convert video to html 5 format while uploading

[beary]

Hope this is the right category.

Let's say a site is designed to allow a user to upload a video. The video will later be accessed by the user or others.

My understanding is the 3 formats are mp4, webm and ogg. If the user's video is in, say, avi or wmv format (or something other than the html 5 formats), is it essential for the user to convert the video themselves before upload, or can this somehow be done on the fly as it's being uploaded?

[Dormilich]

if you have the codecs and a converting tool (e.g. ffmpeg) installed on the server, you can do the conversion after the upload.

[beary]

Thanks for your quick answer. More questions.

1) Is this the only accepted (or possible) way of doing what I need?

2) When you say codecs, do you mean the H264, VP8 and Theora video codecs and the AAC and Vorbis audio codecs?

3) For a newbie (to this) like me, are there any good instructions for how to install ffmpeg and the codecs on a server? I've designed large php/mysql websites before, just never needed to install software.

4) Any idea how long it takes to convert a 1 minute video to the 3 formats?

[Dormilich]

1) don’t know. that’s how I’d do it.

2) yup

3) depends on whether you own the server. you have to install software, after all.

4) that depends on the input video (codec, size), the performance of the machine and the desired output video settings (better video takes longer to create).

[beary]

OK. Thanks again.

I'd appreciate anyone else who has further clues on question 3 above.

[Dormilich]

more clues for 3) depend on the system. if you don’t own the system (you’re not the sysadmin), then you can’t install anything, period. if you’re the sysadmin, install it like any other software. ffmpeg comes with installation instructions as do the codecs that you download. as for the rest, Google is your friend.

[beary]

@Dormilich
Oh right. Well initially I'm trying to get it working on wamp 2 on my local machine. But ultimately I'll be uploading to a web host's server. Sounds like you're saying that I need to make sure I choose a web host that specifically has ffmpeg installed already?

[Dormilich]

ask the web host’s support team, they know best what is possible.