# Video for web consumption

## Sources

Best: DV
(or another "classic" lightly compressed format).

Second-best: MPEG-4 AVC or VP9
(or another "modern" strongly compressed format),
with compression settings lowered most possible.

Tolerated: almost any format -
if in doubt just accept as-is.

Worst: Tolerated format transcoded into a "better" one.


## Fetching

Beware that a good source format is huge in size -
can literally take *days* to download over the Internet!


### videohost

To fetch video from a videohost like Vimeo Youtube,
try each of these until it succeeds:

	cclive 'http://example.com/the.url.single-quoted'
	youtube-dl 'http://example.com/the.url.single-quoted'
	get_flash_videos 'http://example.com/the.url.single-quoted'


## Transcoding

Move the source file(s) to subdirectory src.

Use transcoding script localvideowebencode.

Test if encoding work at all:

	localvideowebencode --compression dirty --sample src/the-source.dv

If image size is not too big, simply transcode with no options:

	localvideowebencode src/the-source.dv

Smaller image size leads to faster download
and less ressources needed to play.
Best is to pick a size which is "modulus 16"
(see localvideowebencode --help) for details),
e,g vga or 480p:

	localvideowebencode --size 480p src/the-source.dv

Some sources use sub-optimal refresh rate
(variable or very slow/fast).
Especially too fast rate is best to reduce to 20 or 30.
Here an example of setting both size and rate together:

	localvideowebencode --profile 480p25 src/the-source.dv

More complex example:

	localvideowebencode --video talkinghead --profile 480p25 --audio speech src/the-source.dv

Documentation:

	localvideowebencode --help


## Publishing

Push video files to media server,
e.g. media.biks.dk.

Reference thepublished files,
e.g. using a template in Ikiwiki.