If you are producing video content that you intend to publish on your website, you need to make sure it is in the right format so that it can be displayed without any issues. That format is not necessarily the same as the one that your video camera will use to encode the videos that you record – which is why you will may need to convert the format.
“What Format is Best?”
The first thing you need to do is determine the video format that is required to publish videos on your website. While there are several options, the ‘best’ one really depends on the way in which you plan to publish the videos:
- Upload and embed from online video platforms
Arguably the most popular way to publish videos on a website is to upload the file to an online video platform and then embed it from there. If you go down that route, you should check the recommended encoding settings for the platform you want to use.
For example if you upload and embed videos from YouTube you should follow their recommended upload encoding settings. The format used in those settings is MP4 with H.264.
- Self-host and publish HTML5 videos
Another option is to self-host the video files and publish them as HTML5 videos. While this gives you more control, it is also more complicated as you need to take into account the compatibility of the video format as well as its bandwidth usage.
In most cases MP4 with H.264 is used to publish HTML5 videos as it is universally compatible with browsers. However at times other versions of videos are created in WebM with VP8 or VP9 to optimize bandwidth usage in browsers that support them.
From that it should be clear that is things stand the ‘best’ format for publishing videos on a website in most cases is MP4 with H.264 – and for the most part it is the format you’ll want to convert your videos to.
Converting Video Formats
Now that you know how to choose the right format, the next step is simple: Just convert your video to it.
Nowadays there are lots of software available to convert video formats, and you can easily look for one that fits your requirements. Most will be able to convert to MP4 with H.264, so you shouldn’t have any issues on that front.
Instead of downloading and installing software however, you could use a web-based converter. It may be more convenient to convert short clips, and you can even convert them on mobile devices right after recording them. To see how easy it is you can visit www.videoconverter.com/how-to-convert-webm-to-mp3.html.
Conclusion
By making sure your videos are in the right format before you upload and publish them, you’ll avoid a lot of unnecessary hassle. More importantly you’ll be able to ensure that your videos are displayed properly and viewers have no issues when they want to watch them on your website.