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nonhuman · May 22, 2008, 11:13 AM

Not sure if this is the right forum, but I'm trying to figure out the best way to start a video blog to be used internally for a client of mine.

The biggest problem is that I think they're planning on hosting it on an IIS server, though I'll be talking with their IT people to try and figure out the best approach. They want to use Wordpress, which I'm not sure can even run on IIS, in which case they may want to go with a password protected blog on Wordpress.com.

I'm comfortable enough with setting up a Wordpress blog, but I've never really dealt with a video blog before, and am not really sure what the best way to set it up in order for it to managed by relative non-saavy users and viewed by pretty much entirely Windows users.

Does anyone have any advice on how best to do this, including what would be the best video format to use? I'm thinking, sadly, wmv, since it'll be pretty much Windows only...

Mastrap · May 22, 2008, 11:54 AM

Streaming flash, .flv files. Works in everything and is well supported.

nonhuman · May 22, 2008, 12:03 PM

Doesn't work in FreeBSD.

(Unless you build your kernel with Linux binary compatibility and use Flash for Linux...)

That does seem like probably the best way to go. Is there any easy way to embed Flash video with nice YouTube-esque controls without having to host it on someone else's server?

besson3c · May 22, 2008, 12:05 PM

WordPress 2.5 and later make it much more user friendly to embed video into blog posts/pages. A Flash wrapper is probably your best option if you don't want to use the vanilla basic playback controls provided by the QT/WMV browser plug-ins. It sounds to me like your biggest challenge here will not be with WordPress, but in coming up with a workflow for them to encode and prep their video for the web.

besson3c · May 22, 2008, 12:06 PM

Originally Posted by nonhuman

Doesn't work in FreeBSD.

(Unless you build your kernel with Linux binary compatibility and use Flash for Linux...)

I don't understand how this is an issue, unless this joke just went over my head?

There is an open source Flash player for Linux BTW, I've never bothered to see whether it will work under FreeBSD, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. Where FreeBSD usually falls short is in proprietary drivers and commercially made software that was built for Linux.

nonhuman · May 22, 2008, 12:37 PM

Originally Posted by besson3c

WordPress 2.5 and later make it much more user friendly to embed video into blog posts/pages. A Flash wrapper is probably your best option if you don't want to use the vanilla basic playback controls provided by the QT/WMV browser plug-ins. It sounds to me like your biggest challenge here will not be with WordPress, but in coming up with a workflow for them to encode and prep their video for the web.

Yeah, a friend of mine pointed me to Flowplayer | Flash Video Player for the Web which looks pretty good.

I agree, the workflow is probably the biggest issue, but they have a videographer who will be able to provide the video in a .flv file, so it will just be a matter of making it easy for someone to upload the video file to the server and then easily embed it into a post.

nonhuman · May 22, 2008, 12:40 PM

Originally Posted by besson3c

I don't understand how this is an issue, unless this joke just went over my head?

There is an open source Flash player for Linux BTW, I've never bothered to see whether it will work under FreeBSD, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. Where FreeBSD usually falls short is in proprietary drivers and commercially made software that was built for Linux.

It's not really a problem, it's just that there exists no native Flash code for FreeBSD, because it's a proprietary format and they just don't support FreeBSD. In order to use Flash on FreeBSD you have to use Linux binaries through FreeBSD's linux binary compatibility layer. So you can't just go into ports and build Firefox, you have to use the Linux version of Firefox and then a Linux binary plugin in order to watch videos on YouTube or whatever.

besson3c · May 22, 2008, 03:35 PM

Originally Posted by nonhuman

It's not really a problem, it's just that there exists no native Flash code for FreeBSD, because it's a proprietary format and they just don't support FreeBSD. In order to use Flash on FreeBSD you have to use Linux binaries through FreeBSD's linux binary compatibility layer. So you can't just go into ports and build Firefox, you have to use the Linux version of Firefox and then a Linux binary plugin in order to watch videos on YouTube or whatever.

I know that, I've been there myself

I'm just wondering what this has to do with this person's video blog? Lack of 100% compatibility w. Flash?

nonhuman · May 22, 2008, 03:38 PM

Originally Posted by besson3c

I know that, I've been there myself

I'm just wondering what this has to do with this person's video blog? Lack of 100% compatibility w. Flash?

It has absolutely nothing to do with the video blog.

starman · May 22, 2008, 05:01 PM

Wordpress + Seesmic plugin

nonhuman · May 22, 2008, 05:45 PM

Hmm, Seesmic looks pretty cool, but unless I'm misunderstanding, it's basically intended for video content that you record live with your webcam, right? This will be pre-recorded, edited content.