GFR Video
This page contains the content from the now archived “about” page for the service we built.
Key Features
- Zero vendor lock-in - We make it easy to stop using the service or to switch to an alternative service.
- Own the URLs of your videos - We host your videos on your own domain so they don’t need to move if you change provider.
- Fully customisable open-source video.js player - Take a look at the video.js player designer to get an idea of how easy it is to customise.
- Sensible defaults - A set of output formats which will work on the majority of browsers.
- Easily switch to a different video player - It’s straightforward to use another video player e.g. MediaElement.js, or SublimeVideo.
- Transparent/simple pricing - We make it easy to understand exactly what you’re paying for.
- Reliable technology - Built on top of Amazon Web Services: S3 for storage, ETS for transcoding, and CloudFront for distribution.
Known Limitations
- Upload speed - We haven’t yet optimised the upload process.
- Transcoding speed - We haven’t yet optimised the transcoding process.
- Output formats - We’re currently only encoding to 480p and 720p in 16:9 widescreen format.
- Access to videos - Transcoded videos are publicly accessible, but not discoverable.
Possible Features
- Support for adaptive bitrate streaming - e.g. HLS and MPEG-DASH to give a better experience on mobile devices.
- Subtitle support - Reach as wide an audience as possible by adding subtitles in multiple languages.
- A Ruby gem and an API - To provide programmatic upload, management of uploaded videos, and access to the URLs for embed code.
- Serve your videos over SSL - We want to make it as simple as possible to have your videos served securely using SSL.
- Instructions on setting up video.js plugins - e.g. SD/HD toggle, Google Analytics.
- Instructions & examples for other video players - Get up and running with alternative video players with a minimum of fuss.
- More output sizes - Create videos at both higher and lower resolutions than those we currently support.
- Handle audio-only uploads - Creating podcasts or your own music? Then we can imagine an audio-specific version of this service being just the thing for you.
- Dropbox integration - We want to make it as simple as possible for you to get your videos from Dropbox to our video service.
- Heroku add-on - We want to make it as simple as possible to integrate the apps you’re developing on Heroku with our video service.