Viddler

A fresh, creative web application that allows you to upload, enhance, and share digital video easily and quickly inside your web browser.

Viddler is also a lot of other things that only our users can really put into words. Here's how one of our " What is Viddler?" group members described Viddler:

If you'd like to see your own description of Viddler in this section, add a video to the group!

Yes, absolutely!

Tags are a way of identifying content. They are very useful in finding a specific video (even among your own) when you don't know or remember the title. (TIP: Multiple word tags can be created by putting quotation marks around a phrase of two or more words.) Viddler has three types of tags, which include Global, Timed, and User tags.

Global Tags - These describe the video as a whole (like "vacation" or "zoo trip"). They are entered during uploading in the overall description, or after the video has been uploading (to the right of the video player).

Timed Tags - These are attached to a specific moment in the video and they describe what is happening in that moment (like "dog bark" or "crash"). This type of tag is entered during video viewing, by clicking on the playhead (the moving dot along the timeline), or clicking on the + sign in the lower right section of the player. Clicking on the moving playhead will pause the video until you enter the tags, whereas clicking on the + sign will allow you to type in tags while the video continues to play.

User Tags- These are tags that describe you. They show up in your profile and make it easier for other users to find you based on attributes and characteristics that are unique to you. These tags are entered in your profile.

Other than Adobe® Flash® 9 and up (you can download the latest version here), there is no third party software that you will need.
Note: If you are using Internet Explorer, please restart your browser after installing Adobe® Flash®.

Any modern, standards-complaint web browser should work just fine, so you can't go wrong with Firefox, Safari, Opera, Flock, Camino, or OmniWeb. Viddler also plays well with Internet Explorer 6 and up.

Viddler should work fine on any computer running Windows 98 and up, as well as Mac OS X and Linux.

Viddler is very different from other video-delivery based websites, because we stream video to the user, instead of having the user download it. That means you get to watch videos without having to wait through pesky download times. It's a secure system and prevents other people from watching the video (in ways they're not supposed to) or ripping the video off the site.

The first place to start would be to click "Profile" at the top of the page and click "Edit your profile":

From there, you can upload an image from your computer for your user icon. A user icon is helpful in personalizing your account and making you stand out from other users. Adding tags that describe you as a person is also a great way to help people find you. User tags like "skiing" or "painter" will help other like-minded people see and connect with you when they search for those terms.

You can also add your homepage link and a description of yourself, add Twitter and Flickr information, check out the groups and join a couple, start watching and favoriting videos (which will then show up in your profile), find some friends, and ultimately... start uploading or recording videos!

Here's an overview of what your profile can look like when you've entered in all your information and started interacting with other users on Viddler:

With a profile like this one, users can click on your username and really get to know more about you, and that's what a user profile is all about. Keep your updates and filled with as much information as you'd like to share with our community, so that we'll continue to know and be interested in you!

To add your Twitter information to your Viddler profile, follow these instructions:

Enter your username, your password, and then click "Okay." (You are NOT DONE.)

If you have entered the information correctly, you will a red "OK" will appear and you will then need to click the "Okay" button a second time. (You are still NOT DONE.)

Now you will see your Twitter options, which provide you with a number of options for when you'd like to auto-Twitter Viddler-related alerts to your Twitter account. Choose the options you'd like to use by clicking the box to the left of each option. (You are still NOT DONE.)

Now you're almost done. Click "Save Changes" in the left section of the page to make sure that your work is saved.

Now you're done, and here is one friendly Twitter tip: If you're active on Viddler, choosing every option under the Twitter notifications sections may spam your Twitter friends. Use the notifications wisely and moderately, so as not to inundate those who follow you.

To add your Flickr photos to your profile, you need to complete the following steps:

Go to your Flickr account and obtain the correct username (don't use the username shown in your Flickr url):

Type your Flickr username, then click "Okay" (you are NOT DONE):

If you have entered in a valid Flickr username, a red "OK" will appear and a button labeled "Save," which you will then click (you are STILL NOT DONE):

You will then see a confirmation message (still NOT DONE):

To finally save all of these changes to your profile, click "Save Changes" and NOW you're done.

In addition to the information you'll find in this section, a video has also been created: How to: Upload video to Viddler. Please visit that link if you still have any questions about the uploading process once you've reviewed the instructions below and watched the video.

Regardless of which uploader you choose, when your video is 100% uploaded and is in the encoding phase, you may leave the page or close your browser and Viddler will still be doing all the encoding work for you. Once the video is encoded, it will be available for viewing on Viddler.

Instructional Video:

Steps to upload a video:

1. Make sure that you are logged into Viddler.

2. Once logged in, click Upload from the main navigation bar.

3. Choose an uploader. The Batch Uploader is flash-based and allows upload of one or more video file files, while the Simple Uploader is a good option if you're having problems with the flash-based uploader or only need to upload one file.

BATCH UPLOADER:

SIMPLE UPLOADER:

We work very hard to make sure the encoding process is as expedient as possible, but unfortunately there are certain aspects of that process that are out of our control. We're making everything as fast as we're able to on our end, and we appreciate your patience.

Also, keep in mind that the larger your video file is, the longer it will take to upload. We're happy to allow users to upload videos up to 500 MB in size, but remember that those files are going to take much longer to find their way to Vidder. :) While you're waiting on the upload process, it might be the perfect time to make a new tab (or window) in your browser and check out other people's videos.

Right now, the limit is 500 MB (no length limit) per video, and there is no limit to the total number of videos uploaded.

Please contact us with the details, and we'll try to sort through the problem and get your video online.

By the way, when uploading multiple files on the Mac, sometimes your browser will become unresponsive and you might get an error message like this:

A script in this movie is causing Macromedia Flash Player 8/9 to run slowly. If it continues to run, your computer may become unresponsive. Do you want to abort the script?

This is an issue with the performance of the Flash plugin on the Mac. Clicking “No” will allow the script to continue and it should complete. Unfrotunately, sometimes it will stall completely. These are known issues with Flash on the Mac and we're doing what we can to resolve them.

We support these file formats: .avi .dv .mov .qt .mpg .mpg2 .mpeg2 .mpeg4 .mp4 .3gp .3g2 .asf .wmv .flv. Impressive, ain't it?

At the moment, no. Our sole focus on video enables us to really hone in on that media type and all of the really cool things (like timed tagging and timed comments) we can offer to you through our concentrated focus on video.

We don't offer mobile video uploads, although anything's possible down the road, and there are outside projects that could make video uploads possible for Viddler users down the road. If you really want this feature, you can request it here, and let us know exactly what you have in mind.

The first thing to check is that you have Adobe Flash installed (which you can get for free right here). If you're still having difficulty, it's possible that you are unable to view the video because it is a friends-only or private video. The errors would look one of these three below:

If you still can't see the video after installing Flash and ensuring that the video is set for public viewing, please let us know.

On the bottom right side of the player, select Menu : Full Screen. To exit, select Menu : Exit Full Screen again or hit Esc.

The first option is to click "Explore" at the top of any Viddler page. From there you can click on different categories to view recently featured videos, the most popular, favorited, or discussed videos, recently uploaded files, or you can browse videos by tags (shown below):

The second option is to use the Search function, typing in a search term or username to locate the type of videos you're looking for. After choosing a search term and typing it in the search field, you can pick Videos, People, Groups, or Forums from the drop down menu next to the search field, or you can simply hit enter and then browse through the different search result categories (both search options shown below):

The dots represent comments or tags placed at specific moments in the video. White dots stand for comments, and black dots stand for tags.

That are several stats that you can look at in regards to each of your videos, and they can seem a bit confusing at first. Here's how access them, aside from the overall views, were are visible beneath the video player, to the left of the upload date:

Once you've accessed the Stats tab, here's a basic overview of what you're looking at and what each of those stats mean:

To summarize, the number of plays is the number of times someone has not only seen the player, but also clicked play. It is not necessary to watch the entire video for this to count as a play. In terms of views (either embedded or onsite), a view simply means that someone has seen either the Viddler page your video is on or they've seen the embedded player somewhere, but not necessarily clicked Play (that's why the view number is usually higher, because not everyone will click Play). Favorites are when someone clicks the star next to the title of the video to add it to their video favorites. Those people will show up as "People who liked this video" on the video's Viddler page. When you look under "Your Videos," the Views column indicates overall views for each video.

There are three ways to do this: 1) Email them the link to the video by selecting “Email this” on the player. 2) Click the green “Plus Button” and go to “Share” to embed the video on your website or blog, link to the video, or link to a particular moment in the video. 3) If you want to share your own video, you can set the video's status to “shared”, and select the friends you want to be able to watch it.

Definitely! You have a couple of options: In the player, click the green “Plus Button” and then select “Share”. From there you can embed the video (starting at the first frame), or embed a specific moment in the video (which starts at that specific momemt, but allows you to watch the whole video).

To embed your video with the auto play function enabled, you must use the "Embed This" button below the player, and then check the box next to "Auto play" as shown:

By default, newly uploaded videos are set to private. This means only you can view the video.
If you set a video's status to shared, you can let only a specific group of people watch it (like all your friends; or only Bob and your brother Jim). It's up to you.
If you make a video public, you make it available to everyone to see—both friends and enemies alike!

Friends are two users who have mutually agreed to be designated as friends. You can share your videos exclusively with your friends, or only with specific friends. We think the social networking aspect of Viddler is important because it brings people together and lets them communicate through the website.

Sure. Go to the “Your Videos” section, find the right video, and click “delete”. This action is final, so please don't ask us to get it back if you change your mind.

Unfortunately, this feature is not available at this time. If you would really like to see this feature, feel free to request it here.

Unfortunately, no. This isn't possible at the moment. You will have to sign up again.

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