Edit Awesome Videos With Your Laptop In College

I'm what you would refer to as an avid amateur film maker. I simply love making videos with my laptop in college - my dell isn't just for homework you know! Often times me and my friend will shoot some footage in the dorm, with my web-cam, then use a free codec to convert to HD and send it to people on campus. My friend Rog suggested we just start hosting them on a social media networking site, instead of emailing to a hundred different people. This sounded like it wouldn't be a bad idea; a lot of our videos were sort of "promotions" for dorm parties that we held weekly - trying to get more people interested in attending.

While my roommates criticize my intentions - I bought my laptop for college, so I could edit videos and play tunes...LOUD! So I figured me and my friends would use it as a central editor and up-loader, since I did all my homework in class and wouldn't be using it much at the dorm. We had the technical equipment out of the way, now it was on to finding a spot to host the vids

There are more sites out there in cyberspace that allow you to host videos...than I can count on my fingers and toes! With so many choices we had to examine each site's features and ease of use, to see which illustrious host would earn the coveted crown!

1. >Vimeo - They offer HD embedding with their monthly memberships. Free services include: well defined categories, groups of similar interests (party time!), several channel options, and 1280x720 HD viewing. Plus I could upload from anywhere...maybe with my laptop in college lectures! - Looking good with this one.
2. >Viddler - Gotta say: The name is a little cheezy, but hey...I'll overlook that one. They have a similar interface to Vimeo, offer HD Embedding for a monthly fee (which my friends and I agreed to share) and they offer profit sharing if you place some of their advertiser messages in your videos.
3. >Veoh - This one was going to be an option, then I got about a dozen pop ups before I could click to find any information, so they're OUT!

Having a laptop for college, or university is a must. When you can use it to edit and upload movies to promote your dorm festivities, then your investment just became even more worthwhile! My friends and I are still undecided about which site to use. We know for sure Youtube, or the trendy Facebook isn't in the mix - they simply don't offer the protection we want. I mean, yeah...the vids are going to be publicly viewed, but we don't want someone downloading it, and making our videos an introduction to porn videos or something like that! People do some creepy stuff when they take your stuff.

We will definitely choose carefully. We really want a site that can convert to, and embed in HD, in case my laptop for college has any trouble. Having a laptop in college can be handy, but if it breaks down and we have to use another laptop, or PC...or a public computer - our chosen host has to be able to deliver the goods!