Hi all, Could someone help out a complete ignoramus so I don;t get bluffed by IT guys? What's the best way to get a video to play on the internet? The reason I ask is that we're thinking of changing from '360 virtual tours' on my work website (basically lots of little photos stitched together to make a warped 360 of a room) to an actual video of a property. Now, after some playing about I know how to take a video with my digi camera. I know that it can be played on my PC via Windows Media player thingie. I know how to upload files on t'net. What we would like is to ideally incorporate a little window onto our website a bit like Youtube's window. Alternatively, a link that opens up the user's media player to play the file. What's the best size/quality of video to do this? And any other info that might be useful... Muchos thankies.
Either use Youtube, Google Video, or Quicktime. Windows Media Player sucks balls when it's embedded on web pages. I've had the best experience watching movies in flash players such as Youtube and Google Video. While Quicktime may not be standard for most PCs, it's still less buggy than WMP.
Is that the best method for displaying them? Bearing in mind we have to be careful what sites we refer potential purchasers to
I'd get other opinions before making a decision, but those three seem like the best options. Youtube shrinks the video down a lot, and has file size limits. Google Video is able to run in full screen with little noticeable degradation of film quality. And if you are already using the 360 tour software (which I actually prefer), it just might be Quicktime.
I've got to agree with Timmy here - I love 360 panoramas. I assume that you already have the equipment for them, so no sense in letting it go to waste. Just get every room with one of them and I'd be far more likely to consider going out somewhere and taking a look at a property. Better still would be to have both, with the video having narration by a realtor added in post-production - sort of a real walkthrough of a house. By the way, if you're just having some guy do a walkthrough for this video, I'd can the idea now - it needs to look professional, not like someone who just got a digital camera wandering around their house and playing the ZOOM-ENHANCE game.
flash video is ideal as around 90% of web browsers can handle it (flash 8 player and above), it compresses well and there are quite a few options depending on your hosting. *however* users like to have control of the 'camera', so if you check out your competitors they'll be using either java or quicktime VR. check these guys out i'd strongly suggest using something like smartpanorama rather than an internal IT department, unless you're someone like foxtons, doing it inhouse is a bad idea.
^ Those panoramas look great, I love being able to navigate. Ours look all warpy when they actually do 360. And they're overly fast, spinning round. We've bought all the equipment for 360s, so we own that. The problem is (because they're shite) we're sacking the hosts of the virtual tours. Boss brainstormed on videos as the next big thing and asked me to look into it. I have to confess, if he wants me to take a video as part of looking after clients, I'm bloody nervous about it. He's trained in photography and video marketing, I'm not. Viewing my efforts would be comparable to one's vision after a few too many shandies and a clout round the back of the head!
Is it just me, or is anyone else disappointed with what this thread turned out to be, compared to what they hoped for when they saw the title, and that it was posted by Summerteeth?
Sorry I can't be more help Summer, but if you guys just need a quick and dirty solution, Youtube is good. In fact, the creators of Youtube created it for Ebay originally, for people to show videos of what they were selling as opposed to only pictures. Nowadays, I try to stay away from Quicktime, because they now have annoying features where they can open up a web browser while you are playing the video. An embedded video on the website itself is probably the best option, and I would highly recommend Flash. Flash also compresses the file quite well (almost like magic actually) without losing quality. Of course, you're also going to run into the problem of some people not having Flash on their comuters, but you'd run into that problem with almost any software, seeing as there really is no standard video format for all computers.
sounds like the overlappings not right on them. personally, given the price of a decent camcorder and mechanized tripods, i don't see why folk are still using cameras when you can just set a camcorder to record a full 360 in a room. theres a few industries thinking that about video due to youtube, and completely missing the point of content and context... if you're hosting your own, then it shouldn't be a problem - upload the resulting file and embed it in a page. if its something like flash video you do have to remember to set the MIME type in the web server though, otherwise you get a blank screen. if you're not used to doing it, then yeah, it takes some practice - although have a few shandies and it may be youtubeable
thats bullshit, there used to be issues but they're extremely rare now. if anything, your more likely to hit issues with IE7 being locked down tighter than nuns cooch and stopping java applets running.
This sounds good to me... I had no idea you could get tripods that did that The nice thing about video is, if you've lit the fire or something (for staging purposes) it actually moves and doesn't look weird like in a 360 VT. Also gardens look better in video, I think. Can you get them remote control operated? (Edit - tripods and camcorders, not gardens)
^yup - for example, if you've a sony cam, theres this shooter may be worth PMing for recommendations.
For the love of all that is sweet and Summerteeth, do not host it on YouTube or a simliar site. Not if you're doing this for a business and it needs to look professional. Embedding it as windows media player would be better than doing that. Best idea yet, is to use a flash player and flash controls for it. Please, please do not host it on YouTube though.
