CIC Video Archive Modernized (August 11, 2013)

[KrisV]

For the 2006 CIC Anniversary, we launched the Holovids video archive as the central repository for trailers and previews, original cinematics, behind the scenes material and deleted footage. The section contains dozens upon dozens of downloadable movie clips, collected over the CIC's long history. For the 2007 Anniversary we added convenient streaming through a Flash video player, which was all the rage at the time. Today, Adobe Flash is on the way out as a means to deliver online video, in part due to the rise in mobile browsing. Modern browsers can now stream video and audio without the use (and overhead) of third party plugins. And so today we relaunch an updated Holovids section that will stream video on any recent browser, on desktop or mobile, on Windows, Mac, Linux or Android. You can also still download the movies outright if you want to keep a copy in the best possible quality. Get watching!






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Original update published on August 11, 2013

 

[Quarto]

Guys, I have a suggestion... or, actually, more of a question, because I'm sure this must have occured to you already, and if that's the case, I'd like to find out why you decided against it.

So, is there any reason why, apart from the download options, you haven't also set up a YouTube channel and put all the videos up there? Modern browsers can stream, yeah, but YouTube still has a lot of uses, not the least of which being the possibilities of easily reposting the vids on Facebook - and of course, the fact that your YouTube channel can lead YouTube audiences back to both the CIC and its Facebook page.

 

[AD]

I'm not 100 percent sure why we don't, but I'll name one...

Control: With youtube corporations can decided they own your content even if it's 100 percent yours and flag it as infringing. You end up having to fight a big battle to unlock your account. What's more, big corporations will force monetization of stuff they think infringes.. They won't pull your video as long as you agree to have big obnoxious adds overtop of and in front of your video.

 

[Quarto]

Honestly, that kind of thing is only an issue if you use Youtube exclusively. But if you use it to compliment existing methods of distribution, it won't be a problem. And as for the obnoxious monetisation stuff - having a clip up on Youtube with an ad in front of it beats not having the clip up on Youtube at all .

 

[ChrisReid]

So, is there any reason why, apart from the download options, you haven't also set up a YouTube channel and put all the videos up there?

We do have an official CIC YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/wingcommandercic

But as for the Holovids and other sections, our preference has always been to host things locally for several reasons. It may be less of an issue today, but initially when we first made the original iteration of CIC Yellow, Youtube would smash and compress all your videos to hell, so it was not even considered. Of course we can always host downloads locally, but the fact that Youtube makes that difficult doesn't give us another reason to use them. We're also anti-advertisement, so using a service that plays ads, as AD mentioned, wouldn't be our first preference either.

We have several social meedia accounts that we emphasize, and they're a fun diversion, but I don't usually see significant traffic coming back to the site from them. Facebook has its own built-in video service, so there's no need to link a YouTube account to get videos there. The way things are set up now, we have complete control and all the features, so what's the benefit of investing time in a YouTube channel?

Now what we have talked about in the future is creating/streaming our own YouTube content. Then that becomes something of a different scenario, and we may consider taking advantage of YouTube for that.