Delivering Video Online

Video on the Web has one major problem: video files are huge. Delivering large video files online is a problem because people can't download them quickly enough to make them usable. There are two possible ways to handle this issue:

1. Cut your video files down to small clips that can be downloaded in a reasonable amount of time.
2. Stream your video, using HTTP streaming or a streaming server.

Real Video, Windows Media, MPEG and Quicktime are the most common video formats for both streaming and non-streaming situations. Each can be played on both Macintosh and PC, assuming the right player is installed.

Keep files you don't stream small, usually under 10 MB. If they are larger, then they should probably be streamed.

When a file is streamed, it is broken into a series of tiny packets that are then reassembled by the player in the correct order. The advantage of creating all these tiny pieces is that the pieces download more quickly and can be played before the file is entirely downloaded. For a very large file (which most video files are), this is really the only way to avoid huge delays while waiting for a download.

Streaming is also the only way in which live video can be watched, since by its very nature it's not possible for it to ever be downloaded in full.

All the digital video formats used to deliver video over the Web are compressed — that is, some of the data is eliminated in order to create a smaller file. This is what causes some of the artifacting and pixelization you may have seen in online video. Another way for the file size to be made smaller is if the actual picture is small. All of this means that video files online never look as good as TV images.

Usually the players for streaming files are free to the user. It's the server software and encoding software used by the creator of the video and audio that costs money.

As you look for a Web host that offers video hosting, be sure to pay attention to how many simultaneous users you can handle. If you plan to do live events or put up files that will be very popular, you will need more simultaneous licenses.

Some Web hosts advertise HTTP streaming instead of offering a server streaming solution. Don't be fooled; HTTP streaming is not true streaming. While the file is still broken down into pieces, each piece is downloaded one at a time by the client, who then has to wait for enough of them to download before the clip can be played continuously. If you or your users have a slow download rate, they'll be waiting a while before they see anything.

Server-side streaming controls the rate at which it hands out data, sometimes scaling the file “on the fly” to suit the requesting computer. The result is a stream suited exactly to the download speed available, with virtually no wait involved to view the video.

Exporting a Movie

Using Premiere, you can generate files that can be placed directly onto the Web, or you can run them through a streaming encoding application:

1. Choose File > Export > Movie.
2. Choose a location to save your file to and give it a name.
3. Click the Settings button and choose the settings you want to use for file type, video compression, key frames and audio. For example, if you are saving a short clip for display on the Web, you might select:

   General

   File Type: QuickTime
   Range: Entire Sequence
   Check off: Export Video, Export Audio

   Video

   Compressor: Sorenson Video
   Frame size: 360h x 240v
   Frame Rate: 15 (If the final file is too big, try playing with the frame rate to decrease the size.)
   Quality: 60% (If the final file is huge, this would be another setting to tweak in decreasing the size.)

4. Close the Settings window and hit Save. Exporting can be a lengthy process, especially for long clips, so you might choose to start this right before going on a break or at the end of the day.

Once you have exported the file, you can embed it in a Web page using HTML or run it through a streaming encoding application to produce a streamable file.

Putting a Movie in a Web Page

You can either link to a movie file or embed it in a Web page. To create a link, simply use the standard anchor tag:

<a href="filename.mov">Movie file name</a>

The code for embedding a Quicktime movie in a Web page is a little more complex:

<object classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" width="360" height="256" codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
<param name="src" value="filename.mov">
<param name="autoplay" value="true">
<param name="controller" value="true">
<param name="loop" value="false">
<embed src="filename.mov" width="360" height="256" autoplay="true" controller="true" loop=false pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/"></embed>
</object>

Note that although this code is for a movie with the dimensions of 360x240, an extra 16 pixels have been added to the height to accommodate the playback controls.

Capturing a Frame for a Still Image

You can export any frame in an Adobe Premiere project to use as a still image:

1. Place the Edit line in the Timeline window at the frame you want to export.
2. Choose File > Export > Frame.
3. Click Settings and choose the file type you prefer. To create a high quality file, choose TIFF. You can always turn the TIFF into a JPEG using a graphics editing application.
4. Click Next. In the Video category, specify the frame size and color depth.
5. Click OK to close the Export Frame Settings dialog box.
6. Specify a location and filename, and then click Save.

Exporting a Streaming Movie

You can also use Premiere to generate streaming Quicktime, Windows Media and RealPlayer files, eliminating the need to run a file you export through a streaming encoding application:

1. Choose File > Export > Adobe Media Encoder.
2. Choose a location to save your file to and give it a name.
3. Click the Settings dialog box to choose the streaming format and settings you want to use.
4. Close the Settings window and hit Save. As mentioned, exporting can take a while, so you may want to do this at the end of the day or right before taking a break.

Putting a Streaming Movie in a Web Page

To link to a streaming file, simply use the standard anchor HTML tag:

<a href="filename.rm">Media file name</a>

Embedding a streaming file in a Web page isn't done terribly often, and the code varies depending on what kind of streaming file you are using. Refer to the documentation that comes with your streaming server to implement embedded streaming code correctly.

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