17 | | * Convert your file to the xvid format. For linux users, you can use [http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/download.html ffmpeg], Linux, Mac, or Windows users can download [http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html mplayer] and use the mencoder tool it provides. See [http://www.engagemedia.org/help/how-to-compress-video Engage Media tutorial] for details on the settings. Here's an example of me using mencode on an m4v file: |
| 20 | * Convert your file to a format that will make a file small enough to upload to your web site (for example, the xvid format). Linux users, you can use [http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/download.html ffmpeg]; Linux, Mac, or Windows users can download [http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html mplayer] and use the mencoder tool it provides. See [http://www.engagemedia.org/help/how-to-compress-video Engage Media tutorial] for details on the settings. |
| 21 | * At this point, ideally your web site would be configured to accept xvid files and convert them on the fly to a flash format. However, you can also manually do that using Mplayer, which can convert your xvid file to an ogg file or an flv (flash) file or to another format suitable for displaying in a web browser. |
| 22 | * Your web site should include a flash player ([http://flowplayer.org/ Flow Player] is a free software option). |
| 23 | |
| 24 | == Real working examples == |
| 25 | |
| 26 | === Linux === |
| 27 | |
| 28 | Here's an example of using mencode on an m4v file: |
21 | | * At this point, ideally your web site would be configured to accept xvid files and convert them on the fly to a flash format. However, you can also manually do that using Mplayer, which can convert your xvid file to a flv file. Here's me doing that with ffmpeg: |
| 32 | |
| 33 | Given the complexity of mplayer/mencoder (it does a lot of things), I found ffmpeg to be much simpler to use. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | Here's an example of converting a file created by the [http://www.theflip.com/ flip video camcorder] into a playable flash file. The flip video camcorder uses a wide aspect ratio (1280 x 720) - with the -s 640x360 option I'm preserving the aspect ratio, but cutting it in half to make it smaller. In addition, the flip video camcorder by default has a high bit rate of 10,455 kb per second. I'm reducing the bit rate to 1,500 kbits (with -b 1500k) after experimenting with the best quality to size ratio. |
| 36 | |