Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine Vol 02 Issue 24
------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine -------
Vol 2, Issue 24
I hope everyone had as wonderful a Thanksgiving holiday as the
Peters' household did this year. We went down to Toledo to visit
Kaylie's Grandma Debby and Grandpa Steve. Kaylie had a great
time seeing all of the family and friends down there. She also
enjoyed her Thanksgiving feast. While I don't think she had any
turkey, she *loved* the mashed potatoes, stuffing, and squash.
She also discovered that pumpkin pie with real whipped cream is
about the best food in the universe!
With all of the fun and craziness of the holidays, I was
surprised at how grown-up a lot of the cousins had become. It
made me realize how important it was to try to capture a few of
those memories. Fortunately, I had my trusty video camera with
me and was able to grab a few shots here and there.
Now, to post some of those memories on Kaylie's website, I could
have just gone with YouTube, as I've done before. This time,
though, I looked into an option that would help preserve some of
the original video quality. The article below might be a little
technical, but if you aren't interested personally, you can
always pass it along to your favorite Web designer.
----------------------------------------------------------------
In This Issue...
----------------------------------------------------------------
1. Article: Catching the Action
2. Shameless Self-Promotion
3. The Fine Print
----------------------------------------------------------------
1. Article: Catching the Action
----------------------------------------------------------------
In the age of YouTube (http://youtube.com/) and Hulu
(http://hulu.com), embedding video on websites isn't a huge thing
anymore. Anyone can upload a video to YouTube, follow a few
simple directions, and "Bob's your uncle", you've got your video
displayed on your website, your blog, or anywhere else that you
control the content. Videos aren't just for personal fun
anymore, either. If you think a written testimonial is good,
just imagine how much more powerful that same testimonial would
be delivered from your customer's own mouth.
That all being said, YouTube is definitely a great option. It's
easy and doesn't require any additional software beyond what you
need to make the video in the first place. My only complaint is
that the quality is a bit low. My camera can handle a fairly
high resolution so you can see a lot more details than YouTube
allows. I hate the thought of missing the twinkle in my
daughter's eye.
So, I went looking for other alternatives to allow me to embed
video on Kaylie's website and I came upon a pretty nice one.
It's called, somewhat awkwardly, the "JW FLV Media Player"
(http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=JW_FLV_Player). It's a
little tricky to use, but it does display some beautiful imagery.
The player is free for non-commercial use (they have very
reasonable licenses for those who want to use it for business).
It's a Flash-based program (which means that if someone can watch
a YouTube video, they can use this, too) and it can play video
and audio files in several different formats. Believe it or not,
JW Player can even play YouTube videos, so you don't have to redo
that video of your daughter eating peas if you don't want
to (http://kaylie.cyberdatasolutionsllc.com/videos.php?1).
One of the other cool things is that, if you or your Web
developer can do Flash programming, you can make the player look
like it belongs on your site by customizing the appearance. From
reading the instructions, they've done a pretty good job of
letting you control the player so that it fits your needs.
There are a few challenges to using the player. The first is
that the documentation is a little vague at times. I had to do a
little experimentation to get my system working the way I wanted.
The other issue is that if your camera, like mine, uses
proprietary file formats (thank you, JVC), you'll have to go
through some acrobatics to get the video to play. It's possible,
just not very convenient. Maybe next time I'll talk about some
of the utilities I found which helped me get everything working
properly.
Until then, you can check out Kaylie's site
(http://kaylie.cyberdatasolutionsllc.com/videos.php) to see what
the player looks like. Hey, if you are feeling brave you might try
to experiment a little yourself to see what images you can
project.
Copyright 2008, Greg Peters
----------------------------------------------------------------
2. Shameless Self-Promotion
----------------------------------------------------------------
The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg
Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data
Solutions. CDS has been helping website designers develop better
web presence for their clients for more than a decade. Visit us
on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your
webmaster.
----------------------------------------------------------------
3. The Fine Print
----------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe:
You can subscribe to the "Clearing Up The Confusion" E-zine at:
http://www.cyberdatasolns.com/ezine
Questions:
If you have any questions, concerns or comments regarding the
Clearing Up the Confusion E-zine, please email Greg Peters at:
gpeters@cyberdatasolns.com
This content may be forwarded in full, with copyright and contact
information intact, without specific permission, when used only
in a not for-profit format. If any other use is desired,
permission in writing from Greg Peters is required, with
notification to the original author.
We never send the "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-zine uninvited,
and we NEVER share, sell or rent our mailing list to anyone. Your
privacy is safe with us.
