How to use a video clip on web page
Hi,
I am doing some upkeep to a retirement home website. They would like to put a video clip on their site that advertises their facility. The video is under production at this time.
I am going to ask them to put the video into a video file format and put it on a cd so that I can load it on the server so one can link to it. But I really don't know what format to request as I don't work with videos. Should I ask for a .mpeg file, .avi file, .mov file? All three? What is the best format? The video could be 10-12 minutes long. What information should I be asking for from them, size of file?
I am assuming the production company is capable of putting this into a file format for me. Haven't spoken to them directly though.
Any advice you can provide would be really helpful.
Thanks
Sarahb
Suzanne posted this at 21:09 — 2nd April 2004.
She has: 5,507 posts
Joined: Feb 2000
Mpeg is the most portable as it allows the user to use whatever they want to view it.
The file size depends on the frame size and the frame rate and the quality (compression) as well as the length of the movie and is generally influenced by your bandwidth limitations.
That said, I cannot imagine a 10-12 video on a retirement home that I would want to view over the web. Why not provide the information in text/html and then provide photos of the areas. The video could be reduced to interviews, or short takes of activities and thus be more viewable, while simultaneously getting the important information in a more accessible format.
tomaine2002 posted this at 01:43 — 4th April 2004.
They have: 83 posts
Joined: Apr 2004
Maybe you should ask them for all 3. I'm sure they could easily put it in all 3 formats. They probably woudn't even charge you. This way you can try out each format before you decide
Megan posted this at 13:15 — 5th April 2004.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
That's probably the best way - have at least two formats and allow the user to choose. A lot of people probably don't even know which formats they can and cannot view. They may be familiar with just one of them and if they don't see it there they may think they see it at all.
I somewhat agree with Suzanne about the usefullness of the video. It's also going to take a really long time to download for most people. One idea would be to offer a free CD available upon request. Hook it up with a decent interface and add in some other material you would want to save for people who are seriously interested.
Megan
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GA Media posted this at 07:20 — 8th April 2004.
They have: 6 posts
Joined: Sep 2003
Why not encode all of the formats yourself?
OSS VIDEO CONVERTER http://www.onestopsoft.com/video-converter.html
this program does excellent batch files and can convert from avi/mpeg to wmv, rm and mov quite well. I prefer the wmv becuase of the streaming properties on a windows media server box. It can do any web compression from 56K to 1MB and can do it quite easily and fast. It is shareware for a trial but purchase price is really reasonable.
Regards,
Lee
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