Converting video for website

[Rosiepugh]

Can anybody help me???

Being behind the times, I discovered the the Quicktime movies on my website were no longer working automatically (just showing black box with arrow) and an easily missed “activate Quicktime” message. So, on researching I find I need to convert the videos to HTML5 (WebM, ogg, etc). I have an iweb site hosted by Macmate. Macmate’s advice was to convert using MIRO. However, all the info on Miro is outdated, and anyway, it seemed very complicated. In fact, there is scant info about converting individual vids post 2012.

Then I stumbled across JW player . After getting excited by the idea that all I would need to do it embed this player on the relevant web page, my brain started scrambling when I started to read the instructions. I watched a few Youtube tutorials but again, the process seemed to involve lots of coding and technical stuff that didn’t particularly relate (I have 12 very short, small movies – all around 2 mins or under on the same page). I am on the verge of paying someone to do this for me, but don’t want to do that and then discover there IS a simple, straightforward way of converting and uploading that a even a technophobe can understand.

Any advice very gratefully received.

[smrpix]

You're probably better off uploading your videos to YouTube or Vimeo and embedding them on your macmate page. YouTube, etc. will encode the videos for all platforms and keep them up to date. You don't need to do any conversions, you can upload your existing files.

Quicktime is being eliminated from windows machines completely, so your current workflow is going to become increasingly useless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5LCVz06ZPE

[Rosiepugh]

Many thanks. I had thought about doing this but because there are so many and they don't really relate to anything except in context of my page I did want to try another route. However, it may be the only answer for a technically challenged person like me! Thanks too for letting me know about Quicktime's impending demise. C

[SameSelf]

Quicktime is being eliminated from windows machines completely, so your current workflow is going to become increasingly useless.

Not completely true. Apple deprecated Quicktime for Windows, but the latest install, W7, still works on W8 and W10 machines. And the security flaw only works via the player and the web plug-ins. One can easily install all the needed components for NLE support without the player and web-plugins. Some professional NLE's even come with their own Quicktime installer if the NLE doesn't detect it on your machine. Plus the exploit requires the user to visit a malicious website or open a malicious file. My guess is that anyone who engages in this sort of behavior on their Windows machine, well, the Quicktime exploit is the least of their concerns. I will not be dumping my ProRes workflows any time soon.

[smrpix]

Apple deprecated Quicktime for Windows, but the latest install, W7, still works on W8 and W10 machines. And the security flaw only works via the player and the web plug-ins. One can easily install all the needed components for NLE support without the player and web-plugins. Some professional NLE's even come with their own Quicktime installer if the NLE doesn't detect it on your machine. Plus the exploit requires the user to visit a malicious website or open a malicious file. My guess is that anyone who engages in this sort of behavior on their Windows machine, well, the Quicktime exploit is the least of their concerns. I will not be dumping my ProRes workflows any time soon.

Agreed. But there's no point in moving forward with quicktime now if it's not essential. Indeed, the deprecation of quicktime and how web hosts and browser builders are handling it is a likely source of OP's current dilemma.

[SameSelf]

But it is essential. ProRes is the native acquisition format for many camera systems, and one of the few, near lossless codecs that goes all the way up to 8K, 4:4:4, and 12 bits. Adobe even announced they are working on native reading of ProRes files that will be fully licensed by Apple. If anything, this is probably how Apple prefers it as it prevents unlicensed usage of their codec. And as much as Apple wants the pros to only buy Mac Pros, that just isn't going to happen. Fully licensed implementations can actually write to ProRes on Windows, so ProRes is not going away anytime soon. It is beloved by pros, and they tend to get what they want.

[smrpix]

But it is essential. ProRes is the native acquisition format for many camera systems, and one of the few, near lossless codecs that goes all the way up to 8K, 4:4:4, and 12 bits. Adobe even announced they are working on native reading of ProRes files that will be fully licensed by Apple. If anything, this is probably how Apple prefers it as it prevents unlicensed usage of their codec. And as much as Apple wants the pros to only buy Mac Pros, that just isn't going to happen. Fully licensed implementations can actually write to ProRes on Windows, so ProRes is not going away anytime soon. It is beloved by pros, and they tend to get what they want.

Fine. Rosiepugh isn't using ProRes. Rosiepugh needs to have a more universal way to present his videos on the web.

[SameSelf]

Agreed. Quicktime as a delivery format is a bad idea.

[Rosiepugh]

Dear All

Very much appreciate your info, but still a bit foxed. From these responses am I right in concluding that there is no fairly straightforward way of converting to hmtl5 and uploading to my site? I was looking at "Easyhmtl5video": the batch conversion look pretty simple but then the instructions for uploading seem very complicated for someone who doesn't understand techno speak. So if I don't want to spend a week battling with this issue, or paying someone to do it for me, is is my only option uploading from youtube or Vimeo?

Thank you for your patience.

[smrpix]

So if I don't want to spend a week battling with this issue, or paying someone to do it for me, is is my only option uploading from youtube or Vimeo?

It's not the only option, but I've found absolutely no down sides. I've been using Vimeo Pro for the last four years.

Vimeo (and YouTube) are platform aware, so the videos will play on all devices. Privacy can be set so people can only view the videos by visiting my domain (If I so choose.) And Vimeo is providing the server space, sophisticated bandwidth management and statistics as part of the deal.

The software you're talking about appears to be a fly-by-night ripoff. No need to convert. Vimeo or YouTube can handle your current files.

If you want to do it the hard way:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/video
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Supported_media_formats
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/html5/client/how-to-embed-video-using-html5.html

[Rosiepugh]

Thanks so much. You have eliminated my main concern - although it is probably unlikely people would ever come across these strange little videos by chance, it bothered me having them viewable out of context. So the privacy setting and access through website sounds perfect. (I certainly DON'T want to do things the hard way!) Thanks again, a grateful customer!

[SameSelf]

I agree with smrpix's assessment. Everyone knows how to consume video in youtube. It is also easy to embed a youtube video into a webpage. Vimeo tends to be a little more elitist, and I am not sure how many consumers even know what it is. Plus there are paid levels of membership depending on your requirements. However, many pros prefer vimeo because they respect your copyright while youtube basically says, anything you upload is now ours including the copyright. So it all depends on your needs.