Having scoured the web for about a week I recently came to the conclusion that there is no easy-access options out there that provide the necessary tools need to create a nice, clean, simple online video library. I also discovered a few problems with using well known video platforms such as YouTube for this purpose.
I didn’t wanna share my videos
As amazing as YouTube is, there is unfortunately no easy way to create a YouTube based video library if for whatever reason you don’t want your users to be able to share those videos. The private video setting requires YouTube users to to have a YouTube login to access it if you do decide to share it with them and the unlisted setting still allows the user to copy and share the URL to the videos you display.
YouTube isn’t a great option for this
I came to the conclusion that YouTube isn’t a great option for the purpose of building your own online video library. Enter Vimeo. Vimeo isn’t perfect either in my opinion in terms of some of the restrictions and limitations it currently has but for $6 a month and some creative API development, we were able to come up with a nice solution that I think will work for you.
Vimeo’s $6 per month fee (might change some day)
You can spend a ton more time searching the web for your perfect free solution or you can stop right here and take my word for it – there isn’t anything better out there than what we have to offer. All you have to do is sign up for a $6 monthly (or $72 per year) Vimeo Plus account and you are off the races. $6 a month for video hosting that takes care of all the video processing, storage, buffering etc. is a pretty good deal on Vimeo’s end.
How do I generate a vimeo access token to use the plugin?
There is a simple 5 minute procedure for creating an access token after you have created your vimeo account. These guys have created a nice little simple how-to on creating that access token. Once you have it just let us know and we can config it for you.
Can I control what my album and video “covers” look like (in the grid display)?
Yes – all that kind of malarky is editable in your Vimeo account. Just login and visit collections or videos and you can upload cover images that the plugin will pull and display on your WordPress page.
Basic/Simple online video library example
Check out the demo that shows the 3 most recently posted videos and then below them a grid of all the albums in our Vimeo account. If you click on one of those albums it takes you to a page that displays all the videos in that account with some simple, clean pagination. It is mobile responsive so it works nicely on your phone too :).