Basic web streaming settings for my website.

[thurnau]

What are some basic settings I should look at for streaming an instructional video on my website? Should I use my own dedicated server or use a service like vimeo? What are some fil sizes and bit-rate or other qualities to look at to keep file size to a minimum with minimal tradeoff in quality?

[Baldrick]

It depends. If you except several thousand of viewers it might be better hosting it somewhere else. But if not I would make it and host it myself.

[thurnau]

The video is 12 minutes long. In .MOV the file is 75MB with sound. I used flash and removed sound and the video quality is slightly worse at 124MB. Does anyone have a good article on optimizing a video for the web?

My goal is to imbed the video onto the home page or other webpages. I could possibly have a download link instead.

[zoobie]

I'd simply use a sharing site

[thurnau]

I'd simply use a sharing site

What are the best sharing sites? I believe Youtube will stuff my video with their own advertisements right? I need the video to be around 600 pixels wide, and since it is going on my commercial website, I can't have competitor ads showing up on my video.

I tried out Vimeo too, while the video quality is nice the streaming was too slow.

[ronnylov]

You can try ExposureRoom.
The video quality is good but I have problems with seeking on their videos.