Adding Videos to Web Pages

Creating Video for Your Website

In order to create video for your website, you'll need equipment like:

• Video camera - After you shoot your video, it will have to be transferred to your PC. Analog and some basic digital video cameras require the use of a video capture device and software designed to encode your video into a digital file format.
• Webcam - Video file should save to your hard drive.
• Digital stills camera with video/movie mode – the video file saves to your camera's memory just as with still digital photos. Transfer from your camera to your PC following the instructions provided with your equipment.

Editing Your Video File

Before adding videos to web pages it important to edit the videos because of their size. Your goal should be to trim down the size of the file to a few hundred Kb. Video editing software is available to help with things like shortening the length of footage and reducing frame size. Most homemade videos contain a lot of unnecessary footage. Bring down the time and keep it to the point and interesting. Target your market. Women tend to like longer videos while men most often watch shorter YouTube-like clips.

As you edit your video, try different compression schemes. Find the size that brings you the file size you need without compromising image quality. You'll have to experiment a little to find what works best.

This is the stage where you'll have to decide what file format you'll use. Not everyone owns the same kinds of computer, and what software they have installed will make the difference of whether or not they can view your video. If you create your file using Windows Movie Maker, for instance, it won't be universally accessible. Do your best to choose a format that can work for the most viewers. If you can't, be sure to note what software is needed to view your video so visitors to your site are aware of what software they need.

Video Editing Software:

• Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 11
• Adobe Premiere Elements 4
• Power Director 6
• ULead Video Studio

Standard File Types

After you've edited your file, you'll need to save it in a common web-video format. These file types include:

• .avi
• .mpeg
• .mov
• .wmv

One other option you'll probably want to play with once you're comfortable working with video files is the steaming media file formats For these you might need a special server. Of the movie and audio files used on the web, the top three are:

• Windows Media
• Real Media
• Quicktime

Of these, Windows Media and Real Media are used most often, but a good number of consumers think Quicktime Movies offers the best quality along with more features.

Check With Your Web Host Before Adding Videos to Web Pages

It's important to check with the company hosting your website before you add videos to your web pages because adding videos might surpass your bandwidth limits and result in extra charges. Once you have talked to your web host and are aware of how much bandwidth you have, it is time to embed your file.

Embed Your Video

As you embed your video, it's important to realize that different web browsers don't view videos with equal results. The same code doesn't necessarily work in all browsers. To get around this problem, it is best to use both new and obsolete HTML embed tags. (<embed> and <object>).

Other Options:

• Another option is to add your video to YouTube. Once it is available on YouTube, go to Edit Video page and you'll find an Embed HTML box that holds the code you will need to paste into your web page.

• VideoDownloader 1.1.1 Firefox Video Downloader is a tool that not only lets you download from YouTube but over 60 other sites as well.