X3Photo Gallery Forums

We have not yet added any module for playing self-hosted videos, but it is in our todo list ... For now, there is only the embed method for videos hosted on Vimeo or Youtube. We strongly recommend using hosted videos because of the following major benefits:

1. Vimeo and Youtube can serve video in multiple bitrates/quality depending on device and connection speed. You would not normally be able to do this for self-hosted videos.

2. Vimeo and Youtube are dedicated video services, have multiple data-centers, and are normally much faster than your host.

3. No waste of storage space for large video files.

Can I dig this thread up here...

I'd like to ask if (again) if there will be a video plugin in X3 playing uploaded videos instead of embedding vimeo/youtube etc.

Reason for asking is to allow for sharing "private" videos. I understand it is possible to embed eg a Vimeo video that is set private at the Vimeo site. But any visitor needs to know and type in the password set for that specific video. Having X3 built in player would allow to keep the videos protected in a private area (given that the X3 site is protected).

Thanks for an update on this. Would love to see this feature. It's the last one that would be on my must have list.

Cheers

Stoffl wrote:I'd like to ask if (again) if there will be a video plugin in X3 playing uploaded videos instead of embedding vimeo/youtube etc.

So the answer to that is yes. I may be able to squeeze it in to next major update (after a panel-only update coming soon).

May I ask for the sake of functionality, in what kind of layout were you thinking of displaying videos? Display a single in a single page? Multiple videos stacked vertically on scroll? Videos added in a grid that open in a popup window? Video slideshow?

That are good news, indeed!

When it comes to video, I'd like to see two kinds of including video.

1. One video only on one page. I see the page as the "event" I want to present and hardly any circumstances where I would show more than 1 video per event (event could be a vacation journey, birthday party, a portrait of a person, etc.).
So one would be to allow to put one video on one page and allow 1 photo to included on the page that represents the page in a grid / gallery - whatever. It should be possible to hide that photo and not show it on the page. I added one photo in my sample just to show it in the gallery index, but would rather not show it on the page itself. Maybe it helps to look at: http://stoffl.net/galleries/ and then follow the page link "Nika hüpfe" (I understand I could treat this photo like you treat "assets" in your beta sample, but I'd like to keep the photo with the video page.)

2. The other option would be similar to allow 1 video on a page next to 1 or more photos. So 1 video complements the photos of the same event. I'm not sure if can make this understandable: I'm thinking of a page full of photos with 1 video which is represented by a photo. Click on the video lands an another page which just shows the video ready to play. (Like option 1)


I'm not so fond of a popup for video, as I think it breaks the experience on the web site. And see less use for a grid of videos. (I would find a use for it, for sure, but I won't miss it either)

So thanks for now, I'm really happy to started working with X3 beta and am looking forward for its first go live.

Christof

Ok, thanks for the feedback ... (1) is straight-forward, as you would simply have a page for each video ... I must say (2) was a bit unclear, but I think I understand what you mean. In a mixed gallery of videos/images, it is unlikely that clicking the video would be able to present a new page though, at least without some "hacking" ... In this scenario, it would likely need to open the video in a popup (like the images), or an automated landing-page for the video (but I can't see how that is more practical for the visitor than a popup in this case).

Another issue with native-hosted video of course, is that Imagevue cannot create preview-images from the videos. Therefore, you will need to manually upload images that represent each video, if you want proper previews.

I would like to see the 2nd concept implemented here, where the video showed up on the gallery page (mixed video/images) with a thumbnail (manually created is not a problem) and played in a popup when clicked on. Also, if the user is browsing with the the popup module, the video would play when browsed to with the navigation arrows similar to how it worked in X2. Thanks

sprocket wrote:I would like to see the 2nd concept implemented here, where the video showed up on the gallery page (mixed video/images) with a thumbnail (manually created is not a problem) and played in a popup when clicked on. Also, if the user is browsing with the the popup module, the video would play when browsed to with the navigation arrows similar to how it worked in X2. Thanks

Sure, this would kinda be default ... I am not sure this is exactly @Stoffl was referring to in his request #2 though, as he states "Click on the video lands an another page which just shows the video ready to play.". That specific request is in fact a bit complicated, because basically you want to mix images+video, and have the images(files) open in popup, but the video(files), open a new page ... which means you are basically mixing files+folders (images+albums) together.

Anyway, no need make the topic more complicated that it has to be for now ... There will be an implementation soon.

let me just quickly add: when I read "popup window" I was thinking about another browser window opening displaying the video.
That I wouldn't like.

However, I understand you're referring to a "popup window" like it is when displaying a full photo in flamepix as it is now. That would be absolutely perfect for videos as well in my opinion.

Cheers

After reading the previous remarks about X3 and videos I believe that what I like to see is not possible, but nevertheless I will try to explain it here.

I think it would be great if images and videos could be mixed completely transparent.
So, when someone is flipping through the images in a gallery sometimes it's an image, some other times it's a video.
That would also mean that on gallery level the video would have to be represented by an image... so on that level you cannot discern a video from an image.

The reason why I would like to have this is the effect it will have with those videos that I call 'Moving Stills'.
Moving Stills are videos that have a fixed camera viewpoint and at first appearance they start as an image (photograph) but, because it's a video something starts to move (leaves rustle... someone walks through the scene... etc).
It really is a great effect when after viewing some still images the next image has some movement in it.

Well, I hope my explanation was clear, but as I said I doubt that it is technically possible.

Hi Karl,

Can you also make support for the Youku in China??
you know that china people can't view youtube & vimeo directly in their country

Stoffl wrote:let me just quickly add: when I read "popup window" I was thinking about another browser window opening displaying the video.
That I wouldn't like.

me neither.

Stoffl wrote:However, I understand you're referring to a "popup window" like it is when displaying a full photo in flamepix as it is now. That would be absolutely perfect for videos as well in my opinion.

Yes

Martin wrote:I think it would be great if images and videos could be mixed completely transparent.
So, when someone is flipping through the images in a gallery sometimes it's an image, some other times it's a video.
That would also mean that on gallery level the video would have to be represented by an image... so on that level you cannot discern a video from an image.

This is exactly how it will work. Of course, you may need to manually upload images to represent your videos (based on a naming rule). Also, IMO it is debatable how functional it is to mix images and photos within the same gallery without the visitor know what she/he is clicking, but that is not a technical concern.

Martin wrote:It really is a great effect when after viewing some still images the next image has some movement in it.

So I could be wrong in my above assumption

Martin wrote:Well, I hope my explanation was clear, but as I said I doubt that it is technically possible.

You can certainly mix video/images in the same gallery, with videos represented by images, but I will need to see how well it works when navigating within the popup from an image to a video.

kungphoto wrote:Can you also make support for the Youku in China??
you know that china people can't view youtube & vimeo directly in their country

We might not be able to add support for Youku in the slideshow-video-viewer or carousel-video-viewer, but we can certainly add support for embedding Youku video to pages. In fact, you can probably achieve it pretty easily already ... They have some "embed" method like Youtube I assume? Hard for me to study since it is in Chinese.