8 min readMicrosoft Stream Vs Office 365 Videos

The announcement of Stream from Microsoft proves their passion to extend
their wings wide and flap fast as social butterfly in this modern world
with high demand for social(online) presence and collaboration. In
stream anyone with company mail address can sign up, upload/share
videos, also we can feel that the video upload time is comparatively
less than Office 365 Video. Moreover, stream does not depend on
SharePoint Online for storage.

In our previous
blog,
we have had a glance on some of the common questions raised among the
existing Office 365 Video users on the announcement of Microsoft Stream.
So in this blog, we will compare the features of Microsoft Stream with
Office 365 Video and explore the features of Stream.

Some of the highlighted features available in Stream are:

• Socialize video
  • like
  • Embed, share
• Follow Channel / Watch list
• Single video can be placed in multiple channels
• Quicker processing of the uploaded video

Note:
Microsoft recommends Office 365 users with A / E / G SKUs to continue
to use Office 365 Video, until Office 365 Video is converged with Stream
and rebrand of Office 365 Video to Stream is complete.

S.NO	Feature	Microsoft	Office 365 Video
Stream(Preview)
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
1.	Wider Access	Stream Preview	Requires
		Free allows anyone	E1-E5/A1-A5/G1-G5
		with a company	licenses to visit
		mail to sign up.	the video portal.
			If you embed a
			video outside of
			the video portal,
			then any user who
			is in your tenant
			has permissions to
			the video can play
			the video via
			embed.
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
2.	**Uploading	Anyone in	IT Admin can
	Videos**	organization who	control who can
		signs up can	create channels
		upload videos.	and upload videos
			to them.
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
3.	**Multi-Channel	Can tag videos to	Not Available
	Support**	multiple channels
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
4.	Search	You can search	You can’t search
		both videos and	for channels
		channels.	directly, but can
			search videos
			within the
			channels using
			magnifying glass
			in upper left
			section of portal,
			in SPO enterprise
			search, in
			SharePoint Home,
			or in Delve.
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
5.	Embed Video	Video size	Video size
		supported: 720p,	supported: 480p,
		480p, 360p, 315p	360p, 240p
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
6.	**Direct share	Stream has	Office 365 Video,
	link**	Share button	doesn’t have a
		that gives you the	share button, but
		URL to video.	you can always use
		(This is just the	the direct link to
		same URL that’s in	the video from the
		the browser)	browser directly.
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
7.	Caption	Only WebVTT file	Only WebVTT file
		format supported	format supported
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
8.	**Video	Available	Available
	thumbnail**
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
9.	**Channel cover	Available	Not Available
	Image**
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
10.	**Watch list for	Available	Not Available
	videos**
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
11.	Follow Channel	Available	Not Available
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
12.	Permissions	Channel –	Channel –
		contribute (If you	contribute, view,
		don’t limit the	owner
		contributors,	Video – View
		anyone can	(Inherit channel
		contribute a video	permission)
		to this channel.)
		Video– View
		(Everyone,
		specific users
		/groups, self
		only)
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
13.	**Channel	Open to anyone	Tenant level
	creation**	with company email	control for
		id to create their	channel creation.
		own channel/s,
		upload and share
		videos.
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
14.	**Video View	View counts are	View counts aren’t
	Statics**	instant. There are	instant they are
		no deeper stats	computed every 15
		for videos in	minutes or so. In
		Stream, just the	addition, O365
		view count totals.	Video has
			view/visitor
			statistics trends
			over time in the
			last 2 weeks and
			last 36 months,
			along with the
			ability to see
			which part of the
			video was viewed.
			These stats are in
			the “Statistics”
			section under each
			video. These view
			trends are
			computed once a
			day.
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
15.	Restore video	Not Available	Available
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
16.	**Integrations	Not Available	– Videos shown
	with O365**		in Delve.
			– Channels and
			activity in
			the channels
			shown in new
			SharePoint
			Home page (web
			and in SP
			mobile app).
			– Can talk about
			a video in
			Yammer right
			from the
			player page.
			– Can publish a
			video to a
			channel form
			Office Mix
			PowerPoint
			plugin.
			– Can publish a
			video to a
			channel from
			Skype Meeting
			Broadcast
			– Can embed a
			video in Sway
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
17.	**Public REST	Not Available	Full set of REST
	APIs**		APIs:[http://aka.m
			s/O365VideoAPI](ht
			tp://aka.ms/O365Vi
			deoAPI)
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
18.	**Information	Not Available	The original video
	Protection**		file is stored in
			SPO and can be
			acted on by info
			protection
			policies and
			features.
——————–	——————–	——————–	——————–
19.	Audit	Not Available	Actions taken on
			videos and
			channels are
			logged to the
			Office 365 Audit
			Activity log,
			including who/when
			video is uploaded,
			viewed, edited,
			etc.

Search

In Microsoft Stream portal, you can search both videos and channels. For
searching the uploaded videos, click the search option in the home page
( https://web.microsoftstream.com),
then click Videos tab and search for videos using the numerical
points as highlighted in below screenshot. Similarly, you can search for
channels by selecting Channels tab.

Video Information

Once you open the video you can view the below highlighted information.

Multi-channel Support

You can tag videos to multiple channels, by login to Microsoft Stream
portal
(https://web.microsoftstream.com),
in which navigate to My content menu and select My videos. In
the uploaded videos, click the ellipsis (…) for your required video
and click Edit. Then in the video editing page, select your required
channels for tagging the selected video in those channels using the
numerical points as highlighted in the below screenshot.

Direct share link

To get the direct share link for your required video, navigate to My
content menu and select My videos. In the uploaded videos, click
the ellipsis (…) for your required video and click Share. Then in
the resulting window, click Shareto get the direct share link for
your video.

Even though the user holds the direct share link, the user is allowed to
view the video only if he is authorized.

Embed Video

To generate the embed code to play your video in web page, login to
Microsoft Stream portal (
https://web.microsoftstream.com), in
which navigate to My content menu and select My videos. In the
uploaded videos, click the ellipsis (…) for your required video and
click Share. Then in the resulting window, click Embed and
perform the steps using the numerical points as highlighted in below
screenshot.

Only the authorized users can view embedded videos.

Channel cover Image

To set cover image for your channel, navigate to My content menu and
select My channels. In the available channels, select your required
channel, click ellipsis (…) and click Edit. Then in the channel
editing page, scroll down and select the video, whose thumbnail you
required to set as cover image for your channel and apply the cover
image using the numerical points as highlighted in the below screenshot.

Organize channels/videos

You can organize channels and videos using Follow and Watchlist
respectively. To organize channel using Follow, navigate to My
content menu and select My channels. In the available channels,
select your required channel, click Follow. To organize video using
watchlist, navigate to My content menu and select My videos. In
the uploaded videos, select your required video, click ellipsis (…)
and click Add to watchlist.

Finally, you can view the videos in watchlist and followed channels in
the main page of stream portal, as highlighted in the below screenshot

Permissions

Channel Permission: To set channel permission, navigate to My
content menu, select My channels. In the available channels,
select your required channel, click ellipsis (…) and click Edit.
Then in the channel editing page, set permission to your selected
channel using the numerical points as highlighted in the below
screenshot.

Video Permission: To set video permission, navigate to My
content menu, select My videos. In the uploaded videos, select
your required video, click ellipsis (…) and click Edit. Then in
the video editing page, set permission to your selected video using the
numerical points as highlighted in the below screenshot.

Disable Microsoft Stream

To disable Microsoft Stream for entire tenant, you can use the following
PowerShell command,

Set-MsolCompanySettings -AllowAdHocSubscriptions $false

NOTE: There is no direct method to disable only Microsoft Stream.
But as the Microsoft Stream is an email-based subscription, therefore we
use the above command to block users company-wide from signing up for
email-based subscription as individuals.