What I Know About Web Video

Last Updated 2/18/09^*

Making Money Off Your Web Videos
Scott Kirsner has a list of websites that pay for your content.

Here's my short list of sites that do ad revenue splits:

• Atom Films (and sister site Addicting Clips)
• Adotube
• Blip.tv (compatible with Miro)
• Brightcove
• Caatchi
• Jaman
• LiveRail
• Metacafe
• Revver - careful: may go out of business soon
• Start Your Tube (startyourtube.com)
• Taboola
• Vuze
• YouTube (you have to apply and be approved - but as of Feb 2009 they are also testing paid downloads)

Free Hosting for Web Video

Here is a short list of sites that don't pay you money, but will host your content free: Babelgum, Current.tv, Dailymotion, Funnyordie.com, Guba.com, iKlipz, Kaltura, Porkolt.com, Vimeo

Staying Legal

If you're posting web video, especially if you are making money off them, you should be getting the necessary clearances, and following these Guidelines for Fair Use in Online Video.

FreeSound.org has Creative Common sound effects.
Archive.org is great for public domain music and stock footage. (Keep performance rights and use of image in mind.)
CCMixter has Creative Commons music samples.

Optimizing for Auto-Compression

Sites like YouTube will squish down what you give them. I have heard it recommended that you compress to their specs. (YouTube has two aspect ratios SD 4x3 and HD 16x9 and hosts two formats, the fast-streaming Flash .flv with Sorenson Spark H.263 encoding and mono mp3 audio; and the H.264, Stereo AAC version they added for AppleTV and iPhone use.)

As for the resolutions, the minimum on YouTube is 320x240 pixels; the max is 720x1280. Sites like Vimeo and Blip.tv were gaining in popularity because they offer better quality video. Remember that the site can only compress the video to look about as good as it's given to them. Garbage in = garbage out.

What are the best resolutions for web video (if you have to choose)?

Alex Lindsay of the Pixel Corps stated on TWiM86 that the web seems to be consolidating around two resolutions: 640 x 360 which is the maximum for iPhone and iPod video and 960 x 540 which is reasonable for HD on a tv. Footage of almost any kind can get converted into single frame 960 x 540 just by dropping it into iMovie '08.

Of course, you can't go wrong mastering in SD (480 x 640) or DV (486 x 720) or even 720pHD (720 x 1280). The 1080i or 1080p HD formats still seem like overkill for web. (See above. 480i and 720p are YouTube's new standards.)

Different sites allow different formats. Tube Mogul has a handy chart.

Ken Stone has a great tutorial on going out of Final Cut Pro to a number of H264 formats for web distribution.

Video File Conversion Software
A cheap program that can go between many formats is great; but a true web video mastermind needs a professional compression suite to output in the many competing web formats.

Media Cleaner, Sorenson Squeeze, and Compressor are the big three. With a little bit of training, you can do automated compression for web videos. Apple's ubiquitous Quicktime has a Pro version that's pretty versatile when it comes to format conversions.

Although I haven't used it personally, I'll pass on Mark Frauenfelder's recommendation for VisualHub:

From the maker of the free iSquint (an application I use all the time to convert videos to iPod format) comes VisualHub, a $23.32 application that does everything iSquint does and more, including fitting "up to 18 hours of video on one DVD" that you can play on "any standalone DVD player."

--Boingboing.net

I have also heard recommendations for Handbrake. I mostly use compressor, Media Cleaner and Quicktime Pro.

File Formats and Free Players

Quicktime and Windows Media players come in free versions that support a variety of formats (and codecs). DivX encoding seems to be too complicated for most web users, requiring a separate codec to be installed in the player.

Google Video originally wanted everyone to use the open source VLC player which pretty much plays everything and will continue to play everything, since it is open source. Speaking of open-ness, a strong newcomer is Miro, a more 'open' web tv player than the buzzed about but handcuffed Joost. (See this biased but illuminating comparison of Miro and Joost.) As of Sept. 2008, Joost is abandoning a downloadable player for a Hulu-like web interface.

"Online" Editing
Cinematech on online video editing. Cellsea, Crackle a.k.a. Grouper, Eyespot, Kaltura, etc.

Getting Web Video on Your TV

I've had a strong recommendation for software like TVersity which allows you to stream videos and music from your PC to a PS3 or XBox. Of course Apple is pushing AppleTV which streams your iTunes collection and can play podcasts, and rented or purchased media from the iTunes store. Netflix has the Roku box.

Many new HD televisions also accept DVI inputs so you can potentially connect them as a second monitor or have a stand-alone computer like the Mac Mini that acts as a so-called 'set-top box.' Juice it up with a Boxee dongle.

If you just want to take directly from your computer to your tv, consider programs like Plex Media (Mac Leopard only) and other programs on this wiki list.

Getting Video from your TV to Your Computer

If you want to go in reverse, streaming TV content to a computer, I recommend Slingbox.

If you want to 'capture' or 'ingest' or 'digitize' video into your computer, you'll need a video card or firewire solution and probably an NLE (non-linear editor, a program like Final Cut Pro or Avid). That's a subject unto itself.

MORE:
Rocketboom recommended web video tools
Ten Things a Marketer Should Know About Online Video
Notes on Online Video Distribution from LAFCPUG Oct 07
LonelyGirl15 Creators get $5M and Brightcove ends Pay Media Service

* I'm no expert in this arena -- I have trouble distinguishing between types of compression and encoding formats. I'm going to make this post like the popular HD Camera Comparison and continue to update what I know about web video as I learn it.