Video Self-hosting

Web video can be hosted on a regular web server by using progressive download. This is the do-it-yourself version of web video publishing and is called by some free video hosting. This basic type of video publishing is easy to learn for web designers and is often used by designers that do not have access to better technology or technical knowledge to use it.

There are three main components involved in displaying a video from your website hosting:

1. The actual streamable video file
2. The player for the given video format, available for download(FlashVideo) or as a browser plugin(Windows Media Player,QuickTime,RealPlayer)
3. The code to put the player on the web page

Popular choices of  video file format are FlashVideo(.flv), Windows Media Player(.avi/.wmv), QuickTime(.mov), RealPlayer(.rm).

Pros of Video self-hosting

• Relatively easy to learn
• Possibility to create and use your own player
• Possibility to do it for free
• No need to use a CDN API for custom design solutions(easy on designers with no programming knowledge)
• Good for presentational purposes with small audience

Cons of Video self-hosting

• Tools are required to do it(video must be encoded, there must be a player, code must be created etc.)
• There is technical learning involved (a little bit )
• Very poor scalability due to the fact that there is no network to back you up, but a single web hosting.
• Will impose load on your website hosting and may slow down your website
• No reliable statistics
• Hard to maintain with a large number of videos
• Many website hosting services may throw you out if you try to host video on a regular hosting account. Read the policies and ask your provider before trying!
• You may need a premium hosting package that is likely to be more expensive than an actual video hosting solution

While there is no limitation to video quality imposed by the self-hosting model, with many web hosting services, you might have to settle with a lower video quality or buy a premium hosting package.

Be advised: Some “professionals” advertise video hosting on a website hosting account as “free video hosting” in order to sell you their players. Also some website hosting companies advertise as video hosting some regular website hosting packages.

As a general rule I would only recommend using of video self-hosting for pre-production web projects and web designer work. In that cases the possibility a professional to make a quick show of his/hers ideas is of great value.

In normal web video publishing scenarios the use of a specialized video hosting or video sharing solution is far easier and highly recommended.