Screencast gives you 2GB of free storage and 2GB bandwidth per month free. And you can purchase more space if needed for as low as $9.95 per/mo.

http://www.screencast.com/

Thanks for the replies, guys! Seriously.

But I've gone to both of those websites and I can't see if either of them lets you set up a "client preview" type of thing where clients can log in and look at all of their content in progress.

Do either of you use those services for something like that? Are they configurable that way?

If Vimeo only allowed you to have "password protected channels" then I think it would be fine for me and my company, but it doesn't. Both of these look like possibilities, but they seem to focus on "you can show your videos on every platform...yay!" type of messaging. I don't really care about that as much as being able to direct a client to an area they can log into and see their content. I have several clients that NEED to have the video content in a password protected area.

Any other info would be appreciated.

Thanks again, and cheers!

B

I can't speak for the other web sites, but I'm not sure what you want that's not stated on the main Screencast page?

"Decide who views your content. Make a folder public and visible to everyone. Hide it so only you can see it. Password protect it. Or make it so only authorized viewers can access your content."

It costs nothing to set up a free account and play with it! I'm using Screencast to host some training videos I'm creating for my Timeline Tools Vegas add-in. From what I've seen so far, I'm very pleased with the results.

Thanks again Gary, but when it says "create a folder" - I already have Dropbox. I can "push" a file to my clients, but I want a player/gallery interface. I guess I was uncertain that it provides that functionality. "creating a folder" means something different to me than a secure login. Also, it doesn't state whether or not your client has to download some kind of screencast "app" in order to access their "folder" - the way it is described, it sounds like Dropbox. That isn't really what I need.

I appreciate the response though.

I use Vimeo. If the client wants privacy, I set it up so they need a password.

Gary, Smugmug might provide what you are looking for. The biggest caveat - each video can be no longer than 20 minutes. Smugmug is primarily a photo hosting site, but you can put an unlimited number of photos OR videos in a gallery. Galleries can be password protected, and you can create a gallery for each client. Wedding photographers frequently use Smugmug for just that.

For video, the client doesn't need to download a viewer - browser works fine. The Power account at $60/year should give you what you need for video.

Here is a link to Smugmug's features comparison: http://www.smugmug.com/photos/photo-sharing-features/

/jerry

After you weigh the solutions offered, also consider the possibility of paying a web programmer to create a template with multiple players that could easily be added to password-protected folders on your own web site. It may cost less than you'd pay an outside hosting company in a year. Clients may appreciate that their material remains completely under your control, and you also have the ability to easily add players that can stream directly from your NLE's desktop if your clients want to see work truly IN PROGRESS.

Sounds like you want something like YouTube, right? Doesn't YouTube allow private access to posted videos? Is this a possibility?

Thanks for the replies, guys, but NO Vimeo and Youtube do NOT provide what I am looking for as of right now.

As I stated in my previous posts, Vimeo ALMOST works - it allows me to set up a Channel for each client. Great. Now if ONLY i could password protect THE ENTIRE CHANNEL so my client could log in with the password and look at ALL of their videos - that would be great! BUT Vimeo does NOT allow you password protect a CHANNEL, only the individual videos within the channel, so the client would have to enter a password in for each video before reviewing it. This is clunky and unprofessional.

AS for the other solutions, I am intrigued by BrightCove and Screencast, but they don't provide you with the RIGHT information on their websites to determine if they can do what I want them to do. What I am looking for is extremely simple, and I'm shocked that no one seems to provide it unless you go with Media Silo.

The SmugMug thing - a password protected gallery. Hallalujah! THat is really all I need...but my corporate videos are often longer than 20 minutes.

Are you sure you've evaluated Vimeo Pro and not Plus

Vimeo Pro allows you to create Portfolios (that can be password-protected) that you can contain a selection of videos in your account. You can also change a portfolio's theme (from a selection of presets or a custom one). The cherry on top is that you can set a custom domain name for a portfolio, which ultimately means that you can create a fully branded solution that matches your own website pretty easily.

For example, you can point a subdomain such as client-one.yourdomain.com to a portfolio you've set up with videos for your client ("Client One") that can look like the rest of your website and be password-protected for their eyes only.

At $200/year, it's a hard solution to beat if you want something professional that can handle large amounts of streaming.

More info here: https://vimeo.com/help/faq/pro#portfolio

Atom 12 had the right approach. Any third party hosting is going to involve compromises. Have a look at what your competitors are doing. If you already have your own site, why not just use it, and if not you can get good web hosting with unlimited bandwidth for well under the $200 per year Vimeo is asking.

Hey Jive,

I'll take another look at Vimeo Pro - I may have missed that portfolio thing because I was used to their "channel" mentality/terminology and was looking at it for secure "channels" - maybe the portfolio thing will work. I'll take another look.

Also, as for doing it ourselves, we would if we had the time and infrastructure. First of all we don't have a server of our own and we are BUSY right now, so we wouldn't have the time to build something like that - but yes, we have thought of it.

Cheers,
B

Thanks again for the replies,

I ended up signing up for the Vimeo Pro account - the password protected PORTFOLIOS (not CHANNELS as they previously offered) seem to work fine for what I need so far, the only problem now is the same old crap about Vimeo that keeps it from being truly professional:

1. Slow uploads and processing.
2. Numerous 'dropped' uploads and failed processing attempts.
3. The 'custom' options in the portfolio themes just don't work - you MUST script your own CSS if you want to customize it at all.
4. No batch uploading tool - they USED to have one and it was great, now- NOTHING. They discontinued it.
5. Totally unreliable service. It's up one hour, down the next.

I had one project that we had to go back to hand delivering everything because Vimeo was so unreliable that I dared not send my client a "link" to the preview anymore.

Until I can sort it all out, it will work okay for my current workloads (I think) but I need to find a better solution in the long run.

Now, I've also gotten emails from a company called "The Platform" but their website hides the cost of a monthly subscription and I HATE THAT.

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