Video frame sizes and output formats [#798844]

We discuss the new features in video 4.x
About how to handle the video sizes (transcoded by ffmpeg), the actual frame sizes (the html elements via cck formatters) and the output formats (.flv, .mov, etc.)

This issue is born here : http://drupal.org/node/750596#comment-2951742

Comments

Comment #1

Jerome F commented 14 May 2010 at 11:30

Hi, the "Video frame size :" settings with a select list widget is great. (where do those sizes come from ? random ?) What will happen when one selects other ?

Now I wonder, what if on the site there are several sizes for each video. For example, I use 640 x 360, 853 x 480, 1208 x 720 in order to let the visitor choose in which resolution he wants to watch the video (what if the connection is slow, if he wants to see more acurate details...). That's an expected feature that many video providers give (youtube does, vimeo does, etc.). As things are at the moment, I assume there is only one size defined sitewide, do I get this right ?

Same point concerning the output formats, if there is only one select list widget, how is it possible to provide several formats on the site : example, flash for those who like fullscreen, mov for those who can't read flash, wmv for those who like proprieritary material ;-) and don't have quicktime ? If I get this right that choice is done in admin/settings/video/players but I don't get how this is managed in the transcoders section.

In short, would it be possible for the visitor to choose to watch the video in the size and output format he wants ?

(For the time being, I did this with several cck file video fields and the corresponding cck formaters, the created a view to list all these and via a views custom field I have an if statement that handles the titles "quicktime", flashvideo", "windows media video" with if statements to check if the video is available in each format. But I don't use ffmpeg and require the user to post the videos in the exact sizes and file formats.)

PS. off topic: I installed ffmpeg wrapper, there's a lot I need to figure out about how to configure the codecs, there's no documentation available for now and no README in the last dev of the module, the readme in beta2 doesn't seem to help for the codecs configuration. I posted a comment in a related issue http://drupal.org/node/788602

Comment #2

iLLin commented 14 May 2010 at 13:14

The select dropdown is managed under the metadata tab in the video configuration. Everytime you upload a video you can select a different size. So the size is associated to the video, not site wide. In the latest 4.x-dev version I save the size selected size with the video and then when its transcoded, it uses those dimensions as the -s option for ffmpeg.

My thoughts on multiple sizes is to use a CCK field multiple times. I haven't tested multiple videos on one node yet but its on my list. Not sure what types of problems will arise in doing this, but we will work through them and get them fixed. As far as selecting what size they want. Well we can create a cck formatter for this field that will take the multiple videos and arrange them with multiple sizes... We could also create play lists like this. Just rambling here...

My thoughts on multiple conversions. I think we could maybe build ffmpeg actions or something, that would run through multiple ffmpeg commands and save each format you want to create. Still thinking about how to do this.