Expect Some Changes
One of the biggest challenges of running a site like this is the constantly-changing landscape of the services we rely upon. A service that is free this week, could cost $1000/month next week. And that is exactly what happened recently. Our home page video player, provided by Brightcove, will be disappearing soon. This player was very important for the look and flow of the website, since I always want the videos to be easily accessible from the first second someone logs on. And the reality is, there aren’t many alternatives (free or otherwise). So it looks like I am going to have to look at a redesign of the home page that will allow folks to browse all available videos. This was NOT something I expected to have on my plate right now and unfortunately it has to be done by Dec. 17th, when Brightcove flips the switch. So I will do my best to come up with a fully functional solution by then. But if not, you’ll have to excuse the appearance of the site. Worst case scenario, I will make our blog page the Home Page for a while. Either way, I just wanted to keep everyone in the loop.
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I guess brightcove is gearing up for a very difficult next 4 years.
Hey Marc,
Why not just put the videos on YouTube? The quality isn’t the greatest, but their API is open and you can retrieve a list of your own videos easily enough. Then recreate the homepage functionality yourself.
That section doesn’t have to be a whole big flash piece, you can recreate all of that in HTML and just leave the main movie player as the only embedded Flash piece.
Could do the whole thing with Javascript, wouldn’t even need any server side shenanigans (although it would be faster to cache the contents of those tabs on the server rather than getting and parsing the feed from YouTube each and every time). Let me know if you need any help, I’m a web designer/developer during the day, woodworking is (for now) the hobby!
Is this the first reality of the change we can believe in?
I’m sure the site will be fine. We come here the woodworking knowledge. If we have to spend a little more time to find stuff so be it.
That’s too bad. I agree with Rob, you might take another look at YouTube. They are not going anywhere, or at least it’s unlikely. The only problem with YouTube are the comments, but you can always turn comments off.
Jaime: No, this is probably unrelated to change you can believe in… you might guess the reason Brightcove is turning away a long time customer like Marc, is the need to turn a profit after the dryup of venture capital that was caused by the worst financial crisis since 1929, or maybe ever.
In the big picture, maybe this was a necessary thing to get rid of all those companies (like Facebook?) without a business model. But there is no doubt our best days are ahead of us, with the possible exception of yesterday. Yesterday was amazing.
Marc,
I don’t know what your budget is but these folks make some terrific stuff and the video hosting service looks very flexible.
Must be my first day working with computers!!
Here is the link.
http://www.techsmith.com/screencast.asp
That’s kind of the idea we are working with Rob. Really, its going to be our only option at this point. But I won’t be using Youtube. We will probably continue to use Blip.tv. Having an all-inclusive solution was nice, but obviously not completely necessary for survival. Still exploring options at this point. Thanks for the offer of help. I might need it at some point.
Just to clarify, we do not have a general video hosting issue. Blip.tv serves those needs just fine. The videos inside the blog and in the RSS feeds will continue to function as they always have. What we are losing is the player on the front page, which contains all the videos in one window. The primary challenge now will be giving people a way to browse the video by category, with short descriptions and thumbnails, and with the ability to view those videos in a single player window on the front page.
Speaking for myself my bandwidth is not adequate to use the flash player without it stopping all the time so I only download your videos. So I guess as far as I’m concerned I guess this doesn’t bother me.
Maybe you could barter web development services for a woodworking apprenticeship…. I’d propose it myself but the commute from Canada would kill me…
Charles Neil is having this same problem too marc. things don’t look good for brightcove. most people can’t afford the 6 k fee. so people leave and with less people sponsors leave. its gonna be tough for them.
Actually Denis, the reason this is happening is because Brightcove is making much more money from paying customers than they are from advertisers in their free system. They have some big name accounts like Showtime, Fox, and probably others, that take their business to a whole different level. Customers like Charles and I are just drops in the bucket and don’t hold any real value for the company.
But there is a large gap in the market now. It perplexes me that there is no solution for small business that falls somewhere between Free and $500/month. Either way, there are other solutions out there. We’ll figure it out.
I’m sorry this has happened Marc, but honestly, I have never used that video player. From the day you implemented it, I changed my link to go directly to the blog. I’m really not a fan of those types of video player applications. I find the videos too low quality. So I think the youtube idea is a good one. This will give you the exposure to new users who want to view a couple of videos before they download the larger versions. If you was pulling the plug on the High Def downloads, then I’d be crying like a little girl. Don’t get down about this. It’s minor.
Its funny that this change is happening with Brightcove. I just recently spoke to one of their reps about installing their service on my site. They quoted me the “basic” package for almost double what I pay for my monthly car payment! I feel you Marc! Keep us posted with the service you go with, I know I’m looking for a good video service as well. I’ll let you know if I find something.
Take care,
Neil
The Silent Woods Project
http://thesilentwoods.wordpress.com
Marc, have you checked out http://fliqz.com/ or http://ooyala.com/?
My 2 cents worth: I am another one who never uses the player on the home page. I download the high res video so I have it and can watch it anytime I want and have much better control.
Break a leg finding a new solution, Marc.
Thanks for not even considering YouTube. Geez, that site drives me bonkers. It has some good qualities. But YouTube is also a perfect example of everything that’s wrong with the Internet.
Like others, it won’t be an issue for me. I have subscribed using Adobe Media Player (free). I get a larger image and that makes it easier to see what you are doing too.
How about an image from the most recent video that links to a page with a full list with descriptions. There are lots of free players folks can use.
What would Leo Laporte do? I’m sure he would be more than happy to help you out or have someone he knows just take care of it for you. It doesnt hurt to ask.
It won’t be an issue for me either. I’ve never liked those players and prefer to download the videos. But if I may add my 2 cents try to mantain a video player that buffers the full video. Plain streaming is not practical for many people because of bandwith constraints.
Marc,
Here is a new theme that Revolution has put out. It’s their “video” theme. Not quite as good as Brightcove, but about $5,500 cheaper.
http://www.revolutiontwo.com/themes/video
-Neil
The Silent Woods Project
http://thesilentwoods.wordpress.com/
whatever you need to do, Marc. Just don’t get rid of “ghetto Marc”. Granted, the old boy is barely a semblance of the original (hell, you can’t even tell it’s DJM’s shop and TS anymore) but we need the nostalgia….
:)
Muddler
I too never used the player. The scroll bar was always too jumpy too. Not to mention the excessive load time of your main page due to the player.
Marc,
I’m in the same camp as WiZeR. I’ve always had the blog page set as my homepage for you. I’ve never even used the video page.
I guess I’m a total noob to web video. I subscribe via Itunes. I generally watch the videos there. There is a delay from when you post and when Itunes updates, but I generally watch them on the weekends so it is of no consequence. I also usually go straight to the blog section.
In all honesty, if eliminating the video portion from the front page helps your business then I’d let it go. Everyone is checking the bottom line these days.
Your delivery style and content is why I watch the videos, not the video carrier. Just another opinion to muddy the waters. ; )
Thanks for the advice guys. One thing is clear, that some people read the blog, and some people dont. lol. What I mean is that many of you are my biggest supporters, and you get much deeper into the wood whisperer story simply by paying attention to what I say in these blog posts. But MANY people never make it past the front page. They are interested in the videos only and are much more casual in their approach to the show. I just looked at our numbers and our front page player alone gets over 60,000 plays per month. So people are definitely using it. But these aren’t people who are likely to speak up in a blog post like this (if they even notice it).
I have been looking at some of the other themes and that video one caught my eye neil. Although its great for video, it is incredibly deficient in all other regards, lol. Still researching options. Thanks again homies!
BTW, I too use iTunes for all of my podcast viewing. Its honestly the easiest way to go.
Hey Marc again,
So you’re losing the front page player/video list widget from Brightcove, but will continue to host the videos with them? Or are all of those going to Blip.tv as well? If either of those have an open API to access video titles, descriptions and thumbnails I could build you something just like the homepage player in a weekend, all HTML and Javascript. Tabbed navigation with all your categories, just like you’ve got there.
That’s an incredible offer Rob. I might take you up on it if my alternative plan doesn’t work out. Within the next week or so I will be rolling out this new plan, and we’ll see how it goes. If its a flop, I will call on you and your services. Thanks so much Rob.
Marc,
Now that I understand it’s not the source of your video that’s going away, it’s a lot more clear to me. I thought you had to change video providers.
Anyway, if this is helpful, the way I use your site is I read the blog post, and then when it’s time to watch the video I go to the front page.
I do that only because when I increase the size of the video, it becomes an ideal size - not too big, not too small. Full screen video that I can get on the blog page seems to lag on some platforms, and the video player itself is tiny. But if that feature can’t be preserved, I am happy to download and then play.
Just FYI how your website is used by one person…
Marc,
I’m sorry to hear about the change… Like most people that have sounded off though, I use iTunes to grab the shows, I’m not a huge fan of flash for most websites, something like a simple video carousel isn’t flash-worthy IMHO. There are ways around using something like brightcove, but they may not be as point-and-click friendly. Keep producing your top-notch content, and people will find it.
Keep Up The Great Work!!,
Mark ‘Build-It-And-They-Will-Come’ D.