Today our good friends at Vzaar are giving away 25 lite accounts of their professional commercial video hosting. As you know, websites like YouTube are great for hosting your online videos. The biggest downside is that you have little control over the environment in which your video is shown, and there's nothing that says your video can't be taken down without notice (or any server uptime guarantee). Not the most ideal situation for a company trying to present a professional image. Read on for more details about the Vzaar video hosting platform and on how to participate to win one of the 25 lite accounts being given away today. So, what is Vzaar? Vzaar is a commercial video hosting platform that can deliver video to your website or mobile app. You can easily customize the size, color, and borders of your video player, and create playlists. There are multiple video settings to choose from, including econding settings, so you have full control over the quality of playback. A bulk uploader and a desktop uploader are available to make managing your videos simpler and faster. Embedded videos are shown at 768 x 576 pixels, and are encoded at 1280 x 720. You also have the option to tell Vzaar not to re-encode your video. All videos are iPhone compatible, making it easier to reach a larger audience. Video length isn't restricted, but there are restrictions on video size: 1/2 GB for the free trial, 1 GB for the Professional-level packages, and 2 GB for the business-level packages. The video player can be further customized to meet your exact needs. You can add your own logo or other branding information (or a watermark) over the video and create a customized screen for when your video ends. There's also an audio-only player for when you don't need video. Options for auto-play and looping are available. And Vzaar offers a poster frame and thumbnail picker tool (another thing that isn't always available on free sites). It's a video platform designed with both basic users and developers in mind. Whether you just need a simple plug-and-play video solution or something that you can access via API for more advanced applications, Vzaar has a solution for you. Privacy and domain control options are also included, so you can control exactly where your videos are shown (something most free video hosting sites don't offer). Vzaar includes distribution management tools (including ecommerce tools and eBay embedding, and tools to embed videos into MailChimp email newsletters), and developer tools to make it easy to leverage the Vzaar platform for your website or web app. It uses an advanced Rest API, supports third-party players, and has a JavaScript API. Their developer hub offers libraries and other tools for working with the Vzaar APIs. There's also a basic embed video code for those situations where you just need to include a video. Vzaar will also work with Google Analytics for tracking your views. You can use Vzaar for virtually any kind of video content you want, from podcasts to commercials to short films or anything in between. Pricing is reasonable, starting at just $49 for 50GB of playback bandwidth per month and plans that can handle as much as 4TB of playback bandwidth (with custom solutions available for higher usage). You have the option to set a cap for your bandwidth usage for any potential overages, so you can rest assured that you won't suddenly get a huge hosting bill you weren't expecting. How to participate: To enter this contest and get the chance to win one of the 25 Lite Accounts being given away, please leave a comment below. Only one comment per person. Duplicate entries will be voided. We’ll announce the results in one week, on August 24th, 2011. The results will be posted here on WDD and all winners will also be contacted by email for more details. Thanks to Vzaar for bringing us these great prizes and good luck to all of you… [UPDATE] Contest has ended, here are the winners: #29 - mahir haroon
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