uploading and adding video

brandofamily

I've done some reading, and the coding looks pretty simple... a lot of cut and paste stuff to be found... but I'm clueless on the format stuff as far as video...
Here's what I have... I have digital (DVD) videos of dance performances that I would like to host here on SM (Pro account) and show in a gallery at www.onbroadwaydancers.smugmug.com
What format would that be?
How would I get that into my computer to upload? (I have a DVD burner in computer)
How do I upload it to SM?
I've read there are many choices for viewing, which is best/ supported by most users?
If these answers are here and I missed them please point the way...
Thanks

Barb

brandofamily wrote:

I've done some reading, and the coding looks pretty simple... a lot of cut and paste stuff to be found... but I'm clueless on the format stuff as far as video...
Here's what I have... I have digital (DVD) videos of dance performances that I would like to host here on SM (Pro account) and show in a gallery at www.onbroadwaydancers.smugmug.com
What format would that be?
How would I get that into my computer to upload? (I have a DVD burner in computer)
How do I upload it to SM?
I've read there are many choices for viewing, which is best/ supported by most users?
If these answers are here and I missed them please point the way...
Thanks

Hi Anthony

This may start you out :

http://www.smugmug.com/help/video2

http://www.smugmug.com/help/video3

DodgeV83

brandofamily wrote:

I've read there are many choices for viewing, which is best/ supported by most users?
If these answers are here and I missed them please point the way...
Thanks

If your using Smugmug to *host* the videos, then there is only one choice for viewing, and thats Mpeg-1. I use Tmpgenc to encode my Mpeg-1 videos, if your getting them off of a DVD (Mpeg-2) then you'll need the Mpeg-2 plugin for Tmpgenc too. Don't worry, all of this is free

It sounds like you aren't too familiar with encoding video...lets do a step by step.

1. I'm assuming you own the rights to this DVD and its ok for you to post it online right? If so, you will need Dvd Decrypter, or some other DVD ripping device to get the videos onto your computer. Hopefully all of the performances are split up by chapter, which would let the program rip the DVD so each chapter (performance) is its own file. If not then you'll need to split up the .vob files yourself (hint, renaming the .vob file to .mpg usually works just fine).

2. Pick a Mpeg-1 encoder, I use Tmpgenc because it gives me more feature, you may find the FX program in the Smugmug help section easier to use. Your choice. Encode the videos to Mpeg-1 making sure to keep the longest video under 16MB. I like to use this bitrate calculator to help me do this

http://www.3ivx.com/support/calculator/index.html

Personally, if the bitrate is 500k or less, I'd keep the resolution 320x240 (assuming its a 4:3 recording, 432x240 if not). I don't like to go up to 640x480 (640x360 widescreen) unless I can get the bitrate up to 2000k, which means the video needs to be less than 1 minute long assuming 64k audio. Here is how I break it down.

1 minute => 2000k bitrate at 640x480 (640x360 for widescreen) Example
between 1 minute and 2 minutes I use 1000k at 320x240 (432x240) for widescreen) Example
between 2-4 minutes I drop the audio to 32k and use 500k at 320x240 (432x240 for widescreen) Example

Anything over 4 minutes will not work (for me) with Mpeg-1 and a 16MB limit.

3. Uploading...well you should have no problem with uploading

4. I like to force Traditional mode in my video galleries, because it shows the caption under the thumbnail. I use the caption to describe the video so they know what they are clicking on.


Alternatives:
Do you have your own hosting? If so then you can get MUCH higher quality videos by hosting your videos there, and embedding them here. Here is a thread on how the code to use when embedding video
http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=28076

Here are some examples of that

http://www.frelowphotos.com/gallery/1528411
http://www.frelowphotos.com/gallery/1700758

I've also been experimenting with Flash, but I've had some trouble getting the buffering to work right all of the time. Here's an example of that

http://www.frelowphotos.com/gallery/1697588