By El Bandito on

Hi

***** VIDEO NEWBIE ALERT *****

I am converting an existing HTML/CSS site to Druapl 6. The existing site has a flash video embedded using Vimeo.com. They provide simple embedding code which I've inserted into the HTML of my front page node. It works fine, except that it always appears to load the video upon page load, rather than displaying a thumbnail and then streaming the video down when the play button is clicked. I am concerned that the page will be penalised by Google's ranking algorithm because it is slow loading. Is this a valid concern ?

Secondly, what are the advantages of using a 3rd party to host the video ? Why should, or shouldn't I use a module such as Flashvideo to host and present the video myself.

Apologies if these are dumb questions.....

Thanks

Dave

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

cmsquickstart’s picture

cmsquickstart commented

Yes, a slow loading site is a valid concern. Not only for Google but for users.

Third parties such as youtube offer streaming video which basically means you can click to view any part of the video to watch it.

Hosting on your site you'll have progressive downloading which means users can only view the video that has downloaded. It also eats up a lot of bandwidth and if your site gets a lot of traffic then it can slow down/crash your whole site. If you are using a third party for video hosting then they'll handle the bandwidth usage instead.

Since you are a video newbie you are better off sticking with a third party solution unless you has a significant business reason for hosting on your own site.

For embedding third party videos on your site check out the embedded media field module: http://drupal.org/project/emfield

yosemite’s picture

yosemite commented

i have been embedding vimeo, youtube and exposure videos for a while with no side effects and my pages load quite fast

http://www.myyosemite.com/

mcfilms’s picture

mcfilms commented

That's a nice site Yosemite.

I agree with all the above. Besides all the troubles with streaming FLVs, you have to remember that you have to install and configure FFMPEG, which I hear is no small task. I guess that is only if you wish to upload QuickTime and AVI and have it convert to FLV.

Although you can embed straight into the block using an HTML enabled region, you can also use embedded media field ( http://drupal.org/project/emfield ). I used this on a site I did and really liked it. This way you can embed your video right along with your other CCK elements. I know it supports YouTube. I think I had to download a small helper module for Vimeo and there are a couple dozen other sites supported out of the box.

Jerry

A list of some of the Drupal sites I have designed and/or developed can be viewed at motioncity.com