RedWine
08-25-2007, 06:35 AM
YouTube, now owned by Google, may still be the 800-pound gorilla of video sharing sites, but an impressive number of rivals--some merely clones, others offering unique twists--are nipping at its heels.
We whittled down an initial list of 50 contending services to 17 topflight sites we tested to determine the single best place to share your videos online. Blip.tv's video quality and functionality made it our overall Best Bet, but each free service has strengths in areas that others may not.
In addition, we list the top ten sites in our Top 10 Video Sharing Sites chart.
Video Quality Matchup
Video quality and embedded player design remain the major points of comparison, so we put together a special evaluation page on our PC World.com Web site so that you can judge the video from each service for yourself, side-by-side. (Caution: Our comparison page features ten embedded videos and may tax your system's resources. In addition, you may be prompted to download certain video players if you don't already have them.)
For our rankings, we also took into account policies on shared advertising revenue, potential audience size, the entire upload experience, and the design of each embedded player, including the intrusiveness of any advertising, watermarks, and other nonvideo elements. In addition, we considered social-networking options, the ability to make videos private, and other attributes.
How We Tested
Each site that we tested--those in our top 10, plus AOL Uncut Video Beta, Crackle (previously Grouper), Dailymotion, Facebook, Google Video, Metacafe, and Yahoo Video--will let you upload a variety of video types, but the only format supported across the board is QuickTime. Most sites don't limit video length or the number of videos you can upload, but many restrict file sizes to 100MB. Consequently, we used the same 1-minute-long, 95.5MB QuickTime (MPEG-4) test file with Apple Lossless stereo audio to test each site.
To gauge video quality and audio, we incorporated shots from past PC World Videos and Test Center footage from the Panasonic PV-GS500, our current MiniDV Camcorder Best Buy, in our 720-by-480-resolution video.
Blip.tv Beta
• Price when rated: Free
• Video/Audio quality: Superior/Very Good
• Ease of upload: Very Good
• Embedded player design: Very Good
• File size/length limits: 100MB/none
Web video connoisseurs will like Blip.tv?s superior video feed quality and optional revenue sharing.
DivX Stage6 Beta
• Price when rated: Free
• Video/Audio quality: Very Good/Very Good
• Ease of upload: Good
• Embedded player design: Superior
• File size/length limits: 2GB/none
Though its use involves a few extra steps, Stage6 supports high-def video and has a well-designed Web video player.
Brightcove Beta (Personal)
• Price when rated: Free
• Video/Audio quality: Good/Very Good
• Ease of upload: Very Good
• Embedded player design: Superior
• File size/length limits: 100MB/none
Brightcove provides professional video management tools and a variety of revenue-sharing programs beyond opt-in advertising.
Revver
• Price when rated: Free
• Video/Audio quality: Good/Very Good
• Ease of upload: Very Good
• Embedded player design: Superior
• File size/length limits: 100MB/none
Using Revver is one of the easiest ways to make money from your video content. Its compact QuickTime files look better than its Flash conversions.
Veoh
• Price when rated: Free
• Video/Audio quality: Good/Very Good
• Ease of upload: Very Good
• Embedded player design: Very Good
• File size/length limits: none
Veoh impressed with a large and easy-to-use embedded player and its useful VeohTV desktop software.
We whittled down an initial list of 50 contending services to 17 topflight sites we tested to determine the single best place to share your videos online. Blip.tv's video quality and functionality made it our overall Best Bet, but each free service has strengths in areas that others may not.
In addition, we list the top ten sites in our Top 10 Video Sharing Sites chart.
Video Quality Matchup
Video quality and embedded player design remain the major points of comparison, so we put together a special evaluation page on our PC World.com Web site so that you can judge the video from each service for yourself, side-by-side. (Caution: Our comparison page features ten embedded videos and may tax your system's resources. In addition, you may be prompted to download certain video players if you don't already have them.)
For our rankings, we also took into account policies on shared advertising revenue, potential audience size, the entire upload experience, and the design of each embedded player, including the intrusiveness of any advertising, watermarks, and other nonvideo elements. In addition, we considered social-networking options, the ability to make videos private, and other attributes.
How We Tested
Each site that we tested--those in our top 10, plus AOL Uncut Video Beta, Crackle (previously Grouper), Dailymotion, Facebook, Google Video, Metacafe, and Yahoo Video--will let you upload a variety of video types, but the only format supported across the board is QuickTime. Most sites don't limit video length or the number of videos you can upload, but many restrict file sizes to 100MB. Consequently, we used the same 1-minute-long, 95.5MB QuickTime (MPEG-4) test file with Apple Lossless stereo audio to test each site.
To gauge video quality and audio, we incorporated shots from past PC World Videos and Test Center footage from the Panasonic PV-GS500, our current MiniDV Camcorder Best Buy, in our 720-by-480-resolution video.
Blip.tv Beta
• Price when rated: Free
• Video/Audio quality: Superior/Very Good
• Ease of upload: Very Good
• Embedded player design: Very Good
• File size/length limits: 100MB/none
Web video connoisseurs will like Blip.tv?s superior video feed quality and optional revenue sharing.
DivX Stage6 Beta
• Price when rated: Free
• Video/Audio quality: Very Good/Very Good
• Ease of upload: Good
• Embedded player design: Superior
• File size/length limits: 2GB/none
Though its use involves a few extra steps, Stage6 supports high-def video and has a well-designed Web video player.
Brightcove Beta (Personal)
• Price when rated: Free
• Video/Audio quality: Good/Very Good
• Ease of upload: Very Good
• Embedded player design: Superior
• File size/length limits: 100MB/none
Brightcove provides professional video management tools and a variety of revenue-sharing programs beyond opt-in advertising.
Revver
• Price when rated: Free
• Video/Audio quality: Good/Very Good
• Ease of upload: Very Good
• Embedded player design: Superior
• File size/length limits: 100MB/none
Using Revver is one of the easiest ways to make money from your video content. Its compact QuickTime files look better than its Flash conversions.
Veoh
• Price when rated: Free
• Video/Audio quality: Good/Very Good
• Ease of upload: Very Good
• Embedded player design: Very Good
• File size/length limits: none
Veoh impressed with a large and easy-to-use embedded player and its useful VeohTV desktop software.