Pros and Cons: Video on the website?

[Nav_functions]

Hi.
I am thinking of putting up video (a short 2mins clip) on my website for viewing. I was wondering what are the pros&cons in doing that. The video will be placed through the site; it will be use as an introduction to a particular topic.
I know some of the cons in putting up video is the 56k user can't dl it fast enough and sometime they will just close it before it finish dl. (What compression file is preferred on the web?) Some of the user doesn’t have the compatible player to view it, that’s another con.

Please help me out in choosing the best compress file type and some pros&cons whether I should put it up or not.

Thank you for your input.

[gary_hendricks]

There are many video formats you can choose. One of them I like is Quicktime, and also WMV. But Quicktime is the most popular.

If you want to find out more about digital video and how to stream it, check out my webpage:
http://www.desktop-video-guide.com/share-video.html

[mairving]

Quicktime is certainly not the most popular.

For small file size and the ability to open in a wide variety of players, I would use .mpg format.

[rightcoast]

I second .mpg format. also, I am sure you probably took this into consideration, but bandwidth will be a con. You can limit the bandwidth by making sure that users download a copy of the video locally instead of streaming it. I don't know if you have a transfer limit from your hosting company, but keep that in mind.

[Nav_functions]

Thanks for the reply.

What tool can I use to compress my video into web suitable format (.mpg/.mov)? I want the video still have some good quality (picture/audio) when done compressing. So .mpg is the best type to cocnvert the video into?

[doctorgonzo]

What format is the video in now?

[Scotty]

Taking this a step further. I am in the business of video production aka videographer in the early stages I should say. I have a Sony DCR-VX2000 and small but very usfull Sony DCR-HC21 for backup. I have been doing a few wedding videos and will be finishing a gold prospecting video this summer. It looks like the wedding videography is the money maker and I have all the NLE software to do this from start to finish. Package and delivered... My question is I want to do the web site thing but do I want to make my own server which I have lots of left over parts and can put one together or pay for hosting? $120 a year or so for hosting or dedicated IP addy What is the verdict?

[Scotty]

Sorry about not helping to answer the question on compression. There are lots of viewers out there ie:VLC Video Player is a good one for all around. You can put a link on your web site for them to download. DivX is a great encoder and well ya really need to read about compression to know what you need. Here is a link to a good read. Kinda techy and I really don't like to read myself but good. Hope I helped a little. Scotty

http://www.autosophy.com/videcomp.htm

And also

http://www.desktop-video-guide.com/share-video.html