can anyone recommend a good video hosting service (cheap and focused on easy integration)
@CobaltVelvet If you are looking to just stash files without anything fancy S3 is probably the cheapest. If you need extra services, I use Brightcove as a frontend for Akamai.
The player's good, the API decent, and the customer service is pretty good. Analytics aren't the most spectacular ... Ookla's analytics are probably better. PM me if you have other questions. Digital video is what I do for a living.
@skroo nice thanks, my client wants to have videos on his site and let his clients upload easily, but i'd like to skip all the player integration and transcoding and just delegate as much as possible to an external service.
@CobaltVelvet Brightcove will transcode the renditions after upload. It is possible you could script uploading for your client's customers via the API.
This looks like it might have potential:
@skroo oh it looks good but apparently expensive. i'll try vzaar