Maximizing Your Online Video Quality [How To]

27 | Posted In Technical by David

I routinely talk about how important doing videos is to your blog’s traffic and making sales. However, a common confusion is exactly how to make the video look as professional as possible.

Doug asked the following of me:

I have a question about adding videos to a blog. What have you found is the best for quality? I started with YouTube, but their quality is terrible. I joined Blip.tv and I just got Vimeo Plus, but I am wondering if there is still a better choice. I was thinking about trying ezs3.com with Amazon S3, which I see you said you recently signed up for. Have you tried it yet? I would love to know what you think.

I have done quite a bit of experimenting and trial and error with this very thing.

Why I Like Vimeo

Picture 4 As Doug correctly pointed out, the quality on Youtube isn’t that great at all. Now, you can make the quality better if you use HD video (more on that below), however it is precisely for this reason why I use Vimeo when I embed videos on this blog.

Like Doug, I have a Vimeo Plus account and one of the top perks to me is an increased weekly upload limit. What that means is that you can upload HD videos all week. The quality will be about as good as you can get from a streaming video.

Realize, however, that you should ALWAYS post your videos to Youtube. Youtube is the king of online video and where  you’re going to get the most traction (in terms of views). So, even if you post to all the other video sites (recommended) and embed from a site like Vimeo, always make sure that you put your stuff on Youtube.

Using High-Def Video Online

Many of the video sites are now using HD. But, how do you use it?

  1. Make sure you use a high-definition video camera.
  2. Upload the video with 1280×720 dimensions (for widescreen).

If you upload your final movie with those dimensions, then the sites will encode the video as high definition. Realize that the movies will not necessarily show on screen at that size. They’ll actually be smaller, however when you take a larger film and shrink it the quality will be good.

Picture 3 I use the Flip Mino HD for quick and easy movies. It records in 720P high-def. When I do higher-end videos where I don’t need to be walking all over the place, I’ll use my Canon Vixia HF100, a true 1080P camcorder. 1080P is overkill for the web, however the lens quality is superior to the Flip. Plus, the HF100 has an external microphone jack – an absolute must if you don’t want your audio to sound noisy or distant. I use a lavaliere microphone which connects to my collar and plugs into the camera. I also have a shotgun microphone which connects to the camera.

Audio is very important for professional looking videos, so always make sure the camera you get has an external microphone jack and use it.

Using Amazon S3

I do use and recommend Amazon S3. Realize, however, that you will need to FLV encode your videos on your own when you host with S3.

As for quality, your videos will probably not be any better with Amazon S3 as it would be if you upload to Vimeo in HD. However, it does put you in more control. If you want to embed a full 1280×720 video from S3, you can. Do I recommend you embed something that large on a website? No. But, you could do it.

As for EZS3, they are a good service. I have not been using them for long, however it does make a few things easier. Namely, it has pre-built FLV players to embed your videos with and you can track the view stats of your videos. However, there are a few things I would like to note about using EZS3:

  1. Their interface is a little clunky.
  2. I recommend only using EZS3 for sales videos and things where you absolutely need to track the stats and don’t have long-term plans for the videos. I am currently setting up a new site with lots of video and I initially began using EZS3 players. Then, I realized that that would tie me to EZS3 for life and that I’d have to continue to pay them unless I go through this entire site and replace the tags. So, I elected to embed the videos internally using Viper Video Tags. I will continue to use EZS3 for landing pages.
  3. You really don’t need EZS3 unless you want view stats. Otherwise, you can use the S3Fox plug-in for Firefox for free. You could also use a service like S3Stat for simple stats and it is only $2.00 per month with the “cheap bastard” plan (gotta love that).

Hope that helps, Doug (and anybody else).

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  • http://therealtimjones.com/ Tim Jones

    I really like the Vimeo quality, as well. I also find that videos from Viddler also look far superior to YouTube and I like that your viewers can add comments within the video stream.

  • http://therealtimjones.com Tim Jones

    I really like the Vimeo quality, as well. I also find that videos from Viddler also look far superior to YouTube and I like that your viewers can add comments within the video stream.

  • http://www.mattybyloos.com/ Matty Byloos

    Haven’t quite gotten into video for the web yet, but thanks for giving us the inside scoop, once again, on the materials and resources you’ve put your trust in. I’ll be bookmarking the page for later…

  • http://www.mattybyloos.com Matty Byloos

    Haven’t quite gotten into video for the web yet, but thanks for giving us the inside scoop, once again, on the materials and resources you’ve put your trust in. I’ll be bookmarking the page for later…

  • Tad Gilliland

    I like the S3 + Viper Video Tags approach, but how can I hide the file URL and lock to a domain like EzS3?

  • Tad Gilliland

    I like the S3 + Viper Video Tags approach, but how can I hide the file URL and lock to a domain like EzS3?

  • http://www.pcmech.com/ David

    Tad: Not really sure. If you figure something out, please share. In my cases, however, I’m not really worried if people see the URL.

  • http://www.pcmech.com David

    Tad: Not really sure. If you figure something out, please share. In my cases, however, I’m not really worried if people see the URL.

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  • http://www.royaltyfreepackage.com/ Doug

    Hi David,

    Thank you very much for thoroughly answering my question. I truly appreciate it. It is funny… I was just reading something about the “Law of Reciprocation” and was thinking this is a perfect example of that. Not only have you made me a loyal reader of your blog, I have also told several of my friends and associates about your site as well, and I am sure they will be followers as well.

    Now back to your answer… I have been playing around with Vimeo which is very cool. I have also figured out how to upload videos myself to Amazon S3, which is an incredible value for hosting videos and any other large files you need to store somewhere. I am planning on using both those methods and YouTube from now on in my marketing arsenal. I also appreciate you mentioning that you should upload all your videos to YouTube as well… as that makes great sense.

    Thanks again for the response and much success to you and all your other readers,

    Doug

  • http://www.royaltyfreepackage.com Doug

    Hi David,

    Thank you very much for thoroughly answering my question. I truly appreciate it. It is funny… I was just reading something about the “Law of Reciprocation” and was thinking this is a perfect example of that. Not only have you made me a loyal reader of your blog, I have also told several of my friends and associates about your site as well, and I am sure they will be followers as well.

    Now back to your answer… I have been playing around with Vimeo which is very cool. I have also figured out how to upload videos myself to Amazon S3, which is an incredible value for hosting videos and any other large files you need to store somewhere. I am planning on using both those methods and YouTube from now on in my marketing arsenal. I also appreciate you mentioning that you should upload all your videos to YouTube as well… as that makes great sense.

    Thanks again for the response and much success to you and all your other readers,

    Doug

  • Stan Gore

    I believe in hosting ALL videos with Amazon S3, so as not to be held hostage by a third party site. Your idea of using Amazon S3 for storage and Viper for tags is great. For .flv files, where can I get the best video players for a WordPress blog? I’m non-techie. I’m looking for players that give me design choices, particularly the option to go frameless, so I can have a talking head against a white background “floating” out of the screen.
    By the way, one bonus aspect about ezS3, which I’m currently using, is the ‘vidgets’: the ability to scatter link images to squeeze pages, ads, social bookmarking sites, around your chosen video player.

  • Stan Gore

    I believe in hosting ALL videos with Amazon S3, so as not to be held hostage by a third party site. Your idea of using Amazon S3 for storage and Viper for tags is great. For .flv files, where can I get the best video players for a WordPress blog? I’m non-techie. I’m looking for players that give me design choices, particularly the option to go frameless, so I can have a talking head against a white background “floating” out of the screen.
    By the way, one bonus aspect about ezS3, which I’m currently using, is the ‘vidgets’: the ability to scatter link images to squeeze pages, ads, social bookmarking sites, around your chosen video player.

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  • http://www.websitesinaflash.com/ Ashton Sanders

    I totally agree, I’ve been using Amazon S3 to host videos for a couple clients, and they have performed marvelously for relatively inexpensive. I’m currently fighting with myself weather to run with S3 or Vimeo. You obviously have proven that Vimeo has excellent Video Quality, but I like having full control of my videos.

  • http://www.websitesinaflash.com Ashton Sanders

    I totally agree, I’ve been using Amazon S3 to host videos for a couple clients, and they have performed marvelously for relatively inexpensive. I’m currently fighting with myself weather to run with S3 or Vimeo. You obviously have proven that Vimeo has excellent Video Quality, but I like having full control of my videos.

  • http://www.mhvillage.com/ Michael Boers

    I agree that Vimeo has terrific quality but according to my reading of their terms of service, it is non commercial only. In fact, by their definition if you have any ads on your site, you are commercial. I am missing something?

  • http://www.mhvillage.com Michael Boers

    I agree that Vimeo has terrific quality but according to my reading of their terms of service, it is non commercial only. In fact, by their definition if you have any ads on your site, you are commercial. I am missing something?

  • http://www.savory.tv/ Heidi / Savory Tv

    I was wondering if you could mention the brand of shotgun microphone that you use?

    I love viddler, because their thumbnails look so great, almost like a photo if the video quality is high.

    Curious also, have you submitted a video MRSS sitemap to google and do you have any tips in that regard?

  • http://www.savory.tv Heidi / Savory Tv

    I was wondering if you could mention the brand of shotgun microphone that you use?

    I love viddler, because their thumbnails look so great, almost like a photo if the video quality is high.

    Curious also, have you submitted a video MRSS sitemap to google and do you have any tips in that regard?

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOtcdNKziHo Jody

    I love amazon. I try and post to other video sites other than youtube. But, yes YOUTUBE is a MUST. It is the king of all video sites and its owned by Google, so thats even better.

    Some video sites are strictly how to videos, so you have read up for each site to make sure your not violating any TOS. I think youtube right now is kind of out of control because anyone can flag a video, meaning haters out there make fake and many youtube accounts and flag videos that they simply do not want up there for whatever reason and then youtube kicks it along with channels. My opinion is that they should really look at the videos first before kicking them off. I have found that 90% of the videos and channels being kicked never even violated any rules at all. In saying that, there are many many videos that should be kicked off and dont.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOtcdNKziHo Jody

    I love amazon. I try and post to other video sites other than youtube. But, yes YOUTUBE is a MUST. It is the king of all video sites and its owned by Google, so thats even better.

    Some video sites are strictly how to videos, so you have read up for each site to make sure your not violating any TOS. I think youtube right now is kind of out of control because anyone can flag a video, meaning haters out there make fake and many youtube accounts and flag videos that they simply do not want up there for whatever reason and then youtube kicks it along with channels. My opinion is that they should really look at the videos first before kicking them off. I have found that 90% of the videos and channels being kicked never even violated any rules at all. In saying that, there are many many videos that should be kicked off and dont.

  • http://www.pcmech.com/ David

    Heidi, that is a Canon DM-100. It is built for that model of camera.

  • http://www.pcmech.com David

    Heidi, that is a Canon DM-100. It is built for that model of camera.

  • http://www.lee-jones.com/blog/ willard

    I have always thought that the quality of Vimeo to be far superior to that of many of the other video accounts i have, especially Youtube. and now with the added bonus of being able to use HD, i will probably use their service far more than the others.

    I also have considered using Amazon S3 for many of the videos, but as yet i cannot work out why the download speed is absolutely at a snail crawl, while everywhere else they fly along – Should be ok as i’m using a 20mb broadband connection, i just wonder if anyone from the UK is experiencing the same ?

  • http://www.lee-jones.com/blog/ willard

    I have always thought that the quality of Vimeo to be far superior to that of many of the other video accounts i have, especially Youtube. and now with the added bonus of being able to use HD, i will probably use their service far more than the others.

    I also have considered using Amazon S3 for many of the videos, but as yet i cannot work out why the download speed is absolutely at a snail crawl, while everywhere else they fly along – Should be ok as i’m using a 20mb broadband connection, i just wonder if anyone from the UK is experiencing the same ?

  • http://toshibaonline.info Toshiba Burton

    Thanks for sharing I am a video marketer myself & I haven’t really thought about how important some of these qualities were. I am definitely bookmarking it.