Mpeg videos - how best to share and store them?

Hi - some quick questions about mpeg video. Not sure if this is the
right ng or not...hopefully it is...

I have a Sony Mini-DV camcorder and I 'usb stream' my videos to the PC
via a software package called Pixela image maker. I have a couple of
questions about this video:

1) Why does the mpeg video look so dark on my PC? And the quality of
the video is so much inferior. I know stupid question...but can
someone explain why?

2) I want to share my mpeg with friends, but it's not practical to do
so via e-mail. I am not into building my own web page....does anyone
know if there's a free web service out there where you can easily
build your own web site for mpeg video (like what msn and others have
for digital photos)?

Thanks!
Paula