I’m trying to build a sublemmy (BeWowed) based on r/Damnthat’s intresting and r/BeAmazed material that I have accumulated over the years but i need to host all the videos on imgur. Will lemmy be able to host videos? Do you have better alternatives than imgur? Thanks!

  • CriticalMiss@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I think that the main problem with hosting videos on this platform is the amount of space. Keep in mind, Lemmy runs on donations, it does not have venture capitalist backing of any kind. So even if the support for videos (or gifs) eventually comes, it will either be very restricted (i.e. max 8mb uploads, similar to Discord’s free tier uploads) or disabled entirely by the instance admins because the cost for hosting video will be just way too much.

    Time will tell, I guess, for now there’s no video support being mentioned anywhere on GitHub issues, so it is likely not planned.

  • cccc@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It adds a lot of server space and traffic requirements so it’s probably better hosted externally.

    • zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’ve completely forgotten what it is, but I remember reading in a comment a few days ago that there is something meant to replace Youtube in the fediverse. If that’s true, then it might be interesting to add a way to automatically upload videos to that from the lemmy submission page.

        • zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, that - thanks. So maybe in the future, lemmy instances can opt to “federate” (or something like it?) with PeerTube and Pixelfed instances, in the process adding the option to upload directly to them from the lemmy submission page, for an experience similar to uploading a video directly to reddit?

          Helps avoid huge server space and network traffic issues for Lemmy, while populating PeerTube with what I assume is much-needed content.

          • sab@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Similar problems occur for PeerTube though - somebody needs to pay server costs, and for video that can be quite heavy. There’s also no commercial concept behind it, so I doubt any instance of PeerTube feels a great need to get flooded with content. Where it really shines (at the moment) is when it is hosted by organizations (such as Blender or the European Union) to share their own content.

            However, what’s cool about PeerTube is hinted at in the name: it uses torrent technology, and whenever you’re watching a video you are also seeding it to your peers (others who watch it). So while storage is an issue, bandwidth requirements are smaller than for centralized video services. So who knows what the future will bring. :)

            • zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Thanks for the additional context. That is pretty interesting about the bandwidth!

              So long as Lemmy succeeds in being successful long-term, in that it can grow significantly, retain users, and maintain a content stream, I do think some sort of solution here is probably inevitable. It’ll be interesting to see if it ends up being PeerTube, self-hosting, or something else entirely.

          • Prootje@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            That would be awesome for embedded links. Comments on the video or pic to be federated back to peertube or pixelfed in their comments to keep the conversation going across services.

  • deejay4am@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I think that many people underestimate what it takes to host videos on the internet.

    That being said, isn’t there a federated, distributed video hosting network on the fediverse? Maybe it would be better to just embed links from that.

    • WolfhoundRO@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well there’s PeerTube, but it’s just like the old YouTube with fewer features. Can’t do Shorts, can’t get embedded iframe plays for now

      • i_do_not_agree@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Does it Play YouTube video or it is another YouTube with it’s own videos? Because i need YouTube but i hate reels shorts and don’t want them

        • WolfhoundRO@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s another YouTube with its own. There is also what you need and it’s called Piped. It’s an open-source YouTube video player on which you don’t need Google account

  • I_Miss_Daniel@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    For kbin users, if auto load media is enabled, YouTube videos etc auto load even if they’re just linked in the post or comment.