One of the advantages of syndicating your video from one of the video sharing sites is that, at least most of the time, the service is free. One of the disadvantages is, to one degree or another you place yourselves at the mercy of that host. While it hasn't affected machinimators to any large degree, it's not unheard of for YouTube to pull a video for copyright issues. Many of you will recollect Vimeo's decision not too long ago to discontinue hosting of "gameplay videos," machinima's first cousin. And now the Brightcove network has announced it is discontinuing its free video hosting altogether, a move not quite as drastic as the DivX Stage6 utter dissolution nearly a year ago, but one that nonetheless will affect a lot of users.

In this economy, one has to wonder how reliable one can consider video sharing sites to be as a primary distribution medium. After the explosion of these sites that we've seen in the past few years, it's only reasonable to expect there to be some contraction of that market, via consolidations and closings. Vimeo recently introduced their Plus program to infuse some cash to offset what must be enormous hosting expenses. Veoh has had a for-pay program for a good while now. Will some of these presumed "giants" go the way of Brightcove as they seek to get expenses under control in this tight economy?

If you've been looking for a Flash video solution to showcase your videos on your own website, I highly recommend the JW Media Player, developed by Jeroen Wijering. This highly configurable and well-documented Flash media player power both Machiniplex and Z-Studios, and can play back video, audio, and even photo slideshows.

If you have a fully non-commercial website, usage of JW Media Player is free under Creative Commons. If you have any ads or want to remove the attribution from the player, you'll need a commercial license. But you might be surprised just how affordable such a site-wide license can be: only 30 pounds sterling for one website at the time of this blog post.

But you can purchase a license now through November 30 and get a 30% discount off that already reasonable price! Simply purchase by the end of this month, entering "jwnovdiscount11" in the reseller code field, and you're all set!

I've used JW Media Player for a year now, and have found it to be an excellent and affordable solution for self-reliant Flash video streaming. Visit Jeroen's site for more information.

Disclosure: I have no affiliation with Jeroen Wijering, I don't know him personally or have any stake in the sale of his product. I'm merely a satisfied customer.