ONLINE VIDEO ON A BUDGET
GEEK ALERT: Here's where we get geeky. If any or all of the following technical inforation seems too confusing, ask your IT and server folks to translate.
Part Four: Posting your video on the Web
What is the best format online?
Posting video on the Web requires exporting (rendering) your edited clips in a format that meets two main criteria - (1) the clips must be in a format the Web can display and (2) they must be in a format that the server hosting the files can handle.
The most common video options
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Most video is going to go onto the Web as MPEG-4 files through YouTube or as Flash files (FLVs or SWFs) on your privately owned or commercial servers. (In third place is video that streams as a WMV file through Windows Media Player. Less popular is video rendered for playback through RealPlayer.)
In most cases, it pays to work backward. Figure out first where your video files will end up and what kinds of formats the server is configured to handle. Is there a video editing program that automatically renders files in that format? If so, that software may be your best bet.
If your video editing software program does not output to the right format, you may need to invest in a separate compression program such as Sorenson Squeeze that can convert various files into a number of different Web-ready formats. Sorenson Squeeze costs an eye-popping $475 to $500, but many of its competitors cost even more.
(And if you have proprietary programs you are required to use, you are on your own -- and good luck.)
If you want to use Flash video
Most online newsrooms that plan to host video on their own servers or commercial servers will likely want to render clips in Adobe's Flash unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise.
Flash can generate video in either the SWF or FLV formats. FLV is best for video because the audio and video on SWF files can go out of synch (especially in longer clips). Video clips rendered as FLVs provide top quality and smooth playback. Flash can also encase clips in players that can be skinned ("skinning" allows you to alter designs to your color choices and graphic elements). However, servers that offer easy streaming of FLVs can cost significantly more than the other options.
Now that Adobe has purchased Macromedia, which previously owned Flash and Dreamweaver, we can expect to see Adobe integrating Flash video into all their products. For example, Adobe Premiere Elements now offers the option to export video clips as FLVs. Dreamweaver is a Web production program that will automatically produce the HTML code needed to insert FLV video files into Web pages. Dreamweaver add-ons called "extensions" can help encase the FLV clips in Flash player that visitors can use to control playback.
Again, to stream FLV files on your servers requires special configuration. There are commercial servers set up to stream FLVs for you, at a price.
The free Windows WMV format can be an attractive option for some. Again, the challenge is to choose a video editing program that automatically renders your files as WMVs, or you must invest in a compression program to do so. Again, the server where the files will be housed must also be configured to stream WMV files.
If you plan to use YouTube
The lowest-cost (free) option for hosting is YouTube. YouTube prefers clips in the MPEG-4 (Divx, Xvid) format at 320 by 240 resolution. Programs such as Adobe Premiere Elements produce MPEG-4 files. You can also import iMovie's MOV files into Quicktime Pro ($29.99 downloadable) to convert them into the MPEG-4 format.
To upload videos to YouTube, first sign up for a free account. (You can apply for a special Director account, however, the only benefit is that you can post videos longer than 10 minutes, which is not something news sites should be doing.)
Once you are a member, just click on the Upload button to send your videos to the YouTube site. Again, YouTube prefers clips in the MPEG-4 format at 320 by 240 resolution. (You can send video in other formats but there is no guarantee if or when they will be posted.)
After you upload the clip, it can take a few minutes to an hour or more for the video to go "Live!." YouTube provides you the HTML coding you will need to send people a link to the site as well as the coding to embed the video directly into your Web page. (The URL and embed codes are located next to the clips themselves.)
At Spartanedge.com, the Web site produced by MSU J-School students, we often reduce the size of the video compared to YouTube's settings, since doing so improves sharpness.
Benefits and drawbacks of the YouTube option
YouTube is an amazement. According to Church Communications Pro , it is the fastest-growing site on the Web, with 65,000 new videos added each day. More than a million videos are streamed to visitors each day, and yours could easily be among them.
The fact that YouTube will host your videos for free matters because video chews up enormous server space and it can be a challenge to make video stream without choking. Being on YouTube also means that you may be exposed to new audiences who may find their way back to your site.
But the bad news is that YouTube does not want you to link back to your publication, nor does it want you charging for ads on the video clips you upload. Newspaper sites that have added daily newscasts report that adding a few seconds of ads up front can be a significant new source of revenue, so that may be an option you don't want to lose.
While there has long been talk that YouTube will soon begin sharing revenues with the creators of popular clips, it hasn't happened yet. There is also concern that YouTube may start inserting ads at the beginning or end of each clip.
If there are no other options, it is better to provide YouTube video than nothing at all. It might also make sense as an intial strategy, to gain experience without a significant investment. At some point, however, that free hosting on YouTube might not seem so free.
Online video on a budget
Bonnie Bucqueroux teaches digital jouralism at Michigan State University's School of Journalism and is a self-described Web geek.