Created: 2017.06.14
A client's website uses the Bigvideo background-video plugin. The client's video is hosted on YouTube, but Bigvideo doesn't support YouTube streaming.
This means that the video will need to be self-hosted.
Popular hosts like YouTube apply their own compression settings. YouTube tutorials don't spend much time on compression, only on getting files into the format that YouTube expects. As we are self-hosting, we need to get the compression settings right.
- Export for HTTP Live Streaming
- Using Compressor to Make HD Videos for YouTube or Vimeo (Revised Instructions)
- Vimeo - Video Compression Basics
- Handbrake » Web Optimize Video » Settings
Doing the compression at source gives the author full creative control of any optimisation that needs to occur, to bring the video down to an acceptable size - e.g length, dimensions, frame-rate, lossy compression, and including or removing the audio track.
- Final Cut Pro X + Compressor
- Handbrake transcoder
Download your YouTube videos from YouTube: YouTube > Creator Studio > Video Manager > Videos > Select video > Download MP4
The (deprecated) Bigvideo plugin recommends hosting with Vimeo PRO then downloading the generated mp4 file.
Vimeo's compression settings are superior (visually) to YouTube's, but the subscription is USD 17 / month , billed annually, forever.
In order to find out, what codec is used with your videos, you can use the following three applications to analyse a sample video file. VideoSpec (discontinued) MediaInfo (cheap) Media Inspector (cheap)
