I seem to remember WMP prompting to go searching for codecs. Where would it look and what example codecs would it find? It's a shame if Xvid or DivX (which can play back Xvid) were not included.

Can't test this of course because my PCs already have Xvid, DivX and ffdshow.

WMP does sometimes "acquire" codecs off the internet, but rather than being codecs, I would say it goes looking for licences to play files with DRM content.

I would put a disclaimer on the page, stating that the files are xVid, etc, and offer a suggested link to either that specific codec, or something like klite codec pack. DivX content can launch an installer on first playback, if required. Probably a jscript to search for presence of codec would be another method, but a lot more hassle.

I'm curious... why not just use Windows Media .WMV files instead of Xvid? WMV is certainly a more universal format and they can look very, very good. Personally, I use Flash video with the On2 VP6 codec at 960x540, they look very good and are even more platform agnostic than WMV.

>> I'm curious... why not just use Windows Media .WMV files instead of Xvid? <<

Mainly because I have a few Xvids already on my drive that I uploaded to Stage6. I like the quality:size ratio but of course most users need to download a codec which is inconvient.

I always used to do WMV9 downloads at 320x240 so I suppose i could go back to that at a much bigger size. Seems a backward step rather.

John do you have any links to your 960x540 On2 Flash videos? What bitrate are you at for those? I'm doing 480px-wide On2 flv now so I could embed flv in high res versions of my pages. I did start to try that but I couldn't remember how I made my Flash players so I gave up again.

Nick, have you looked into blip.tv? I am migrating all of my files over there. They allow you to upload and link to (or embed) your original HD DivX footage or SD DivX footage as well as transcode it for you.

Here is an example of 1080 HD footage in DivX on blip.tv.

j razz

Wow! That looks as good as it would have on Stage6.com. Could you post a link to the transcoded version as well?

It doesnt play here j razz. Don't know if it's buffering or something but as far as I can see the embedded WM Player is just sitting there doing nothing.

The 3 that keep popping up in discussion are vimeo, veoh and blip.tv

When I have more time I will check them out to see which is best for hosting big videos.

It should not be playing in a WM player but a DivX web player. Maybe that is where the problem is?

Laurence,

The transcode failed. I contacted support and the attempted to transcode two seperate times but due to the file size, the transcodes failed. He did say that if I signed up for a paid account, I would take priority with the transcoder and my transcode time out time would be extended. He said that HD files take a lot more to transcode than SD files. The one I linked to above is just under a gig.

Here is one that was also in HD and it did transcode.

Here are all the ones I have up (they have a batch uploader that works decent) so far and they have all transcoded except for the one I linked to in the above post.

I am pleased with it as an alternative to Stage6 thus far.

j razz

I was not impressed with Veoh due to the clunky application they use as a player that downgrades the quality. Plus their embedded video player just did not look as sharp as blip.tv's.

I also attempted to use Vimeo but they have a 500 meg limit per week. Slow uploading my files and I have several I would have to reduce the quality to get them on there.

Blip.tv has a 1 gig limit (and veoh does as well) per file and you can upload as many as you wish as best I can tell. Your videos also play on your page as if it is a station that a viewer tunes in to. The embedded player is extremely customizable (you can even add your website to it and choose where to put adverts if you wish). I also found that their customer service is personal and quick to respond.

Here are two examples of veoh and blip.tv embedded.

j razz

j razz,

Does Blip TV offer a way to sort your uploaded videos, along the lines of the Stage6 "groups" concept?

Thanks!

--Rob

I am not familiar with groups. Do you mean channels? Yes, to a degree. You can also tag your videos and choose a certian category under which they will show up. As for channels, you have your very own channel, but I don't think they allow (I don't know this for sure) to add other people's videos to your channel or for others to add your video to theirs.

j razz

J Razz,

>Do you mean channels?

No. Stage6 allowed you to sort a Channel into groups. See here (groups are listed in the upper right corner of the screen):

http://www.stage6.com/GrooveLily

Do you know if there is any way to set the default video to "Source" rather than "Flash"? As it stands now the visitor must select "Source" from the "Play Episode As" pull-down menu to see the original video.

--Rob