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Even though, I am still a Windows Neanderthal and haven’t yet moved to a Mac, I have to stay on top of the latest changes in marketing and that includes video player compatibility across platforms.
Apple took a stand with the release of the iPad and refused to support Flash in an interest to expand the use of the newer H.264 format, that has been around for a while. This is the same format that is now being used by most of the small HD video cameras on the market, like the Flip HD and the Kodak z-i8.
Now you may be thinking, I have no idea what H.264 is, let alone how to use it on my website.
If you are using video sites like YouTube to host your videos, you don’t have anything to worry about. They have already made the move and detect the browser being used and send the correct format. If however, you have a membership site delivering video content, you have a salesletter with your own video not hosted on YouTube, or you are deliver video content as a download for delievery, you’ll want to keep reading.
If you are already using Flowplayer on your website, you may already have everything you need to support H.264. Flowplayer 3.0 supports the new format as well as the old FLVs. If you are embedding your own videos in a Wordpress blog, I receommend Hana FLV Player that includes Flowplayer 3 as one of the player options.
One of the added benefits of Flowplayer is the ability to link the video to a url. That way after the video is playing, is the vistor clicks the video based on a call to action in the video, you can take them to the desired webpage.
Another great feature of Flowplayer is full scripting capability using JQuery. With JQuery you can actually have the video disappear when it completes and show an optin form or offer after the video completes. You can also use it to trigger a buy button to show up on the page when a visitor gets to the portion of the video that mentions the offer and directs the user to click on the buy button to get started.
Flowplayer is free, however they do have a paid version that also integrates with Goolge Analytics. With some effort, and someone who knows JQuery, you could integrate with Google Analytics yourself using Google analytics event tracking.
If you have any questions about online video, please post them in the comments. i am putting together a new webinar to cover online video in more detail.
To your success.
Sincerely,
Kevin
Steve Sponseller
June 13, 2010 at 5:33 pm
Kevin – thanks for the information about managing the multiple video formats floating around on the Internet. I will soon be creating some videos to go with my new product and would like to learn more about this. My main question is how do I create videos that support all browsers/platforms today and into the future?
Thanks.
Ely Delaney
June 14, 2010 at 12:44 am
Kevin, thanks so much for this post. I have been doing a little research on video players since it looks like we need to migrate to MP4 in order to anything to play on the iPad but had not had time to do much yet. Up until now I had not been pleased with the other plugins I found.
This one was easy to set up. I love it.
Thanks again.
Ely
Robby LeBlanc
June 15, 2010 at 4:10 pm
I quess Apple didn’t want to play with Flash anymore. One of the things I like about apple are there innovations. At the same time, when they do innovate, they tend to force you to move forward with them or you get left behind! Anyway, thanks for the post Kevin…
Ava Davis
June 17, 2010 at 1:21 am
iPad is way too cool to own, i wanna buy one next month.,,: