Lesson

Glenys - one of the issues with cheap shared hosting and Moodle 2.1 (as i have discovered, both to my own cost in past months and to others' just this week) is that Moodle 2.1 requires PHP 5.3 and a lot of shared hosts don't allow it because of the effect it has on their other clients' sites - so it's difficult finding one either that will allow you to have it or that will allow you to install it yourself. In fact, I got very annoyed with one host (who shall remain nameless although they are in the UK) because they assured me and the gentleman I was helping that he absolutely could have PHP 5.3. I was sceptical so I took a screenshot of the online conversation. He asked the same question - they absolutely assured him -he did the same. I  changed the PHP to 5.3,  installed Moodle for him - it worked for about 2 days and then stopped - because they had reverted him back to PHP 5.2,saying they didn't allow 5.3 on their servers. (Needless to say he got out of that contract  very annoyed...)

Brian - yes - while it won't solve your video /flowplayer/mp3 player issue, private youtube would allow you at least to show your videos

@Glenys,

Thank you for your homily on hosts. I have already made comments about hostgator but, given that I have already paid for the next year or so, I have no intention of messing about looking at yet another company that promises the earth and delivers dust. Yes, I've heard of siteground, and there are negative comments about what they offer even in the post you suggested I read, let alone online. In fact, what hostgator offer, in terms of numbers, seems to be better than what siteground offer. The only thing which limits hostgator is the competence of their tech staff and their php process limits. I haven't come anywhere close to needing better hosts in terms of specs. I also have a dedicated ip, which I use, and free ssl if I want it, which for now I don't.

Most hosts these days offer unlimited storage space, so there is no need to use external storage. As for 'sensitive' material, I prefer to think that if I spend time creating material it will be kept in a place where I can limit who can access it, know where it is, etc.  I think that's fair.

As for what people do or don't spend, after my rent etc is paid and I eat, I have about 400 euros a month so don't make patronising comments about people needing to spend money. So far, I don't know if the problem with video not playing is a moodle issue, php issue or pre-menstrual tension. Nor do you. People whose courses are paid for by others can maybe afford to be picky, but for those who are creating something from their own pockets, cheap smells nice. As and when I find a way to add enough content to moodle to create a course, from which I can maybe start earning a little money, I will almost certainly take a dedicated or vps service, but until then this is just a hobby that costs me money with no appreciable return or satisfaction. I'm only doing what I'm doing because I hate being beaten at anything.

The fact that moodle media is not working, for whatever reason, is what's making my life difficult sweetie. Please don't forget that. I didn't ask it to not work. In fact, I distinctly remember asking for suggestions as to why it wouldn't work. Thanks for the suggestion anyway. However, I'd rather get the media player working as it should, or an alternative program that will do the same job, which was what the post was about. Do you know of one?

Brian