Though I’ve done a healthy amount of video production in my past, I haven’t been involved in the big online video push of the last two years, from a producer standpoint. As a viewer, it’s never been simpler. I haven’t worried about video codecs in ages.
Last week, I finally got around to uploading a video. Some friends and I create We Were Aces: A Che Gomez Wifflementary back in 2002. We always wanted to put it online, but getting it small enough and viewable by most browsers was a huge hurdle. For five years, it sat around on a DVD, but now you can see it here.
Producing web video, like watching it, is easier than ever before. But it’s still pretty hard. Since my copy is on a DVD, I had to find software that could extract a video file. I felt like a investment banker walking into a back alley looking for some smack, trudging the dirty web. One tutorial placed “home movie” in quotes, assuming I was ripping a hollywood movie. I chuckled, figuring I was one of few who was actually extracting my own work.
Finally, I remembered HandBrake, recommended by a couple friends in the past. It’s about as easy as it gets right now. Still, there are a million settings, none of which seem to actually affect quality of file size. And it still made me feel dirty.