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What is SmartVideoChannel?
• SmartVideoChannel allows you to create your own media hosting site, or link hosted media to your pre-existing website. Each new site hosted on or through SmartVideoChannel is available to viewers as a “Channel”. Channels can be public or private. Public channels will be listed on the SmartVideoChannel homepage and available to all viewers. Private channels are only accessible to users who know the channel URL. Why should I use SmartVideoChannel? • The main purpose of SmartVideoChannel is to provide you with a site to host video media. SmartVideoChannel is special because it is designed to suit experienced webmasters as well as individuals who might not know how to design a webpage but want a place to showcase their video media online. • For Webmasters: SmartVideoChannel provides a fully-functional video content system, complete with user and media management and a comments and rating system. Save yourself the work of developing, maintaining, and hosting a video content system by using the setup offered by SmartVideoChannel. • For Individuals: SmartVideoChannel provides an easy way to upload and display your video media. It is comparable to other online media hosts like Yahoo Photos, but specifically designed for videos. The privacy option gives you the added security of being able to choose whether or not you would like your media to be accessible to the public. What is the advantage of being able to host video media on my site through SmartVideoChannel? • Video is fast becoming one of the most popular forms of online media. Hosting videos can increase traffic to your site, expand your user base, and generate interest and user participation in the topics your site is focused on. If you operate a commercial site, hosting video will help your e-commerce business and create viral marketing opportunities by exposing your product to more people through the easily accessible and fun medium of video. Is SmartVideoChannel free? • Yes! SmartVideoChannel is free, and we are able to keep it that way by serving ads on SmartVideoChannel sites. In the future we will be introducing a paid-hosting option that will offer ad-free hosting, but for now the services on SmartVideoChannel come at no charge. I want to make a media hosting site using SmartVideoChannel. How do I get started? • It’s easy to set up your own site through SmartVideoChannel. The simple five-step registration process can be accessed by clicking on any of the “Get Started” links on the SmartVideoChannel homepage. Enter your site specifications and you can be up and running in less than five minutes! What do I do once I’ve signed up with SmartVideoChannel? • After you’ve created a page or a login, start uploading your videos and sharing them with your friends. Each channel has a most viewed, most discussed, and top rated section, so get your best videos out there and into the spotlight! How do I use the Admin Console as a site administrator? • When you have created a SmartVideoChannel site, you will receive a confirmation email with an administrator login and a user login for your site. In the admin console, you can approve or delete media, edit the site information and appearance, and add or delete other administrators. You can also edit your media categories to organize the videos on your site by topic or content. By checking the Review/Approve Media drop-down menu (See figure 1 below), you can see the status of all the media on your site. 
Figure 1 How do I upload media onto my site? • There are two steps to uploading media onto your own site. First, you must login as a user. Click on the “Upload” tab at the top of the page and fill in the required fields, giving your video a title, keywords and etc. Specify whether you want it public or private and make sure to mark it as mature if necessary, then click “submit”. (This is the same process to use when uploading media onto someone else’s SmartVideoChannel site.) • Next, login to the Admin Console for the site. You may need to wait for the video to be encoded before you can approve it, but this process should take less than 30 minutes. Once the video is encoded it will appear in the “waiting to be approved” category in the Review/Approve Media drop-down menu. Once you approve it, the video will appear on your site. • If the channel you are uploading to allows anonymous users, you can upload without logging in. Additionally, if the channel does not require video approval, your media will be uploaded automatically. I want to view and comment on media on someone else’s site. How do I create a login for a site that is not mine? • After opening a channel, click on the “Login” tab at the top of the page. There is an option that says, “Don’t have an account? Click here to sign up”. Click that link, and fill in the required information to start a new account for that channel. Do I need a new login for each SmartVideoChannel site that I want to visit? • Yes. Each “channel” is a separate website. Though all SmartVideoChannel channels are hosted by SmartVideoChannel, they are also all individual entities, so new login information must be created for each one you wish to upload to or comment on. The exception to this is channels which do not require a login to post media or feedback. Can I use the same email to create multiple logins and moderator profiles? • Yes, the same email can be used as many times as you like. Can I have more than one channel/website hosted by SmartVideoChannel? • Yes, you can create as many channels as you want. What media players does SmartVideoChannel support? • SmartVideoChannel uses Flash-7 and Flash-8 formats. Can I rate and comment on videos? • Yes! Whenever you watch a video, there are options underneath the viewing console to rate the video and leave comments (See figure 2 below). Click on the rating and comments links to give the video from one to five stars or write your opinion about it. 
Figure 2 What if I want to share a video with others? • SmartVideoChannel provides a number of ways to share videos with others. When you watch a video there is an option to email the video directly to any address you specify: just click on the “Email to Friends” (See Figure 2 above) link under the viewing console. Additionally, you can copy the video URL, and copy the codes to embed the video in blog comments or play it directly from your MySpace, LiveJournal, or other blogging site. The URL and codes can be found to the right of the viewing console in the “Video Details” (See Figure 3 below) box. 
Figure 3 What is the “Blog Video” option underneath the viewing console? • This feature allows you to comment on the video and then have both your comments and the video itself automatically posted to your blog. As of now we only have this feature for blogger.com, but we will be adding more compatible blog sites in the future. Can I download the videos from SmartVideoChannel? • At this time we do not have a download feature, but we will be adding a download option in the future. |
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Choosing your SmartVideoChannel Domain
• You have 2 choices: create your own domain name (ie, http://chooseaname.smartvideochannel.com), or if you already have a domain, setup a DNS entry to point to SmartVideoChannel (ie, http://video.MYSITE.com) How do I setup video.MYSITE.com to be my SmartVideoChannel site? • If you already have a site and would like to integrate our video feature into your site, you can edit the CNAME record of your DNS entry to point "video.MYSITE.com" to our servers. You will need to add a CNAME record to your DNS entry. *Note - this is different from a domain forward. Typically you add a CNAME record through your ISP, or whoever is hosting your domain name. • When you set up the CNAME record, be sure to point it at "smartvideochannel.com". Once you have the CNAME pointed, Ping "video.MYSITE.com" and Ping smartvideochannel.com. They should show the same IP address. If they do not match, then contact your ISP or domain manager. • Once your domain is pointed to the correct place, login to your SmartVideoChannel Admin account. On the left navigation, click on "Edit Channel Details" and choose "I already have a domain" under the SmartVideoChannel Domain and type in the text field below. Do I have to use the CNAME “video”, can I use something else? Yes, you can use any CNAME you feel is appropriate to you and your web site. |
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