Hi Andrew,

Thanks so much for this website – I have already learned a lot from reading through your past articles, well done & keep up the good work!

Here’s my question – do you think it’s a good idea to shoot product videos in high definition?

I have a good Canon camcorder and it allows me to shoot in both standard and high definition. My PC is up-date too, very fast machine and handles HD videos with no problems whatsoever!

If it is a good idea, where should I host these High Def videos?

Thanks,
Rob

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your question.

And great to hear about your plans on creating HD videos for your e-commerce website!

If you ask me whatever you should record, edit and host videos in Standard or High Definition, my answer is – HD! Remember, only few short years ago video was very rare (and slow) on the Internet but these days videos are everywhere!
What I’m trying to say is – you have to think one step ahead and while at the moment HD videos are not very popular, this will change over next 2-3 years guaranteed! And why not prepare for it now? Especially if you’re creating these videos from scratch – it would be stupid to make SD videos now and then re-do them in a few years time.

As for HD video hosting – there are basically 3 options available:

1. Your Website/Hosting Account – this would be the stupidest out of all 3 options. You’ll need a dedicated server (fast one) with a good connection speed. Also, you’ll have to code your videos very carefully to get best space/speed/quality ratio.

Only good thing is that you’ll be in full control – no one will be able to take down your videos, you’ll be able to custom code players etc. But I’m afraid the ongoing cost of this set-up will ruin all the excitement of customization. In a word – this is a very bad idea.

2. Cloud Hosting - services like Amazon S3 and similar ones will offer you relatively cheap, shared hosting on very fast, monitored servers. Good thing about these cloud hosting services is that you pay per usage, not fixed cost per server. There’s no minimum spend or monthly costs either.

You pay per data storage and bandwidth – so the more videos are stored, the more you pay. The more views you get, the more you pay.

This means anyone can have a reliable, ultra fast hosting service without paying for a dedicated server. This is great when you’re a small company and can’t afford extra luxuries.

As with your own hosting account, you’ll get 100% flexibility on your video files, how they’re played, how they’ll look and so on BUT again – costs will  increase significantly when your website becomes popular and you get hundreds or even thousands of video views a day.

I would recommend Amazon S3 or a similar service if you have very few products and don’t expect huge traffic levels.

3. YouTube – finally, world’s most popular video sharing website – YouTube! I personally use it a lot – as you can see, even this video is hosted by YouTube.

Advantages of using YouTube:

•    It’s FREE!
•    HD video quality is great!
•    People can switch to lower quality if their internet connection is too slow for HD video
•    You get more views from YouTube users, your potential customers
•    Bloggers and other website owners can easily embed your videos

As you can see – there are many advantages and in my opinion only one downside – YouTube can take down your videos if they see any copyright breach or your videos violate their terms of use.

Also, when hosting your videos on YouTube, you lose control on how they will look as you’ll have to use YouTube’s default players.

Overall I still think YouTube offers great value and it’s the best way to host your high definition product videos absolutely FOR FREE! Just don’t forget to opt-out from ad programs in your account settings so that your videos look more professional!

Hope this helps!

Andrew

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