So you have decided to put videos on your website, but if your are like most people you’re finding it to be a lot more complicated than you first thought and one of the many technical issues that you have run into is the video streaming host. To make the process of streaming video on your site simpler and fun I have laid out the three most popular options below, hopefully by the end of this article you will have a better understanding of what a video streaming host is and why you need to have it in order to stream video on your website.

Video Sharing Sites like Youtube allow you to upload and stream your videos for free, they will accept your videos in almost any format the most popular being AVI, MOV, WMV, and MPG file formats, which they will then convert to Flash which is the most popular video streaming format online. They will then make a piece of code available that you can use to embed the video on your website.

However the downside of using this type of video streaming host is that your videos are seen by anyone, not good if you want to make your videos private or for members only. Also most of these video sharing site place restrictions on your videos, for example Youtube videos must be no bigger than 2 GB and no more than 10 min in length.

Your Own Web Server can also be used to host and stream your videos, if you are already paying for hosting your own web server could host your videos depending on the size of your hosting package and the use of your videos. You want to be sure you have enough storage and plenty of bandwidth if you are expecting to get a lot of

traffic; it would make sense to discuss your plans with your hosting provider.

Also make sure you convert your videos into Flash format so that your files will be small and also because Flash is the most popular format the majority of Internet uses will be able to view them. Plus you will need an SWF player to play your videos a popular free one is JW Player just do a search online.

Specialized Streaming Video Host is the most popular amongst savvy webmasters because these companies specialize in streaming and hosting videos their servers are big enough to host your videos and are built to deal with huge influx of traffic, and they are surprisingly cheap compared to the service they offer.

Most of them will only except Flash files so you will need to convert any videos to flash first before uploading them. Again you also get to choose the Flash player, which some companies will provide for you but you don’t have to advertise the hosting company like you would with Youtube.

The downside is these companies cater for the more technical minded and it can get a little confusing if you’re not the technical type. But don’t let that put you of because if you’re planning on having loads of videos that’s going to be viewed a lot this type of service might be the best option for you, and they offer plenty of

support and you will always find training and help you just need to search the Internet.