Overview for Grouper:
Grouper is incredibly simple and straightforward, with many categories for video, from "Family-friendly" to "Sexy" (though no pornographic content is allowed) as well as other themed channels like "Wings and Wheels": a site for people who are genuinely interested in sharing video. Grouper not only allows you to upload video, but lets you use your webcam to post, upload and comment on other people's videos.
Cost of Grouper:
Free
Sign-up Procedure for Grouper:
Grouper signup is very simple. From grouper.com, hit "upload video" and it will prompt you to log in/sign up. Hit "sign up" and a little text box opens asking for email, username, password, birthday, and gender. Once you hit okay you are taken straight to an upload page.
Uploading to Grouper:
Grouper doesn't list any upload restrictions, so you may have to try and see what will post and what won't in terms of size or file type. Grouper's upload page allows you to upload one video or choose to use their "batch uploader".
Upon upload you can add a title, tags, a description, a channel (category) and choose whether to make it private or public. There's a progress bar for each video and one bar for all of them. It goes pretty darn fast. You can then click your username in the upper right and it will let you see your account settings and uploaded videos, channel and profile info, and so on.
Compression in Grouper:
Grouper does compress your videos. They recommend an 800kbps bitrate, 640x480, and the following settings to ensure your video is the highest possible quality:
For .mov files, use the H.264 video codec and AAC audio codec to compress.
For .wmv files, use the WMV9 video codec and WMA9 audio codec to compress.
Tagging with Grouper:
When uploading your video, Grouper will ask you to enter "tags" or keywords that can be used to search your video. The more tags you enter, the more ways there are to search for your video.
Privatizing Your Videos with Grouper:
If you don't want everyone to be able to search for your video, you can set your video to "private" and enter names and emails for the people who are allowed to see it.
If, on the other hand, you're interested in as many people seeing it as possible, you can embed Grouper videos in other websites, such as Myspace. Grouper even does you the favor of posting the HTML in a little box next to the video so you can copy and paste.
Terms Of Service for Grouper:
You keep the rights to your content, though Grouper can modify it and use it to advertise. No content that is harmful, illegal, obscene, infringes copyright, etc. is allowed. Learn more about avoiding copyright violations
As with any free video sharing site, bear in mind that it's easy for others to steal your material, so don't post anything you hope to sell one day.
Sharing from Grouper:
Grouper makes sharing your videos easy. You can select from a number of websites, such as Blogger and Myspace, to post your video to under the “1 Click Publish� heading to the right of the player. Just enter your login info for the site and Grouper will post it for you.
You can also link to the video using the Permalink URL displayed just below, or by using the HTML code displayed just below that. Simply copy and paste to embed the player in another website.
You can also email it to friends by clicking “Send to friend� at the bottom of the player and entering their email addresses.
