To this point I've been impressed with Kaltura's video service — it's fast, but as we tried to implement with the video service with our Drupal sites we've had nothing but trouble. My client is a paid subscriber to the service and we're planning on implementing the video streaming service across roughly 11 sites in the next 3 months.

Workflow

We're using the Kaltura CCK field on a custom content type. In our unique case we chose to upload videos using the Kaltura website first because of the additional configuration required for each video.

In order to embed the videos using the Kaltura module, we have to import the videos which have been uploaded first — which creates a new video node, and then we can embed the video using the pop-up. This creates the unique issue of having duplicate content — two nodes with the video embedded. Unpublishing the node makes it unavailable to embed.

I realize that we are not using the standard workflow protocol of uploading and embedding, but I can imagine that there are others who will take the same approach of uploading on the Kaltura site and using the CCK field to embed files.

Thumbnails

I've got a few issues with thumbnails — 1.) is simply a bug, that I've not been able to squash: Thumbs do not appear when using Views. I've read the threads, I've tried to patch, someone please fix this.

2.) Thumbs are not cached locally and there does not appear to be any integration with imagecache. We often have situations where we want several different thumbnail sizes for different views, other cases where we will want to watermark, add a border or overlay.

Embedded Media Field

We currently use the emfield module to embed video from sources such as YouTube. We may develop a module for the emfield API which supports Kaltura and would in fact fit into our current video workflow — as we worked through our issues with the module, we've determined that this may be the best solution that is easiest to implement and would resolve our Thumbnail needs.

Comments

Zohar.Babin’s picture

Zohar.Babin commented

Hi philpro,

You're right about field part, that's why the D7 module takes a completely different approach and is actually based on fields rather than creating nodes.

If you still plan on extending the emfield module to support Kaltura - let me know, I'd be happy to support and help anyway possible.
I was wondering, will be able to describe your workflow & embedding flow? are you mostly working in KMC or in Drupal? how do you envision the integration with emfield?

Caching thumbnails is definitely a feature to consider for D7. Can you add as a new issue ("feature request") please?

Thx

ggevalt’s picture

ggevalt commented

So is this the beta1 version to which you refer or the .dev?

We have been having considerable troubles with the 1.5 version. Our main concern now is that even uninstalling the 1.5 module on the database causes considerable problems with the database, so we are unsure how to even upgrade to the 2.0 version once it gets cleaned up.

I will agree with philpro that our primary use would be to incorporate Kaltura into a CCK field. What confuses me a bit about this, though, is that in 1.5, one can, in essence, upload the file directly through a CCK field. I was unaware that it created another node version.... (The main issue that began our problems the other day was that the content type failed when the Kaltura media field was NOT invoked. But again, that's the 1.5 version.)

So questions... if the kaltura media field is used to either directly upload a new video or use a Web cam, does that, in the 2.0 version, also create a kaltura media node?

In 2.0 have these bugs been fixed: Failure when no media is uploaded via CCK field in content type, proper recognition of computer's Web cam? ... What other bugs have been fixed? Is there a list somewhere?

Thanks so much.

geoff

Zohar.Babin’s picture

Zohar.Babin commented

@ggevalt - I guess you refer to D6 1.5, and 2.0. We no longer maintain the 1.5 version, the 2.0 version is the one you should use.
To see the fixes and changes to 2.0 you should follow the issue queue and specifically this: #917796: Kaltura 6.x-2.0 (release coordination)
That said, D6 will no longer see new features, only bug fixes. D7 does introduce major remaking of the core module, integration with CCK is much easier since it is now based on fields rather than node.

@ggevalt, I'm not sure about the issues you experienced with uninstalling, I've uninstalled on my setup many times and haven't experienced loss of unrelated data... could you please elaborate more inside the issue you've opened? #1111458: Major problems...