Video Press plugins

[Jay dedman]

Ryanne and I are still using an old install of Wordpress for our videoblog.
We've been putting off updating, but are going to bite the bullet soon.

Does anyone use the plugins for Recent Videos, Related Videos, or
Video Archive with the latest WP install?
Does it work?

If not, we're just going to redesign our site without this functionality.

Jay

--
http://ryanishungry.com
http://jaydedman.com
917 371 6790

[Cheryl Colan]

You won't have to redesign it without those functions unless you just want to. Some of those functions can be replaced by using different plugins.

C

[Jay dedman]

On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 10:58 AM, Cheryl Colan <cheryl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> You won't have to redesign it without those functions unless you just want
> to. Some of those functions can be replaced by using different plugins.

Cool. Are there replacement plugins?
That was my next questions.

[Cheryl Colan]

Well, I know there are one or two plugins that allow you to add a thumbnail image for every post, or you can use use a custom field like Waz is. And there's the related posts plugin. So using both together should let you cobble together some sort of "related videos" with the thumbnails. And in theory that would also let you generate your own "recent videos" and "video archive" - it's all down to figuring out how and documenting it well so that others can do it. And you have to document it well for yourself, so when you want to switch themes you will know what to look for / add to a new theme.

I'm working on this for myself in spare time, but I'm not finding a lot of spare time. Ironically because of teaching my web design class!

But yes, you can hunt out replacement plugins or go the next step into theme customization and come up with similar features - it can definitely be done.

And there are some very nice video themes out there for sale, too, most are $50-75 for a plain theme you can customize. So far I don't like the for-sale themes for what I'm trying to do on my personal site. The ones I've looked at so far all use a flash player, which is fine, but they don't let you include the actual video file in the post - so you have to manually add a link to your QuickTime version somewhere in the  post if you want a subscribable podcast. Bre Pettis was doing that recently, too - using the Blip.tv player and then linking to the iPod-ready video somewhere in his post text. I'd rather lean in the direction Verdi has gone, with publishing one H.264 quicktime version that plays on the site in a flash player but is downloadable via RSS for whatever reader.

Oops, you got me started thinking out loud.

Short answer (too late) - there are replacement plugins, but they don't work the exact same way as Charles' plugins did, so they'll require a little tinkering.

Cheryl

[Waz]

I am running WordPress 2.6.2 which is not the latest but may give you
some indication. Recent Videos was still working, but as mentioned
previously I wasn't happy with vPiP for various reasons (also my vPiP
feeds broke a while back after an upgrade - could have been my own
fault but anyway I wasn't able to fix the problem so had to repoint
Feedburner to my default WordPress feed, adding enclosures manually
each time - no biggie).

One thing I know you CAN do is keep vPiP installed and use Recent
Videos without actually using the vPiP player or any other vPiP
functionality. I did this until recently - I was using the Blip player
but in each post I simply left all the vPiP fields blank or set them
not to display, except for the thumbnail. That way, my Recent Videos
thumbnails still displayed in the sidebar - but as previously stated I
ended up scrapping it completely because I didn't like the way the
display worked.

I would suggest you check out the Related Posts plugin that I
mentioned elsewhere. I searched far and wide before finding it. The
same guy puts out Similar Posts, which you could use to replace
Related Videos: http://rmarsh.com/plugins/similar-posts/

Looks like all his stuff can either be inserted into your templates OR
added as a widget - and he gives lots of configuration options (for us
control freaks!).

So there is no need to lose the functionality you want - I think the
Related Posts and Similar Posts will get you nearly all the way there.

Also just wanted to reiterate that I take a regular peek at
ryanishungry and it inspired the basic format of garagenight.

Waz
garagenight.tv and crashtestkitchen.com

> On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 9:02 AM, Jay dedman <jay.ded...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 10:58 AM, Cheryl Colan <cheryl.co...@gmail.com>

[Waz]

in fact I'll make it a plea: PLEASE don't drop your recent videos
functionality. It was the thing that leapt out to me as a must-have
the first time I saw your site.

by the way the related posts plugin at my site is generating the
column headed 'Other episodes' (you can put whatever text you want).

Waz
garagenight.tv and crashtestkitchen.com

[Jay dedman]

Thanks Cheryl and Waz.
I agree that the Video Press plugins did what we wanted.
I have an outside hope that Charles will update...or we find someone to do it.

Or...If we can find other plugins, we'll document it.
To me, it's still all about having control over what thumbnails/text
shows up when you post a video.
It's all about creating a rabbit hold and exposing the other videos
we've done so work doesn't get stale.

Jay