Hi, I am thinking of adding some videos to apps but not youtube or similar videos. I'd like to add videos that I host myself. I do not want them to be publicly available outside of the app as they will be specialist videos and I will sell the app. What is the best way to do this, please? Where do I upload them? How do I add them to apps? I'll probably go with an android app first. I'd be grateful for ideas, please. Thanks, John.

The easiest, simplest way is to: 1) Create a directory in your server. Could be in the same root as your self hosted, but doesn't 'have' to be; all it needs to be is 'reachable via network'. 2) Upload your file to that location. 3) Use the url to the file (http://www.yourserver.com/path/to/myVideo.mov) 4) Use an customURL to the path as mentioned in step 3. If you want to use a 'restricted' part of the server, where a username/password is required, you can also use that as part of the URL string, and the app user will not be aware (http://serverfault.com/questions/371907/can-you-pass-user-pass-for-http-basic-authentication-in-url-parameters) Good Luck! Cheers! -- Smug

Smug, you are a hero! Many thanks. John

@Higgy, what will be the estimated file size of the video clip? Things to consider if you are going to self host, private videos with in a app someone purchases. 1. What is your hosting environment, shared or dedicated server or cloud cdn? + if your App has to pull from a custom url link, will your server be able to handle and distribute bandwidth requests when multiple customers are trying to view the same clip, will your server be able to stream and detect the users optimal bit rate (ie, hd clip vs low res) + user experience is important here for 2 reasons, if I purchase this app for the sole purpose of viewing private content 1. will it be too slow, pause, crash because your server will determine that 2. will purchasing this app suck up my monthly data plan usage and cost me more than viewing videos on my desktop. Not every carrier will have unlimited data plans. 2. Embedded video player or default device player. Typically video clips open up with the devices default player whether its youtube or vimeo. What codec or video type will you be creating, flv flash video player, quicktime mov, html5 mp4 or ogg or avi h.264. this choices will dictate the quality of the clip as well as its finalized file size. 3. If the purchaser of the App loses internet connection and your clip is linked to a file on your server like smug suggests, they won't be able to view your clips, unless you include it within the App package, thus increasing the downloadable file size of your app. Will the purchaser want to take up valuable device space by having multiple clips embedded in your App, doing this you will not have to worry about losing connection to the server as well as streaming issues as well as data plan usage. I'm currently working on multiple projects with client video content that they want to monetize, make private, include DRM and pay per view mobile experiences. Check Out http://corp.kaltura.com/products/video-platform-features Since I have my own dedicated server, and kaltura is open source, it comes with enough features to satisfy my clients ROI. And me not have to worry about changes in technology. Hope this helps good luck. -Ed FYI: I see you embedded your video within your wordpress site. crashes after 3 seconds, not sure if its a problem with your video file or your host. http://appsbay.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Mobile_UK_Full.mp4 or http://youtu.be/Q13PJ1bZaLU

Thanks, Ed. Phew, quite a few things for me to think about there. Thanks also for pointing out that the video on my site is crashing. Might be a short term problem with my host but I'll keep an eye on it to see if starts playing properly. I might look into to using amazon if my host cannot provide enough firepower for me, but I'll read up on http://corp.kaltura.com too. Thanks again. Most appreciated! John PS By the way, folks, I'm not using the youtube link given above for my website's video. That is the video channel of the video maker who I bought the rights for the video from. You should be aware that you cannot just use that video on your own site without buying the rights.

Sorry I thought that was your channel because the clip's narrator sounds like he has a British accent. my bad

No worries, Ed. I just wanted to make sure nobody got into any bother with using the clip. John.

No worries, Ed. I just wanted to make sure nobody got into any bother with using the clip. John.