I shot some video of our hike to Flat Rocks yesterday.
I've been wanting to show a comparison of a few video services and this is the right video to use.
Video sharing reviews are good, but most don't give you a common video to compare them. I wanted you to be able to see the quality differences. This video is a good test example because it has a great deal of detail in the trees, light reflecting off of water in the creek and some jittery movement. It was shot with the Kodak v705. So, you'll be able to see the difference in video compression quality.
Veoh, Brightcove, Photobucket, VideoEgg and YouTube
I love how quickly YouTube compresses video once you've uploaded your videos, but not the end result. The compression is weak. I'm a big fan of Brightcove, which we use for all of our How To Videos at RealEstateShows.com. The best for pure speed is VideoEgg. Because it uses a downloaded video plugin to manage the upload, your videos are ready the moment they are uploaded to their site. Veoh delivers a great end result, but the compression can take a long time to complete. So, if you're wanting to get a video up and post it quickly, it can be a bit frustrating. But if you're not in a hurry... Veoh is good opton. Photobucket is a good all-around tool for storing photos and video, so there may be some added benefit to using this service. Flickr doesn't have video upload. But depending on traffic, the upload time can take exceptionally long. Facebook also has a good video upload engine, but you can't embed the video in your blog posts. You can share Veoh, YouTube and Photobucket videos on Facebook. If you'd like to see the Facebook quality, and you are a Facebook member, you can see a version of the video here.
These are all shown in their default embed codes sizes. If you turn off your sound, you can click on all three in succession to judge the quality yourself. To reduce upload time, the original video was saved as 640 x 480 VGA MP4 at 15 frames per second with a data rate of 1000 kbit/sec. You may get better results by uploading higher quality video. This is especially true for VideoEgg, since there is no upload time penalty.
Here is the Veoh version:
Here is the Brightcove version:
Here is the VideoEgg version:
Here is the Photobucket version:
Here is the YouTube version:
Jeff Turner aka respres
The image quality of VideoEgg strikes me as best. Clear, bright, no artifacts. But maybe that is just because the default embed size is smaller than your other examples.
And Flat Rocks looks like a very pleasant place to spend some time!
Jeff, glad you r on vacation so I can get caught up on all your tricks. Which embeddes the easiest on activerain. I've had problems with utube. I agree with Cheryl and Paula the videoegg is the clearest.
Make sure you check the kids for ticks. :)
LOL!! Love the flat rocks boogie with the boys!! :o)
The different video styles are cool, but I'm just left wondering if there's going to be a creek (wv'ese -- "crick") for me to play in on Saturday. Please say there is -- I haven't tried to catch crawdads or salamanders in ages.
I find Blip.TV to be one of the best in terms of quality, plus you can choose either Flash or Quicktime (which is FAR superior delivery).
Both Blip and Veoh also have the ability to automatically shoot your videos to other sites like Google, Yahoo, MySpace, a blog, etc. So you upload once, and it goes to all of these others automatically.
Jeff, you have a knack for clarifying the sometimes tedious high tech maze. Its a great idea to have the major video programs head to head. I've used photobucket for some time and the quality is high. Videoegg I agree is the clearest. Its still hard to compete against Youtube if you want a much large audience, even though they often look fuzzy. I saw one of Sting's Desert Rose http://apps.facebook.com/ilike/artist/Sting/track/Desert+Rose
and the quality was good. They are very uneaven. Perhaps it all depends if they have plug ins or not and how good your own video cam is. It is a choice then: either we go for lower resolution, less room on your drive and it is compressed faster but we will loose in quality? Thanks for taking the time to put all this together.
Jeff T.... I only know youtube.... so thanks for sharing this. I guess I have some playing to do... or you can do this for me... ;o) Or did you?
Hubba...
I think Brightcove has my vote.
Once I get my new V705 I'll let you know what I decide :)
TLW...ROAR!
My use is for photos and as Jeff said,Photo Bucket is good.Some forums require you enter a URL address and it is great for that kind of use.
From my laptop they looked rated in decending order.I was using richness of color as a judge since the smaller shot will always look sharper.
The thing about it is Youtube is just the number one choice for video clips. If you are using video as part of your web presence you cant beat the name brand effect of youtube and being associated there plus the back links you can get.
You can have your own channel with good clips from your area. It's so easy to do all agent should have a town/city site here is mine to see as an example http://www.youtube.com/user/escapetosaltspring
Good post Jeff the future is Video clips great comparisons.
Mike, here is the definitive guide:
http://activerain.com/blogsview/51461/Putting-Video-in-Your
Thanks, Nick.
Thanks for the help on getting my youtube video on my blog.
Thanks
Mike Lefton
American Homes Real Estate
Wow! This was super informative Jeff. I've always wondered which one of these websites had the best quality video but there was no way of comparing until now. Thanks for doing this very tedious comparison!
Don't forget the MOST important thing about ALL of these options: garbage in, garbage out.
The quality of your source video has more to do with the quality of the uploaded video than the site itself. Even pathetic YouTube videos look MUCH better if you upload a high quality source video.
Fred... no question. But if I've got garbage and I'm willing to share it with the world, I want that garbage to look as good as possible. :)
Tim... there are lots of other choices as well, Tim. And they are all free to try.
http://activerain.com/boulderite Is using the Photobucket. I like the idea of being able to put more than 5 photos - which I think is the restriction with RES. I've created a slide show and have generated the HYML code but none of them give me the show like this one without throwing the extra photos all over my website.
I'm looking for something for AR and websites.
Any suggestions
Virginia since this post started Goggle now has online storage.You may know the program as Piccasa.
Nice presentation, Jeff. I am a director/producer, I recently did some videos for The Gardner Team of Realtors, and with their encouragement to join AR, I have posted an AR blog on flash, file size and video quality here , so that you can see how good flash can be when encoded and hosted privately, and this is not that hard to do! It's a format that is improving daily. Also this blog discusses viewer criteria: will they watch?
Thank you Jeff for this awesome information. You continue to teach me things I need to know!
Just an update:
As of this week, YouTube now serves up widescreen video AND high quality video (if you upload a high quality source). Of course, it's still full of fat people in spandex dancing around to Beyonce...... but I digress....
Brightcove no longer allow user generated content as of Dec. 2008. It will be "paid only" service.
AOL Video is shutting down their services in December 2008.
And many sites ban commercial videos, such as Blip.TV, Vimeo, Spike.com, etc. If you upload to those sites, your account will be closed, and you will be notified after the videos have been removed.
Still your best bet is to stick with sites who welcome commercial (and real estate) video, such as WellcomeMat.com and Zipvo.com.
Jeff:
I don't like any of them really Their compression is too strong. You have to do your movie and save uncompressed and you get it better. My understanding is Youtube for a subsciption will give High Def. have aquires the technology to do my own in flash,and all the big media formats. Then you can offer on own site high quiality for high speed and lower quailty for slower,
It takes and effort, but it will be worth it.
Richard
Richard
Dang, this post is old. The world has changed quite a bit since this post. :)
wow... an real expert that can sing!
Old?
Then perhaps some smooth talking bald Guy would like to give us an updated one? :)
Please do not allow the tapping of my nails on the table disturb you :)
TLW...ROAR!
I liked VideoEgg the best. The picture quality and overall feel was superior to the other platforms. To me the picture quality is so important I don't care about the time it takes me to upload something beause if the picture quality is poor I think the people watching the video will think poorly of the video.
Does anyone have a list of websites that let you embed your RE video on their site? IE: Forsalebyowner.com won't let you embed, but you can link to the video. Curious about Realtor.com and others.
thanks!
You can embed on Realtor.com Just upload the .mp4 or .flv file to their video section (where you upload photos). It plays embedded in the listing page.
Hi Fred- so Realtor.com is not really embedded, but you upload the video to their site? I have my own web server and want to use my custom Flash player. Are there any other sites that actually let you embed? Where are people posting the vids that they load on youtube et al? Sorry for the n00b questions!!
good day
Yes you upload the video to their site and it's embedded within the listing. You must have the "enhanced listing package" in order to do it however.
I fully understand the upload part. But I'm looking for sites that will let me embed my own code to stream from my own site/server. Maybe they don't exist?!
thanks!
Erin: I don't know. Not sure I understand why this is important to you - the important thing is getting the video exposed to viewers, but you'll just have to check around.
Erin, if it is important to you, there are some simple and effedctive ways to do it. We do it now at Real Estate Shows with our How To videos and samples. We use JW FLV Media Player 4.2. It allows us to host the videos ourselves and provide embed codes for placing them anywehre we wish. You can see examples on the Real Estate Shows Tutorial Videos Blog.
Fred, thanks for your great comments here. I appreciate it.
Very helpful. Thanks, these are good things to know.
Jeff, I have used JW's player for quite some time now, building sites for clients. It's a good basic player. I have my own custom player though. (I'm new to real estate, not new to technology...) The "placing them anywhere we wish" is the part I'm after. Where do you embed your videos? Which RE sites allow you to embed (not just upload)?
Fred, exposure is good. Controlling the delivery of the content is better!
Didn't mean to hijack this thread, but thought it was relevant.
REally wonderful breakdown, thank you. I am a huge youtube fan,.
Nice comparisons. Given that almost two years have passed, hopefully the video sites have improved in quality. YouTube recently began to show videos in highdef.
and after 100,000 years...youtube still works. :)