Best way to show video on site

[Prometheus]

My company has recorded various webinars that probably need to be as full-screen as possible when we display them on our website.

Is there a general guideline as to which method of displaying videos is best? As an in-browser inline object, or a pop-up to a favorite media player? Most of our videos are between 5 MB and 15 MB, if that makes any difference and they are either .wmv or .avi format.

Thanks

[johngroup]

Maybe a flash convert w/ window script to fix various users.

[jbladeus]

To avoid getting blocked by popup blockers, a good option would be to show the videos in a modal dialog box.
Modal window - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[simonlogan]

Flash Video Studio is a quick and easy (and relatively cheap) piece of software that encodes most video files as Flash which would ensure the vast majority of site visitors will be able to view. I've only every used it for lo-res and fairly small videos embedded on pages but it worked really well in that regard.

And as the others have said best not to use a pop-up just in case it gets blocked.

[jScott_Harris]

FLV converters and players are free and readily available. You can even upload it on YouTube and embedded it on your site that way if you don't feel like doing the leg work your self. There's no shame in using YouTube, plus it may drive additional traffic and provide additional links. If your hosting provider allows it, you can install ffmpeg and it will convert just about any file type to another file type. Some host are scared of the software because it's involved in a few lawsuites concerning codecs, but it's nothing I have any moral issues with and I stopped downloading music years ago.

[hurricanebob]

I guess everyone has a different opinion on this, but I've found that if the video file is stored on my (non-streaming) server, it doesn't matter if I embed or play in a popup, it just takes too long for the video to load and begin playing. Even flash video (flv) takes too long for my tastes. I think the obvious answer is "you need a streaming server".

There are lots of companies offering streaming services, but they all seem to cost more than most people would care to spend (including me). If video on your website is a big part of your business, then you probably just have to pay the price.

That being said, both Youtube and Myspace allow you to upload movies for free, and they are played from their streaming server. You simply copy the embed code from their site and paste the code into your page. The movie clip appears on your site, while it is actually being streamed from youtube or myspace.

The only drawback is when a movie is streamed from their server, the clip displays a semi transparent youtube or myspace movies logo in the lower right corner. If you don't mind the logo, you're all set, if you do, either pay the price for your own streaming server, or try editing your movie clips to include a small grey border along the bottom that is the same color as the logo. Your clip will appear to be "letterbox", but it will stream just fine, and nobody will be the wiser.

For what it's worth.

[mtheory]

Convert to flv and embed in Flash.

By all means do not fall prey to the easy way out of uploading to YouTube and using thier code. Come across as somewhat unprofessional.