Video is a big deal. YouTube represents the second most popular search engine in the world. 61% of young adults have watched television shows or movies online.
As popular as this is, posting your own video online is not as easy as you’d imagine. Here are the usual steps:
Get your video to an computer format (as opposed to DVD, VHS tape, etc).
This is tough enough to start with. DVDs are designed to prevent copying, so this usually requires special software. Check out LifeHacker’s post on DVD ripping tools for some ideas on how to get started. VHS or Beta tapes are even worse… this requires special equipment.
Convert your video to the right computer format (depends on delivery method).
It isn’t good enough to have just any movie file. You have to get it to the right format for however you’re going to deliver the file. A Windows Media Streaming server will require a particular WMV format. Embedded Flash video would require an FLV format. Some of the ripping tools (such as HandBrake) can also convert formats.
Use the right settings.
Want a large video with very high quality? A smaller, quicker download? These are controlled via video and audio bit rates, compression rates, etc. Fortunately, there are usually preset options with the conversion software. In the end, I believe this mostly trial and error to get the outcome you need.
Host the file somewhere.
Once you’ve converted the file, it has to live somewhere online. Typically, this falls in two categories: progressive download (PD) or streaming. PD means you’re downloading the entire file and it plays only as much as it has downloaded. This is the easiest route, because you can put the file anywhere web-accessible, just like you might put a PDF or an HTML file. At Notre Dame, you could post to your NetFile/www folder and it can do the trick.
Streaming, however, lets you jump ahead to any part of the video and it will begin playing from that spot. This might be a better option for longer videos, where viewers may want to skip to a later section. The difficulty of streaming is that it requires a special server – and this usually costs something. Notre Dame has a few streaming options available, via OIT and OPAC.
Embed the Video on an HTML page.
If all this work wasn’t complicated enough, now you have to figure out how to get your video embedded. Let’s assume you’re using progressive download and have two main options: Windows Media/Quicktime, or Flash video. Windows Media is a WMV file, and Quicktime is a MOV file. These have special snippets of code and require that your viewers have Windows Media or Quicktime on their computers. For this last reason, I prefer Flash video – it has the greatest likelihood that your visitors will have it installed.
Unfortunately, Flash is even tougher to embed. This requires creating a Flash player and saving it as an SWF file. Then you have to embed the SWF file on the HTML page.
Sounds easy, right?
The trouble with video is that it takes expertise, software, and sometimes equipment that you probably don’t have (and don’t want to mess with). So we look to easier ways to get videos online.
One option is to start a YouTube account, upload the video file (it accepts many formats) and let YouTube do the hard work for you. This has its own set of problems, though, especially in the limits YouTube sets for how long the videos can be, lack of control over quality, and the fact that your video will present other video suggestions to your users as well. You can check out Google Video, Vimeo, and Viddler for some alternatives with varying features, control, and ease of use.
At Notre Dame, we have a couple of hands-off options as well. They’re not as fast and easy as YouTube, but we have more control over quality and publishing. OIT’s Video Streaming service offers Windows Media streaming. AgencyND has produced the Video Channel, which takes the Flash video route (and also does streaming). Either way, this requires getting your video to OIT or OPAC and they take it from there. It usually takes a few days, but once it’s up the hard part is done. The Video Channel even offers an HTML snippet to embed any video on a webpage.
How could this be even easier?
I’d love to create a service as easy as YouTube’s, where ND users can upload a video file, select a few options, and have an easy embed option provided. University of California San Francisco has a embedding service that does some of this, for instance.
There are some logistical concerns (who can post, what kind of content can be posted, who is overseeing these, who is paying for the hosting, etc.) but they could be resolved. As usual, this comes down to resources. Still, I believe this would be a serious cost savings for the University through increased efficiency and decreased cost of software/hardware/outsourcing expenses. And by lowering the barrier to getting video online, we can be even more effective in our communications.
