I've successfully figured out the gallery and our alumni are so enjoying the pictures. I made a beautiful DVD with music for the reunion weekend. I would like to now post it in our memory section, eliminate all names as they are now memorialized on this dvd. I really need advice on how to do this. I have no clue where to begin. Could you please get back to me and guide me through this process?

Thanks in advance,
Diane

You can deactivate your In Memory page entirely if you want to, and just use one of your Customizable Links to post your video.

First, let's hope your ONLY copy of the video isn't on the DVD itself. If it is, we'll need to do a thing called "demultiplexing" so it can ultimately get onto your web site. I won't go into that more here though unless that's all you've got.

You mentioned you made the DVD yourself. Using what software? Does that software have the ability to export the video to either the Flash format or the Windows Media format?

Well now you're asking a technical question that I'm not sure of. I'll find out and get back to you. Actually my son did burn the DVD, so I'm assuming he has it saved on his computer. I'll get back to you Brad. Thanks for the head's up.

Hi Brad

I am the one who did the video. I created it in Windows Movie Maker and exported 2 files to .wmv files, from there I merged the 2 in DVD flick to burn. I have the files here. Would the easiest way be to upload them to photobucket and post the link? Would that play or just be a clickable link? I just need to know the process of taking 2 .wmv files and getting them to show as a video on the reunion site.

Thanks for your help.

Can they be two separate embedded videos, or do you want both .wmvs to play back to back as 1 video?

If Photo bucket provides an embed link for the videos for third party sites like ours, sure, that would be a totally viable way of doing it. You can also upload them natively here too, although that takes a little more doing.

Whatever is the easiest is fine with me. When I created them I could not do it as one big movie (30 mins) so I had to cut them in half. It needs to play part 1 then part 2 and then loop back to the first to repeat.

All right...here's the problem: I'm assuming you couldn't create the video as a full half hour video due to some kind of limitation of your authorizing software (Windows Movie Maker). So if you want the video to play as one full video only, that loops, you need to do one of two things:

1) Use different software, such as Adobe Premiere, to export 1 complete video to the .wmv format. Then embed or link to that video on your web site.

2) Combine your 2 current wmv videos into 1. Again you could do that with Adobe Premiere, or there's surely other video software that combine two separate wmv clips into 1.

Unless you're ok having two different embedded videos, you have to combine them. That's the easiest way to do it.

There is one other thing you can do, although it really goes beyond what we can teach here. There's a thing called a "Windows Media Metafile", which basically just means a Video Playlist. I.E. you tell the browser to first play one video, and then immediately play another video. If you're up to a good challenge you can read more about that here: www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/introwmmeta.aspx

The simplest way to do this given what you've currently got on hand is to upload both of your .wmv videos to your File Vault, and then embed them on your site one after another. They won't play back to back that way, and they won't loop, but you could easily do that right now if it's good enough for you. Let me know and I can teach you that. Otherwise you're going to have to merge the videos into 1 or create a Video Playlist as described above.

Thanks Brad.

I will try to merge the 2 this evening so that I only have 1 file to work with. I should be able to create it somehow in one of the programs I currently have. I am pretty sure I can create 1 from the 2. Does it have to be in .wmv format?

No. Ideally I'd put it in the swf (Flash) format. That's the most compatible video format. If you do it in .wmv Mac users will have to download the Windows Media Player plugin for Mac. Windows Media is still a good overall solution, it's just not as good as having the final video in the Flash format.

Ok I am converting it now to SWF. Is there a site you prefer upload to?

You can upload it directly to your File Vault. Once you have it there let me know and I'll help you embed it on your site.

Thank you so very much Brad for all your help. My daughter-in-law spent months putting this beautiful DVD together for our reunion weekend and now finally it's up on our web site.
I have another question to pose. I hired a videographer who is now editing our weekend's activities. Can you tell me what the maximum allowance is to have this put up on the site, he's asking me something I'm very unfamiliar with. Guess he is asking, can this video be an hour long? How much space to we have? Could you please reply to me also by e-mail so that I can forward it along to him. He is not a member although I can certainly add his name and have him create a quick profile. That might be the easiest. I'll add him temporarily as ADMIN and you and he can converse on the forum.
I was also wondering if my memory section would be available to show to other reunion admins on here. For those that want something special at their own reunion, this would be it. I would be happy to open this part of our site up for people to enjoy. How do I do that?

Thanks,
Diane

You can simply remove the password protection from that page under your Edit Site Pages link. Then if you'd like, try posting a brand New Topic under the Share Your Site forum and post a specific link to that page of your site with the Memory DVD.

Yes you can host an hour long video. If you run out of file space you can purchase more for $3/mo in 50 meg increments. You can also host the video somewhere for free, such as Youtube, although you'd have to break it into 6 separate specific segments if you host it there. That's what a lot of people choose to do though.

You can simply remove the password protection from that page under your Edit Site Pages link. Then if you'd like, try posting a brand New Topic under the Share Your Site forum and post a specific link to that page of your site with the Memory DVD.

Yes you can host an hour long video. If you run out of file space you can purchase more for $3/mo in 50 meg increments. You can also host the video somewhere for free, such as Youtube, although you'd have to break it into 6 separate specific segments if you host it there. That's what a lot of people choose to do though.

Thanks Brad,
I just spoke to my videographer. I've added him as Admin so that he can come here and get any information he needs to put it up on the site.
Also we will be closing our our "reunion account" the first week in July. We are very excited as we just had our meeting and we have $10,000 left after our expenses. Overwhelming to say the least. Since our school is closing the end of June, we are donating all of this to our 3 service clubs in Norwich who generously donated their services to us. They have no idea they will be receiving this money so that will be our pleasure to present each of them a cheque to help our kids in our community.
We are going to keep our site up indefinitely. I would like you to please let me know by e-mail how I can pay for next year ahead of time if possible before we close the account. Do I have to purchase a new domain name each year? Please advise.
Thank you- Diane

Oh by the way Brad, I'll be changing my e-mail address as of tomorrow. It will then be buffywine@rogers.com. I've sent a mass e-mail to everyone but just in case your e-mail bounces back, you will know why and can resend it Thursday.

Please click your Subscription link on your site. Instructions for adding time are listed there. Yes, domain names have a $19 yearly renewal fee.