Hosting Your Movie : Website Guide

[Vandalist]

Ok so you just made the greatest movie the world will ever know of. Your going to outdo leroy himself! But where to host it? Well let me help you out. Heres some websites that are useful, with some ratings and information.
____________________

Google Video (http://video.google.com) *Live Stream*
File Limit: *Unlimited*
Signup Required: Yes
Up Side: Another popular one, and it's a Live Stream, great so your viewers don't have to spend time downloading. It's got a FANTASTIC way of uploading, via an uploader program on your computer. You just load the program, select the movie, and it uploads without having an annoying browser open. Uses virtually no resources either.
Down Side: (a) you have to signup and (b) you have to download the uploader_program. I't worth it in my opinion, but many people don't like going through the hastle of having an account for the upload website. Also, (c) To make videos load faster and cut down on google's file space, your movies get reduced in graphical quality by about 20%. The movie is still viewable and looks great... However, some text and small objects can become blurred and hard to read or see properly. Because of this, downloading a movie is always recommended, although streams are always preferred by the viewers.
Rating: ***** (4.8 Stars)
____________________________________________

Filefront (http://www.filefront.com) *Live Stream Optional*
File Limit: 1 GB
Signup Required: Nope! :top:
Up Side: Fantastic and dependable host. If you signup, they keep track of your files, and almost all movies that are compressed right get free streaming. You can host any files, not just movies. Recommended for a download/stream host.
Down Side: Uploaded movies and files can be deleted if they are not downloaded at all in a month's time. If you have an account with filefront, you get an email about it along with the option to "Not Delete" the file... which is really an upside actually.
Rating: ****' (4.8 Stars)
____________________________________________

NoobFlicks (http://www.noobflicks.com) *Live Stream*
File Limit: *Unlimited*
Signup Required: Yes
Up Side: So far the site seem's fairly fast for browsing and downloading. Uploading was average and as expected. Overall nice site, few people using it and that keeps load times low and painless.
Down Side: So far it seems like a small site, so it's really just decent as a host for videos you post here, not getting exposure there as well. Also being a small site, we don't know how they will cope with the future growth of their company if they expand. Time will tell.
Rating: ****' (4.5 Stars)
____________________________________________

YouTube (http://www.youtube.com) *Live Stream*
File Limit: 100 MB
Signup Required: Yes
Up Side: Another live stream, better streaming quality than google by far, great for small videos. Fantastic streaming.
Down Side: Notice I said "great for SMALL videos". Thats the big downside, only 100MB limit, and you have to have an account on youtube to be able to upload.
Rating: **** (4 Stars)
____________________________________________

Rapidshare (com) (http://www.rapidshare.com) *Not to be confused with rapidshare.de*
File Limit: 100 MB
Signup Required: Nope! :top:
Up Side: Nice uploader, quick, very easy, and not the best download speeds in my opinion... Note: There is an optional paying service with rapidshare which gives you Fantastic upload and download speeds without any wait.
Down Side: ...100mb file size, your not going to get very many wow movies on there. So if its a small movie and your looking for an additional host, sure use it, but don't make it your main one. Also, if you don't have the paying service, you can't download more than one or two movies per hour from them.
Rating: *** (3 Stars)
____________________________________________

MegaUpload (http://www.megaupload.com)
File Limit: *Unlimited*
Signup Required: Nope! :top:
Up Side: A very user-friendly and fast site. You upload right from the front page, and it's upload speed was fairly good. The download speed was even better. You do not have to sign up to upload but there is benefits to getting a free membership, such as 200GB storage. From what I can tell, a fantastic site.
Down Side: If you do not have a membership, you must wait 45 seconds to download a file. If you have a free membership, you wait 25 seconds. Premium membership has no wait. Also, the premium membership page shows that your files get unlimited bandwidth, which leads me to believe your files can only exceed so many downloads a day, but that is just speculation, so until I actually see that happen I won't make a big deal of it.
Rating: ****' (4.5 Stars)
____________________________________________


Abandoned Hosts
The following hosts have been shut down and are no longer hosting files.
This list is for reference only, and in case they one day return.

Mega-File (mega-file.net)
NOTICE: This website shut down without warning. It was probably due to financial reasons. This host is no longer available.
____________________________________________

Free-File-Host (free-file-host.com)
NOTICE: This website shut down without warning. It was probably due to financial reasons. This host is no longer available.
____________________________________________

File (SC) (file.sc)
NOTICE: Due to financial reasons, file.sc went out of business. They are not likely to make an appearance again.
____________________________________________


Upcoming Reviews:
None at the moment...

Lastest Updates:
Apr 02, 09 Filefront's original owners have repurchased the company after learning that Ziff Davis Media was going to shut it down. Filefront is once again back online and fully operational. The origianl review has been updated and re-added to the list.
Mar 29, 09 MegaUpload Added
Mar 26, 09 Working on list updates as many sites on this list shut down this year. The economic crisis has caused a majority of free hosting sites to shutdown, and filefront being one of the biggest, is a real turn for the worst. I will be re-working this list over the next several weeks. Stay tuned!
Mar 26, 09 Filefront.com suspended operations due to economic conditions.
Dec 16, 07 Mega-File listing changed, Apparently they have since stopped hosting files.
Nov 10, 07 File.sc listing changed, File.sc has gone out of business.
Nov 10, 07 Google re-evaluated, details and rating changed.
Nov 10, 07 Filefront re-evaluated, details and rating changed.
Nov 7, 06 Free-File-Host: down side updated. Rating downgraded to 4.5 stars.

[lordrushx1]

That is totally cool of u to make a thread like this.
Much valuable info right there ! Thanks!

[The Bum]

That is some very nice info :)

[kiahann]

Nice Guide It's Useful Sticked!

[Kordanor]

Aren't google videos automaticly downgraded in quality after you uploaded them?

Any special format recommanded to avoid it?

[kiahann]

you can't avoid Google's quality...It's just livestream so it's not as good as downloading.

[Kordanor]

Ok. But in this case it's not really an advantage of google to be able to upload movies past 100 mb when they are downgraded to a smilar size to youtube-videos anyways (except of very long videos).

[Vandalist]

The reason google video runs well without problems is because they don't go full quality. They take your video, and re-encode the video coded and the sound codec into their codecs for a Flash document, so that it runs on their site a specific way (i could get into details but it would be a page post.)

Also if anyone finds any sites they would like added to the list or reviewed let me know.

[Kordanor]

Some words to free file host:

I just tested it and uploaded around 400 MB.

When it was reay nothing happened, no link was given. Probably my standard explorer settings do not work with this site.

Anyways, while trying around to get the link somehow of my uploaded file, I got following error message:

Your file has expired.
Unfortunately, your file has expired. A link is valid
for 30 days or when the uploader removes it, whichever occurs first.
Once the link expires, the file is deleted and
cannot be recovered.

[Vandalist]

Kordanor, the 30 days thing I did not know about, I added it to my review, Thanks.

As for your upload not working, you need to make sure the upload page and the progress page are both open. When the progress page completes, it will update the upload-select page with your link. If either one is closed, the upload will fail.

[Kordanor]

They were both open. Had this warning mark on the bottow left edge of the window. As I said, I think there is a conflict with the standard settings of IE (xp2, full updated).

But even if it was up...30 days are not really that good. Trying filefront now. Only half the upload rate of free file host though (250 kbps instead of 550).

[kiahann]

You helped the review kordanor Reputation++

[Quazimodo]

Youtube deserves 5 stars.

Google is worse in my oppinion, even tho you get great video lenght from it.

Google videos are crap quality, Youtube arent.

Youtube is more about podcasts and videoblogs etc.

Google is about whatever.

I personally LOVE youtube, if I dont find videos on youtube I search for them on google, but it has come to my attention that google has less videos than youtube anyways.

I would give google 3 stars just because I think it's a youtube wannabe with bad quality, still to little videos on there compared to youtube.

If you need to upload more than 10 minutes of good quality video I suggest cutting up the video in parts, most people do there. Even tho it takes more time it's alot better than to watch crappy google videos.

[Amoras]

great guide!

[Zaoris]

Good guide,thanks a lot.

[Vandalist]

Quazimodo my ratings of stars is not based upon only what type of service it is or how cool or great of a service it is. It is based upon how well of a service it is for World of Warcraft Movies specifically. Youtube gets a lower rating because a large majority of the movies on wcm are over 100mb, and youtube wont help those people at all. Google has a fantastic way of uploading, and no file size limit, and it's live stream. Sure the quality might get lowered in the process but thats the price of live stream. If people are looking for quality, they can download the video in full and watch it on their video players.

[Quazimodo]

ah, ok. so if it had a 50 MB higher file limit it'd qualify for 5 stars like mega file?

[Ragnorok161]

Filefront FTW

[Quazimodo]

Filefront FTW

Explain.. :P kind of like your Fraps > GameCam because I use fraps post.

[Vandalist]

Although filefront may not be the fastest uploader, it's still dependable and very easy and simple, great for a good download host. Their download speeds work well and everyone is familiar with the site, which is another plus.

[Andehx]

try http://www.4shared.com

[Quazimodo]

try http://www.4shared.com

"You have 1 GB of free space to upload any file you want. Uploading is easy, whether you want to upload a small file or big multiple files. You can upload as many files as you wish at one time, if only the size of each file does not exceed 50MB. "

50 MB is kind of small... dont you think :P

[Andehx]

not if you created spanned archives

[lordrushx1]

My Question is, if you wanted to pay for a service to Stream and you already have a Host, who is able to actually do this for you, and of course...at what price!
My movie, 1/2 way through is already at 32 Gigs and will probably end up at 70+Gigs,. Compression will be hell with this and will give probably horrible quality in the end. So..I want to keep the integrity and am trying to find out how I can do so.
If it truly comes to around 70=Gigs, will the Xvid and VirtDub really help that much?

btw....I have tried File (SC) host and lets just say this.
I started off heavy with a 1.8 Gig File, came back 10 hours later....no go.
Followed up the next night with a relatively smaller file size at 350 megs.
Came back 8 hours later...still,no go.
Both files were uploaded at Midnight Pacific time, which was done to prevent peek congestion times on the web.

My review....2 Thumbs down!

[Hentai]

PPLDEPT always mirror's the good movies or requested ones, just email geral@ppldept.net and you probably get your file mirrored, even if it has 1GB or more =P

[DrIzZ]

www.livedigital.com is by far one of my favorites... Unlimited file size for onlinestreams. Its like youtube without the file cap and advertisments.

[Vandalist]

PPLDEPT always mirror's the good movies or requested ones, just email geral@ppldept.net and you probably get your file mirrored, even if it has 1GB or more =P

The reason I did not add ppldept, even though its a good host, is because its not really a host. A movie host must be open, public, and free, to make my list. Yours is public and free, but its not open. Nobody can upload whatever they want, they have to contact you, and get your approval, and have you put it up. Very few would be willing to go through the effort of doing that for a movie. If you had a system where people could upload their own movies at their discression without worrying about the long waits, i'd be happy to add it to the list.

[Vandalist]

www.livedigital.com is by far one of my favorites... Unlimited file size for onlinestreams. Its like youtube without the file cap and advertisments.

ill check it out

[elitekiller7]

Meh, my site isnt really all that automated, just FTP up to game-events.com, user is public@game-events.com, pw is public, or you can do it in any browser with the link ftp://public@game-events.com@game-events.com/

All files are stored in a private directory untill Im either notified you want it hosted via email or xfire. (killer7@game-events.com or xfire is elitekiller7). Pretty much any movie will be hosted regardless of size with a 400kb/s (or more depending) download speed. Im working on an upload program for it right now to make things easier.

[EDIT]
Upload page/instructions are at http://upload.game-events.com. I understand that its a bit more complicated than most because of the use of FTP software, but the recommended software is pretty dang easy to use. Im open to suggestions <3

[Daghur]

I love Stage6. Add it to the list if you want :)

http://divx.stage6.com/

[stormrager]

http://upload.stormragerproductions.com/

I am currently adding file hosting to my site. No need to sign up. It does have a progress bar and unlimited upload/download speeds.

Currently max file size is 1GB but If someone emails me at stormrager@stormragerproductions.com I will make an exception for them to host their file larger than 1GB. After the upload is finished it will give you a link to the file. The link you will use for linking purposes will appear in the bottom of the browser.

I am currently working on creating a moderation page to where it will give you the exact url in the finished upload page.

Also if someone emails me, and request a live stream I can do that for them. It will be maybe a day or two before it goes live but it is really high quality. Recoded three times @ 2k kbps in flv format.

Any other questions, just email and I'll be glad to answer them.

[Hentai]

www.PPLDEPT.net is back online

now its *free*, reorganized, public and open for file uploading and better speeds...

go there and take a loot
we are already mirroring the top movies again : )

[Succubusstudios]

Agree, Stage 6 Rocks!

[Necrosin]

lots of great info for a new movie producer. thanks!

[jernjane]

you might want to add to filefront that they delete your files if you don't stop them within 3 days or so...

[PferdOne]

You might wanna add:

URL: http://www.megavideo.com/
Max. Filesize: 5GB :top:
Stream/DL: Yes/Yes (stream quality looks better than youtube/google)
Account: You have to create one
Add. Info: You can jump in the timeline to any position you want without buffering the whole video. :top:

[Darkalus]

Just found http://fileho.com/ , and http://up-file.com .Both say it allows users to upload unlimited file-size. Haven't tested it though so I'm not sure how good they are.

[Druz]

as PferdOne said http://www.megavideo.com/ is awsome!

[dragons5]

Streaming Host
site: www.gamerstube.com
max upload: 500mb
quality: high
formats supported: wmv, avi, mov, mpeg, mp4
formats prefered: avi and mov
free: yes
open: yes

[turix]

Welll Vreel is now in beta and running well :)

The streams are very quick, one of the only places i've been able to cap my connection too recently - they're using Lime light networks as a content provider :O!

The huge downside to them is that they're very very heavily advert supported, aka the website is plastered in banner ads & popups + they have partnered with Zango *shiver* - but if you can deal with this, they offer a very good service.

URL:http://www.vreel.net/
Filesize: 1Gb - Any Format (Exception is raw fraps & compressed archives aka zip & rar, extract the movie then upload)
Stream: Yes - Downloading is technically possible by saving the fully buffered movie or by finding the link from page source.

Assuming they can sort they're funding issues out this may become the next stage6, if not they'll just die out - bankrupt.

[Urkalak]

I find noobflicks.com to be a very good streaming site. Great quality on the stream.

[MarsJenkar]

As stated in several threads already, FileFront is closing its doors, losing us an excellent hosting site.

[Vandalist]

UPDATE:
I am working on list updates as many sites on this list shut down this year. The economic crisis has caused a majority of free hosting sites to shutdown, and filefront being one of the biggest, is a real turn for the worst. I will be re-working this list over the next several weeks. Stay tuned!

[Vandalist]

I would also like to put out my sorrow of the loss of filefront. Ziff Davis Media will be ending FileFront’s services on March 30th, as we are all beginning to find out. This however has lead to this topic's list of 10 website to dwindle to 3, so I will be working on it for a while to rebuild and maintain it's usefulness.

[parl2001]

Megaupload
BitTorrent

[MarsJenkar]

Well, glad to hear that FileFront is back. There was just no substitute that I knew of; it was the best place to host the best quality videos.

[stormrager]

A new free file hosting site.

http://gnomefiles.net

Max files size is 1GB at the moment. Working on upping it to 4GB.

[Scrax]

Really a brilliant thread :D I've been looking around & about for good hosts for a long time. Thanks :D