How to Add Video to Your Web Site

It has never been easier to add videos to a web site or blog - the evolution of cell phones, digital cameras, digital video recorders and other portable recorders allow you to easily record digital videos that can be placed on a web site quite easily.

There are several different reasons for including video on your site: to promote yourself, your products or services; to share personal opinions, artistry, and life with others; to demonstrate your video-making skills; to address an important issue; or just for fun, to name a very select few.

The advanced speed of the Internet is one key contributing factor to this growing trend - as well, the availability and quality of video apparatus available through cameras, phones, digital video recorders, etc. allow novices to practice their skills in video making.The only restricting factor in putting videos online is web space. If you are planning to put a lot of videos on your web site (hosted on your own server), make sure you purchase a lot of space! Hosts like Host Papa give you several gigabytes of space for an economical price - definitely worth the investment if you need to show lots of videos and other large files.

Third Party Video Embedding

Of course, the simpliest way to add a video to a website is to embed it from a third party site such as YouTube, Google Videos, Yahoo Videos, and so on.These services allow you to upload your video's huge file to their server, then converts it to Flash format. These sites give you the embedding code to copy and paste into your web page or blog, making the whole process very very simple. This is a good solution if you do not want to invest money into your own web site, or if your web space is limited.You do need to put up with the site watermark, e.g. YouTube in the lower right corner, but again, this IS the solution that most neophyte web site owners utilize.

It is also a good solution when you wish to show an existing video that someone else made, on your site. In fact, it is probably the only legal way you COULD share these videos on your own site.So kudos to YouTube and Google for making this service available, free, and dependable.

Adding A Windows Media Video

Windows Media Videos are quite easy to make if you use Windows as your operating system. Within Windows, the versatile Movie Maker program is available which allows you to upload your recorded videos (from camera, cell phone, digital recorder) and add titles, slogans, transitions, etc. Once you have saved your file as a .wmv file, you can upload your video to your server, then embed it into your page's html code. Of course, it is important to save your file in the smallest sized file possible, yet still keep a quality looking picture and sound.

EMBEDDING WMV

To embed your .wmv file, use the following code (of course, you will need to customize the actual file name, width, height, and path to match the title and the path folder where you uploaded the file. You need to change the file name in three places). This code frames your video in a modern looking console with controls at the bottom that your viewer can use to control the video.


<OBJECT id='mediaPlayer' width="600" height="480"
classid='CLSID:22d6f312-b0f6-11d0-94ab-0080c74c7e95' codebase='http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/mplayer/en/nsmp2inf.cab#Version=5,1,52,701'

standby='Loading Microsoft Windows Media Player components...' type='application/x-oleobject'>
<param name='fileName' value="Video1.wmv">
<param name='animationatStart' value='true'>
<param name='transparentatStart' value='true'>
<param name='autoStart' value="false">
<param name='showControls' value="true">
<param name='loop' value="true">
<EMBED type='application/x-mplayer2'
pluginspage='http://microsoft.com/windows/mediaplayer/en/download/'
id='mediaPlayer' name='mediaPlayer' displaysize='4' autosize='-1'
bgcolor='darkblue' showcontrols="true" showtracker='-1'
showdisplay='0' showstatusbar='-1' videoborder3d='-1' width="600" height="480"
src="Video1.wmv" autostart="false" designtimesp='5311' loop="true">
</EMBED><
</OBJECT>


<a href="Video1.wmv" style='font-size: 85%;' target='_blank'>Launch in external player

FLASH BASED VIDEO

One of the beauties of Flash is the way sounds and music can be seamlessly incorporated with text and images. Adobe Flash can also be used to add video quite easily to your website.Your video will need to be converted to a FLV first, then saved as a SWF to show it on the web. This code will also allow your viewer to download the newest version of Flash Player, if they do not have it currently installed on their computer.

EMBEDDING FLASH VIDEO

Here is a simple code for embedding a Flash video onto your page. Again, you will need to customize your flash file name, and the width and height dimensions to match the size of your file. You need to change the file name in two places.


<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"
id="Dianna_flashintro" width="800" height="398">
<param name="movie" value="flashintro.swf">
<param name="bgcolor" value="#000000">
<param name="quality" value="high">
<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="samedomain">
<embed
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"
name="flashintro"
width="800" height="398" src="flashintro.swf"
bgcolor="#000000"
quality="high"
base="Finalfiles/"
swliveconnect="true"
allowscriptaccess="samedomain">
<noembed>
</noembed>
</embed>
</object>
</center>

MORE HELP...

If you are a visual learner, you can watch this video online entitled "How to Add Video to Your Web Site" by Rick Kennedy.

Go to http://www.expertvillage.com/video/21906_website-video-one.htm to view the video.

Also, you can watch YouTube's feature video called, "How Do I Make a Video?" at http://youtube.com/watch?v=Apadq9iPNxA