Gardening videos

We started supporting picture uploads to DG back in late 2000, and since then over 1.4 million pictures have been added to DG.

I've been mentioning for the past couple months that we'll soon support videos, and I'm pleased to say that today we're starting a beta test!! I have developed the technology needed to embed videos directly into DG, and we created 7 fun little gardening videos (featuring yours truly) to get the ball rolling.

Videos are quite a bit larger in size than pictures, though, so it's not a simple matter of uploading them directly in the same way you would a photograph. There will come a time when that is a possibility, but we're not there yet. In the meantime, I'll be (somewhat) manually inserting videos into the system. We are currently working on a dramatically improved way of uploading videos.

I see a future where videos are almost as widely used as pictures.

Any of ya'll who have a camcorder and would like to record some video, please do and let me know. I can accept your videos in almost any format (AVI, MPG, MOV, FLV) and from there I can do the work of getting them into DG. This is a "beta test" so the more people who can send in videos, the better. :) Video lengths of less than 5 minutes are best.

So, with all that said, I'll very soon post a link to the videos section so people can start checking them out! I'm excited to see how much "traction" this feature will eventually get.

dave

http://davesgarden.com/video/

Have fun! :-)

dave

How cool is that??? I now know how to make paper pots, always wanted to do that. Way to go Dave......you'll soon have your own Television Gardening show if you ain't careful.....

Dave -

I can only see the very top left hand corner... nothing else.

MitchF, you'll need "Flash" to play the videos. Most computers already have it but if your's doesn't, google search for "download flash" and away you go. :)

dave

Brilliant Dave - and lovely to meet you :)
The video on paper pots played fine for me, but when I tried to play the one on tomatoes, I could only see the top left hand corner the same as Mitch. Also the control bar had bits missing and didn't work.

Hmmm....I just went and watched tomatoes...played just fine for me....

I just had another go and found that when I go straight in from your link it plays OK. If I then try to go to any other video it is just the top left hand corner thing - including if I go back to play the paper pots again.

Perahps something to do with my connection or puter?

I've been jumping from video to video...half way through, at the start and near the end...they come up fine and switch over fine....


On a side note...I always figured Dave would have a southern accent of some sort.....surprised to find he doesn't :)

philomel: which links are you clicking on? What if you try clicking on the links that are on the right-hand side? (not in the box at the bottom of the page)

threegardeners: I was raised by Wisconsin parents. :-)

dave

I tried both types of link

Right I can watch the first one fine about paperpots, it is any of the others I cannot go into... and then I go back and cannot see the paperpots will not open right too... All I can see if the very top corner, it runs the whole time and I can see the top corner very clear...

Ah, that sounds as if it's the same as mine Mitch...

I am sure when we figure it out it will be something so small... just not sure what is up.

I loved the paper pots video!

Could one of you take a screenshot of what you're seeing?

dave

Sure - if you can tell me how...

Mitch,
Up by the Scroll Lock button is a button that says "Print Screen". If you hit that it is just like hitting the "Copy" command. Then you can paste it where ever you want.

Here's my attempt

Very strange!!

You are both using IE 7.0 and that's probably what the problem is. That's a very buggy browser and it's hard to work around the bugs in it. I'll see what I can do.

dave

Better change my browser.....

That is just what I am seeing,,, they play fine that is just all you can see.

....and the controls don't work

The other thing I noticed was that the video that played OK paused occasionally to download the next section - but I assumed that was because my connection, though ADSL, is not whoopidoo in rural France

Mine played right through

The video looks GREAT, Dave. The quality's good and I like the animated DG logo at the beginning. Very nice! I'm excited about this new feature!

P.S. We will get to see bloopers and outtakes, right? :)

Phooey :( Mine are super tiny and I have a big screen - yes (hangs head in shame) I use ie...is that the problem?

Can't wait !!!

I love it! I probably won't use it much until we get something more than dial-up but none-the-less it's a great feature! (I've been waiting for over an hour now to view a movie! Still loading.)

This is gonna be great! I can see garden tours, tutorials, the sky's the limit!

Shoe

Dave...will there be categories? Like for instance..tours, tutorials, etc...so we don't have to sift through the funny second cousin falling out of his chair, or baby's first steps, for instance, to learn how to maybe graft a plumeria?

Dea, I've tried it in both Firefox and IE7, and it looks identical. Do you have your screen resolution set super high so other stuff, like the tabs up top, is tiny? This is what it looks like in IE for me on a 20" widescreen monitor - the video is still about 4x5" on the screen for me.

Just noticed my version of IE is branded by Roadrunner. Nice. Not. ;)

This message was edited Jul 10, 2007 6:59 PM

Wonderful new feature Dave!Thanks!!

My report is exactly the same like that of Philomel and MitchF. I also use IE. The first time I tried I could only see part of the video's in the left corner. Then I switched to Firefox and wasn't able to make any of the video's start. When I tried to switch back to IE, it looked like Firefox had kicked it out. It wasn't there any longer. So I did system repair and got back to IE. Then I could see the first video about the paper pots in its whole size, but not the others.

It would be nice if a lo-fi version could be posted for dial-up users.

I'll wait til Michaelsoft gets home and see if he can help me :) Thanks!!

Dea

It works!!! Hooray :)

These are GREAT !!!

Great Job,Dave! I use the Firefox browser and it worked perfectly. You did a great job in the educational videos, too. It's nice to see you up close and personal. LOL! Cyndie

I enjoy and learned something new from the Paper Pots video and watched the raised bed video as well. The video moved smoothly, the pic quality a little bit grainey but I could still see everything. I think the less than 5 min video is a very nice idea. Is that you Dave in the videos? If so, nice to put a fac to the owner of the site. Thanks.

Happy Gardening

Good job, boss! But now seriously...was that a store bought tomato? It looked way better than most of the store bought tomatoes we see up here! Chuckle.....

He did have to really slam that thing into the ground to get it to break though. Did you do that on the first take, or were the chickens getting freaked out by that point?

Great job Dave! You did a great job putting these together. You look so relaxed in front of the camera. :-)

I will look forward to using this feature. I was going through some of my back yard tour videos that I took in April. Some are rather long. It's time for some new ones. :-)

Janet