video hosting with PHP api or PHP script for social network project

Question

I have a project for a small social network where user can upload their videos, video should not be longer than 1 or 2 minutes but they need to be private and related to user that uploaded.

Since uploaded video may be in many different format I have two options:

• upload video and use ffmpeg to process them, can i find any PHP script that does that? PROS I have my files on my server and I'm not dependent from third party CONS I guess is a real intensive task and I may need a quite good noting plan since the beginning of this project

• use a video hosting service that provide API to upload and process video, i actually find vzaar.com that may seems to do what I need. PROS Scalable CONS I rely on third party for my contents

since the project is a small social network it may be interesting this too opusphp.com, but i never user or read about

can Vimeo PRO suite my needs? Other suggestions? In future it may be necessary to add a basic video editing function to trim uploaded video setting starting and ending point

Answer 1

I would suggest you use ffmpeg and call it from PHP using ​shell_exec() for example.

If you use x264 for encoding you can tune it to use moderate/lower encoding settings so that your server can deal with the load (up to a certain point of course in a size-controlled environment).

ffmpeg will also allow to trim (and much more) videos as you see fit. Video hosting services may not have that option or this could induce an additional cost.

Beyond that recommending online video services to fit your project does not fit Stackoverflow guidelines for asking questions.