Video compression for posting on your website.

So, you have a website and you want to put a video in it.  Do you want to embed the video in a web page?  This means that the user/viewer will watch the video ON your webpage.  The other alternative is for users/viewers to download your video.  If you really want people to watch your video, however, it’s a good idea to have it available right there in front of their faces embedded in your website.  All they have to do is watch the video.  In order to embed a video file in your website, it must be in FLV (Flash Video) file format.  In “settings” you can chose the most recent verson of Flash Player you would like your file to be compatible with.  Many people will have the latest version of Flash Player on their computer, but you can choose the 2nd to last version to be safe.  If the user/viewer doesn’t have a compatible version of Flash Player downloaded, your website will prompt them to download it.

If you’re using iMovie or Final Cut Express/Pro to create your video file, when you export the file (or “share” in iMovie), choose the FLV format.  This is a big job for the compressor built into the software, so it will take a while.  This is a good time to take a break!  Last time I exported a 5 minute digital video from Final Cut Express, it took about 20 minutes.

You might choose to export your video in a different format, such as Quicktime, Windows Media Player, MPEG4, AVI, or others.  You can use any format you want if you are posting your video on your website for download, although it’s a good idea to post a file to be played in a PC program (like WMP) and a file to be played in Quicktime (on the Mac) – or an MPEG4 or AVI that should play anywhere.  For sites like YouTube or Vimeo, use the formats they suggest.

How to compress:

In Final Cut: choose Export>Using Quicktime Conversion, and then choose the format you want to convert to from the drop down menu.  You can keep the default settings or adjust them.

In iMovie: choose Export (or Share)>Expert Settings, and then choose the format from the menu of expert settings.