How To Stream Amazon S3 Video On Your Website
Posted by James in Affiliate, How To, James Schramko, Traffic, Video
I needed a replacement Video provider
Since Google Video stopped allowing uploads I needed to find a better way to get externally hosted videos onto my site.
Many people use Amazon S3
Amazon S3 is a natural choice because it is super robust and very cheap. The only downside is that it is not very easy to make players. Storage and strength is the main benefit. You can be pretty sure Amazon will be around for a while. They also have a cloud hosted solution you can extend to so you get reasonably fast streaming times and it serves from multiple locations.
I did some research
I decided to research my options and thought it was worth sharing my results. Here is a summary of what I was trying to achieve.
Google Video was great because it quite good quality and it did NOT display advertising. The other benefit was the externally hosted bandwidth was free.
What I needed
I wanted low cost, high quality, ad free and easy to use.
I contacted Brightcove. They are expensive and unpopular according to the blog comments. One day they pulled free content from users and the entry point is $2000. You cannot use it as a storage place because you can upload but not download. I did not like the vibe from them.
My own server?
I use my own spare dedicated server for streaming but when I do that I need to install both the javascript and a local file to call the external server. This was a little complicated. It does not offer the benefit of cloud serving either.
StreamCast
This service did not seem as flexible as Amazon S3. S3 can be used to store backups of files as well as just video media. I wanted more than just video hosting.
Veeple
This looks similar to EZS3 but has the option of clickable links. It will cost a little more if you get a lot of views. I liked the look if this one but I did not need clickable links.
Mozzo
This is another cloud CDN. Content distribution network. It seems similar to S3. No easy player option that I could find. You can play the media directly on the URL however sometimes it is easier to hide that URL using an add-on player.
Fliqz
You need to spend a little more per month to get the unbranded player and these guys say they are a direct competitor to brightcove. I found the homepage a little confusing. It is a little over the the top for direct sales promos rather than explaining what the service is. I never got past that.
Youtube
No good. They have poor quality video streaming and they play ads unless you modify the player. I wanted something far more controlled and plain. I use Youtube for offsite videos but not onsite. I would use Vimeo or Viddler before Youtube if I wanted a free solution.
Viddler
I like Viddler because it has clean players. You can make a nice skin, there are no ads and you get basic analytics. The player allows you to have a graphic banner with clickable link on it to your own URL. (Youtube only allow this to another Youtube video). Also you can pay for hosted solutions from them. I decided to use Viddler for my public videos to embed on public blogs since it is like having a private player.
Using Amazon the cheap (but slower way)
Firefox users can have a handy FTP add-on called S3Fox to load files fast to Amazon. I use this as well for ease of loading and getting direct URL’s for download zip files etc… To make a player for your video file for free you head over to JW player and create your player.
The paid solution I chose for my sales pages and private memberships
The end solution has a number of benefits. It is EzS3video. It works like an ftp combined with a player creation tool. You can control access for specific URL’s only and make players that will allow full screen mode. This is the best paid solution I have found to combine the upload and player controls together.
How it works
You load your files up via the interface directly to the Amazon S3 account (YOUR account) and you then make the player. You can select a re-direct URL on end of play…. Very powerful and customizable. EZS3 supports different file types.The player output is just one javascript snippet you place on your page where you want the media to display. You can make players in any size and with different skins. The javacsript helps obscure the URL of the resource file.
You pay a flat $20 monthly fee for the service and then you pay Amazon S3 for the use of the server bandwidth.
Downside?
The downside is if EZS3 go out of business you will lose your players. The protection is that your files are all still on the Amazon S3 site and you can make a new player later. You always retain your source files.
The other benefits
You can use this service for FLV, MPEG4, MOV, SWF, JPG, GIF, Camtasia Codec, WMV, AVI, PDF, MP3 and it has other widgets as well. The service also supports cloudfront.net streaming (cloud serving) so that you get fast streaming in your local area. You select this option at Amazon and then tick the box in EZS3. Other features of the player are controls for auto play or not. Center or left / right align and the use of watermarks. You can also see the view rates for your video by graph. This is handy if you want to see how popular your videos are or use it for split testing.
Summary
For secure, fast, high quality brandable videos that are easy to load and stream use Amazon S3 combined with EZS3 video and you have a great low cost robust solution.
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45 Comments
Donna-Marie
12. Apr, 2009
Great resource James – thanks. I was going to compare S3 with other options and had it on my list for tomorrow. You’ve just saved me a couple of hours… at least.
James
12. Apr, 2009
Cool!
I was a complete novice the other day and now I have streaming set up the way I want.
My forum has a lot of videos in it and all my sales pages have video on them (or coming).
This was the easiest way for me to get what I needed.
Andy
12. Apr, 2009
I always enjoy learning what other people think about Amazon Web Services and how they use them. I hope the readers of this blog will want to check out CloudBerry Explorer that helps to manage S3 on Windows . It is a freeware. http://cloudberrylab.com/
James
12. Apr, 2009
Thanks Andy,
Another S3 manager is the Firefox addon:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3247
Shelby
14. Apr, 2009
S3 is a great tool, I don’t think you need EZS3 though, there’s a multitude of free players out there that allow you to put videos on your site pretty easily.
James
14. Apr, 2009
Shelby I looked at free players but many of them require coding and mucking about.
How do they go for security and allowing for full screen mode etc…?
Do you have any recommendations?
(Often I have found that free is very expensive in the longrun. The last thing I want to be doing is mucking around with code).
Shelby
14. Apr, 2009
I just used JW FLV player
http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/
I think it’s free for non-commercial items, for a commercial licence it’s not that much though.
Basically you just upload your file to S3 change permissions so people can watch it – all done with your ftp client.
Next Upload JW FLV files to your server – you only do this once.
Then you can customize your player here – http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/jw-player-setup-wizard
Note – Make sure to include a link to your file in S3 and that the video player links are the correct file locations on your site – you may want to direct link to them.
Finally you paste the code in your site that the above link generates.
Not too much hassle and basically free. It also seems to take about as much time as the above service.
James
14. Apr, 2009
I think ezs3 is considerably faster and easier!
Upload,
Create player
One java script code paste to site.
(any site or blog)
Shelby
15. Apr, 2009
Same thing, but in all fairness I haven’t tried EZS3.
1. Upload file – Same as FTP
2. Create Code – Almost the same thing minus the cool visual interface
3. Paste Code – same thing
Of course the first comment is how to setup everything so it sounds longer, but admittedly if you were doing hundreds of these a month it would make more sense to have a program to manage them.
IMHO
James
15. Apr, 2009
True – I am uploading to hundreds of different sites and using multiple formats – MPG4, flv, swf, avi, pdf, MP3 so the easy to use player interface is a MUST
Steve Ovens
19. Apr, 2009
Hey James,
Thanks for the recommendation – I found EZS3 to be very easy to use and can see how it could become addictive. Got my first video up and running very easily. Ties in nicely with the page creator tools too!
Gotta go find some offline clients to fund my addictions now…
Steve
Steve Ovens
19. Apr, 2009
Doh! I put the wrong site URL in to show off my wonderful video skills.
Reckon Russell Crowe’s got anything to worry about?
Steve
James
19. Apr, 2009
“Reckon Russell Crowe’s got anything to worry about?”
…having met him and done business with him I am sure he has plenty to worry about…. in contrast, you are nothing like him so you have nothing to worry about. For example you can play decent music……. (G’Day Russ
)
Gail
20. Apr, 2009
What is your opinion of viddler.com? It’s free with no ads.
Cheers,
Gail
James
20. Apr, 2009
Viddler looks pretty good. If I wanted free hosting with no ads then that looks like the best way to go.
I want control of my content now in case they change later.
(for example brightcove told people to remove the free stuff with short notice).
Gail
20. Apr, 2009
OK. I see where you’re coming from. Thanks James!
Gail
VoIP Phone
30. Apr, 2009
Very nice information. I have been looking for a video hosting service so this article is extremely helpful to me. I’ll give it a go!
peter
15. May, 2009
Thanx James, Just the info I was looking for. Direct and simple. Keep it up.
George Fourie
21. May, 2009
Thanks James, read this post a few times while comparing options. I completely missed the EZs3 part until I watched the movie. Signing up right now… CHeers!
James
21. May, 2009
Thanks George!
It is an excellent service.
eZs3
27. Jun, 2009
Hey James
Thanks for the write-up
We have been busy re-investing and developing our services… setting up the Cloudfront for all our users and making it easy to roll-out for their accounts and players, upgrading and expanding on our servers etc
These were all key improvements to allow us to roll-out the Premium Video Marketing services that we’ve been working on behind the scenes
The first one is codenamed: underlay
It’s what happens when the video finishes.. instead of seeing a blank video frame.. you can now show something else….
It allows you to automatically re-direct the video (think affiliate marketing – do a video review and then re-direct to the site, cart item, eBay auction or whatever)
It also allows you to put a script there (think Landing Pages / Squeeze Pages and Opt-in Forms… the video finishes.. and the form to join your list appears! )
—–
I have more in the pipeline….
(Let me know if you would like to beta test the underlay)
TomC
James
27. Jun, 2009
Tom I would definitely be ready to use that service. I’m loving your product since I use it almost every day now for my private membership site!
John
01. Aug, 2009
Can IP address of server be used instead of url to limit where the file is viewable from?
The embeded call references the file by a number – file name would be better.
David Duffield
04. Aug, 2009
Excellent review and how-to video thanks James. As a non-techie it made setting all of it up very straight-forward, which was a relief as the Amazon side of things seems to be tailored towards fully fledged geeks.
Shaun
20. Dec, 2009
How does this EZS3 compare to using Amazon Cloudfront? I don’t think Cloudfront was an option at the time that you wrote this article.
http://www.reelseo.com/amazon-cloudfront-streaming/
James
20. Dec, 2009
@Shaun I use cloudfront with EZS3.
Just get an account and tick that box and it streams from there….
Make Money Online Videos
07. Apr, 2010
Thanks for sharing the Viddler site it will really help me to put videos that are only fed to my video blog which will is about helping others by sharing some of the best videos from the IM niche.
Reine
14. Jun, 2010
Hey James,
I must agree. I have been using Amazon for a while now, since you recommended it. We upload all of our client review videos and then simply create a page on our site – go into Amazon, create a player, set the controls and size and bingo – take the embed code and paste it into the page. I was talking to someone about this and they said how great it would be if when the video was finished it went off to our survey. Is there such a think as a URL redirect in the kit bag of Ezs3 and if so, how would one go about getting this feature. Thanks for you all you help and advice.
James
14. Jun, 2010
EZS3 has such a feature and also the ‘underlay’ which is a one time payment. It will bring some code up after the video stops. Click on the tab inside your members area that says “Premium services and other cool stuff”
Jeremy
27. Jul, 2010
thank you for the useful information
I see that the video above plays from cloudfront…what is the difference between that and Amazon S3 account?
which one is better
thank you!
J
James
27. Jul, 2010
You can activate cloudfront in amazon. It serves the video closer to your location.
Wayne Lambert
28. Jul, 2010
Great content James. Thanks.
Been checking Amazon S3 and EZS3 as a solution for my video blog and still have some questions:
Does the $20 monthly investment mean that you get the benefits of ease and efficiency of file management, enhanced customisation of player and good flexibility for video type?
Are there any other benefits such as an improved playback experience for blog users?
I’m using JW Player for WordPress with the .flv file hosted on S3 and still not getting smooth playback from the video. It plays back no more smoothly than it did when I held the file on my regular Bluehost server space. My internet connection is a pretty quick broadband connection.
I’m wondering if it’s something to do with my video recording/production options like bitrate, framerate or codec. It does play smoothly using the desktop application “Adobe Media Player’.
Thanks,
Wayne
James
31. Jul, 2010
@Wayne, yes the fee each month gives you very good management of your players and analytic stats. The playback experience is fully customized from the player look, feel, controls and ending actions such as dropping a script or changing destination. (Also multi players). Yes your rendering settings will likely be causing your playback experience.
Terry Shelton
12. Aug, 2010
Great article and content about how to use Amazon S3 for video and beyond. Amazon is providing a good service. I heard an industry guru reference this tool and you have provided a great article about the process of finding ways to stream video.
John
08. Nov, 2010
Hi James , congratulations for your great article. I am Mac user and I tried to upload a video file to Amazon S3 and I got a red restrictive message on AWS Console indicating that currently Amazon AWS cannot accept a file over 300MB. Do you happen to know any solution that will help me upload to S3 larger than 300MB files?
James
08. Nov, 2010
I use Bucket Explorer as my FTP and it copes with larger sized files
John
08. Nov, 2010
Thank you very much for your fast response. I will give it a try.
Paul
11. Feb, 2011
Thanks for sharing this resource, James. I’ve been using Vzaar, which works OK, but is relatively expensive compared to streaming files from S3.
Finding the right tool to interact with S3 has been a bit of a challenge. Brightcove looked like the logical choice, but as you noted, it is WAY too expensive. This tool looks both slick and affordable!
Shane
05. Jun, 2011
Hey James, great info! Just wondering if eZs3 is still your choice for streaming video.
James
06. Jun, 2011
Yes is sure is. I used EZS3 for my TrafficGrab members area and a Lot of people love the multi video player (all in one). It rocks!! Plus we added it to superfastwebsites and superfastvideos. It is our central video content management area.
Ray
02. Jul, 2011
Great site James.
I’m an Amazon Affiliate and there are some short videos there which I would like to use on my website which promotes products at Amazon. My question is James, am I allowed to copy those short vids to my site which refers customers back to Amazon/those products?
James
03. Jul, 2011
Ray you need to check with the terms and conditions at Amazon.
Bob
13. Dec, 2011
I think your Twitter gadget is interfering and only allowing part of the video to be seen.
Ben Tristem
15. Dec, 2011
I want to achieve the following, and would really appreciate help…
1. To create simple sales video web pages
2. The videos to stream well worldwide (e.g. Amazon S3 with CloudFront).
3. I am fairly techie, but don’t want to fiddle in code more than necessary.
4. Control over the video player (e.g. ability to auto play, and prevent fast-forward and rewind)
5. I want video to work on iPhone, mobiles, etc without any fuss.
Is there a simple, inexpensive solution out there I should consider? I don’t want to have to mess around with CSS, or with code to detect browsers.
I also want to avoid high fees such as Viddler, where I can’t see what you get for your $100+ per month.
I feel like I’m falling in between two camps:
Camp 1: Those who can’t do it themselves so have to go for something like OptimisePress on WordPress, Kajabi, or a developer + Viddler
Camp 2: Those who know HTML, CSS, and web servers well enough just to do it all themselves.
Any help MUCH appreciated.
James
16. Dec, 2011
Ben sounds like Youtube will sove most of your problems.
Also Vimeo Pro or just plain old EZs3.
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