this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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Hello guys. I hope it's okay to post a question in this community.

I'm basically looking for a Youtube and Google Drive alternative for video sharing. I've looked at Peertube, Dtube and Odyssee, but frankly, I don't like them because there is some questionable content on those sites.

That said, I don't want to get into personal views and stuff, I just want to find an alternative to Big Tech. I want to upload videos and be able to share them with friends online. 'I upload and they stream' is what I'm looking for.

Proton Drive offers video preview, but it's limited to a 100 MB file and my videos are going to be longer.

TIA for any and all suggestions.

EDIT: I'm looking for a service.

EDIT 2:

Thanks everyone with your input. As storage, I'll be using Proton Drive, which has a 100 MB video preview limit. That means I have to decrease the file size, which can be done in different ways. First, I can shoot the video in 1080p 30 fps, which takes less space than 60 fps and/or higher video resolution. I can also decrease the video size by getting rid of sound, which I don't need. For that, I'll use either LosslessCut, which is an awesome software because you can cut and disable sound without having to re-encode the video. It literally takes seconds to output an edited video. I can also use Handbrake to decrease the quality of the video. The end result will render the video relatively low quality, so it might not be usable for you, but for me it's good enough.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

A couple bits of info missing here. Do you mean to host it yourself or are you looking for a pre-existing service? The notion of any given one containing questionable content can be made moot if it's your own private instance. Second being is this meant to be a more public or private thing, as in just anyone with an address can come watch or limiting it to those with accounts?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Thanks for your input and apologies if my question is a bit vague.

I'm primarily looking for a service, but might be interested in self-hosting in the future. I don't have experience with self-hosting, but I suppose it could be an option in the future. I found a website about video CMS's which require self-hosting. However, I don't plan on sharing a lot of content, just an occasional video every now and then. As for accessibility of the videos, I'd make them available for anyone with a link.

I also looked at other cloud storage options and found IceDrive, a paid service. I think it has video playback but I'm not sure. I've heard about it before and the price is affordable enough for me to give it a try. It has client-side encryption which is good.

EDIT: sorry for uttering the forbidden phrase 'paid service'.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Hmm, that makes for a pretty limited pool I'd expect them. Video hosting is a resource heavy business, botg in storage and bandwidth sense. A provider big or small is likely going to look to recoup some of those costs, either through ads/tracking or direct payment from the user.

Smaller free services like the various peertube hosts are taking on both costs and risks by providing a public service where people could upload questionable content, and will have less resources to sort the bad from the good than a big provider would.

I can't say I know of any that would fit, small, well moderated, and preferably free (but not required) off hand. What is it you're trying to avoid the big players for? If it's a privacy front then simply putting it on a separate platform without any kind of access controls then they'll eventually spider it into their search engines just as a normal course of operation. There are some interesting P2P based apps like ZeroNet or another that I'll have to look up which pretty well created a private file net with a desktop app, but those are a bit more clunky than a website where you just upload to and stream from.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

You're right. I'll just go with a cloud storage provider then, other than Google. My main concern is privacy, yes. I recently got rid of my Youtube account, which had accumulated a little too much information about me for my liking. But returning to cloud storage, If I use shareable links for friends and de-share the videos when done, I don't think they'll leak outside of said cloud storage provider.