[sam152]

Why did you decide to use a custom video player and not an established service like YouTube or Vimeo? I think a lot of people forget how much time these services spend optimising their video players and delivery. Plus, these services are another avenue of content discovery.

Can't see any reasons against using one of these services.

[yardie]

The only reason to use Youtube at this point is to get eyeballs. I can see 2 problems with YT.

1. Their contentID system makes you have to prove you are not a thief.

2. Shifting revenue stream distribution are only ever good for Youtube first and publishers second. They are a big organization now. Some would say a monopoly. If they can't get 10% revenue growth from their users they'll carve it from under their publishers.

I think YT and Vimeo are really good but even I enjoy having a healthy market where all types of players exist.

[joeyspn]

It's sublimevideo [0] loading files from Cloudfront. Nothing bad about it.

Yes, the videos could be easily found in Youtube or Vimeo, but that's not a good choice if he is building a potential revenue stream.

What he could do is just upload to Youtube some free chapters (for easy discovery), and then have some premium and charge for them. Like RailCasts.

[0] http://www.sublimevideo.net/

[wise_young_man]

It's not custom, it looks to be a 3rd party service [1].

[1] http://sysadmincasts.com