their own, such as YouTube.
I have added ‘object width=”640″ height=”380(+controller)” ‘ tags on each video to attempt to resize them. Some video hosting sites allow this. Others clearly do not. (Resizing can be disabled in Flash) XR is locked to 640 and looks excellent here, but is stuck at that size. I’m not a skilled coder, and if anyone knows how to resize these stubborn ones I’d love to know. [Editor's note: We have resized these videos to their default settings or smaller in order to fit the size limitations of FilmmakerIQ. To see the original, please visit Karel Bata's website]
I have used only free video hosting sites that offer video embedding of a quality that can be regarded as useful to filmakers. If anyone knows of any other hosting sites worth including please leave a message below [Karel Bata's Website] giving the url of a good example and I will include it. Or…
If anyone subscribes to a paying service and is willing to host the video so I can embed it for comparison here do please let me know.
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