How to Export Video Files to the Web

It's increasingly likely that, in addition to authoring DVD versions of your edited video projects and copying back to tape in the camcorder, you'll want to configure your movie for sharing with friends and family members over the Internet. With the widespread use of broadband connections, many people are now realizing the benefits of being able to send and receive good quality video clips at a speed that simply wasn't possible on dial up connections.

Also, more and more people are exchanging short video clips via their cell phones, PlayStation Portables, and iPod Video devices, so why not take full advantage of this exciting new range of distribution options?

All popular video editing and export programs contain utilities designed to enable the easy, hassle-free, conversion of your full screen digital video files to those formats appropriate to sharing over limited bandwidth. Even though your broadband Internet connection might be fast, it still has its restrictions and there's no way you'll be able to share your clips unless they're reduced in window size (the size at which they're viewed onscreen) and file size. That entails compression using similar techniques appropriate to DVD authoring, only with much greater compression rates.

In order to view video files over the Internet, the end user will need to use a software player. Common examples of these include Microsoft Windows Media Player, Apple QuickTime, and Real Networks' Real Player. Other choices include Macromedia Flash and DivX (although the latter is more suited to desktop computer and disk playback). By using the first two, you'll cover most of the user base, and there are versions for Windows PCs as well as Apple Mac.

All the programs featured in the previous pages will point you towards the use of presets according to the likely user bandwidth (the estimated Internet speed of those who will download your movies). At its simplest, this will be three settings: slow dial-up modem, medium speed broadband (also referred to as DSL), and faster broadband. If a user is accessing the clip via a company network, this can be even higher. In many North American and Western European countries, it's reasonable to assume that most broadband users will have DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) connection speeds of at least 512kbps, so you may want to tailor your files accordingly. There's nothing to stop you from producing, and making available more than one version of your video, of course. Whether you create snail speed dial-up modem versions is your choice, but with so many broadband users, few people bother these days.

In order to make your movie available to others over the Internet, you'll need to place it onto a Web server. That isn't as complicated as it sounds; Microsoft, Apple, Pinnacle, and Ulead all offer free Web hosting services where your video clips, photos, and sounds can be saved, just sign up, follow the wizards at the end of the export process and you're almost done. In most cases, the system will even help you to send out an email to your friends and family informing them of your latest offering and where it can be found.