need to play 3gp, flash, html5 videos and more on a site

Question

Unfortunately as I search and read questions and their responses in the archives I'm getting overwhelmed due to unfamiliarity. I have to code up a basic website that will allow users to upload a video from a smart phone (I guess that will be in 3gp format for Android, I created a video on my HTC EVO phone to verify that).

I've found open source video players. Not sure though how to recognize the best choice mainly because -- I don't know what formats users will attempt to upload for viewing.

This is an in-house corporate viewer and it will be very straightforward -- upload; play the video; tack on this company's brand message at various points to advertise their products.

So my question is -- what video formats will my users most likely upload? I'm sure 3gp is one format since the Android is ubiquitous.

In selecting an open-source video player to use on this site, I'm just not sure what other video formats are out there. My orders are vague, "support the modern video formats" so I guess that will mean Flash and the Apple video format and maybe others. I suspect if you know the modern video formats this is an easy question.

What are the common video formats that I'll need to insure my selected video player will handle?

Answer 1

What you could do is use FFMPEG to convert any uploaded video to the format you want to display it on the website. This has to be done server side though.

For example you could then convert all newly uploaded files to .flv or .mpg format and just use Flash or HTML5 to display all of your videos.

This also opens up your functionality since any user will be able to upload any video format without being too restrictive.

It will also save you loads of type checking and workarounds since you will be displaying 1 video format only.

Cheers