Hi, I have to add self-hosted videos. Which compression software do you use and which settings (e. g. in Handbrake) to make them small but still ok for viewing in 1920x1080?
Thank you,
Jan
Handbrake
mp4 Media File - 23,7 MB → mp4 Media File - 5,3 MB
mp4 Media File - 23,7 MB → webM Media File - 5,2 MB
<video id="vid-bg" playsinline autoplay muted loop>
<source src="video.webm" type="video/webm">
<source src="video.mp4" type="video/mp4">
</video>
#vid-bg {
position: absolute;
z-index: -2;
object-fit: cover;
width:100%;
height:100%;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
}
4 Likes
I have a Vimeo account that I use for hosting client videos. But, when the need arises that I need to self host a video, I will upload the video to Vimeo; let them encode it; download the 1920x1080 version, and then delete the uploaded video. That might sound strange, but there are times when I actually prefer to not use them to host a specific video.
1 Like
I use Miro video convertor for the same purpose, it’s free and does the job well for me. Handbrake is great but I find I have to mess about experimenting too much to get the right setting everytime. That being said the Handbrake presets that Gianluca mentions may work the same or better for you.
With Miro I choose the preset Android-More Devices-Large 1080p this makes really small file sizes but excellent image quality.
I have about 6 or 7 video convertor apps, but this one never fails.
2 Likes
I would strongly commend @dave ‘s solution; host client videos on Vimeo (no irrelevant ads). I pay circa €100/yr for this and as he says, their compression is superb, so a great way of compressing & downloading a file for self hosting, if essential. I’ve used Vimeo for my own work for 12 years and their support is excellent.
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Hi Nick, I would love to do so. But the way the GDPR is interpreted in Germany I would need a consent from the customer to view them. And I do not want to use these consent banners in my sites.
For the law here in Germany, the US is an unsafe third country in terms of privacy security. So any data transmissions to Vimeo and the CDN they use (Akamei) requires consent (see Vimeo Videos: sind sie auf Webseiten datenschutzfreundlich nutzbar? - Dr. DSGVO )
Klaus (who you link to) is knowledgeble, but I regularly find a hint of prejudice in his articles: “everything from the USA is bad, all big tech wants your personal data and privacy statements from big tech can not be trusted and are usually lies”.
Don’t get me wrong, I try to avoid the like of Google and I store as much as I can locally on my servers, but I think Klaus is taking things a bit too far.
But if you’re short on space or don’t want the load of serving up large video files, they’re not a bad choice. Better than Youtube as far as privacy is concerned anyway.
Use something like Stacks4Stacks Cookiemanager to serve up a still image for the video (instead of pre-loading the embed/iframe code) and display a banner that explains to the user that clicking the image will load the video and also means the user consents with sharing certain data with Vimeo and Akamai.
You can set a dnt-modifier in the embed code that forces Vimeo to not place a tracking cookie on the visitor’s device.
Cheers,
Erwin
3 Likes
Hi Erwin, thanks. Since it is only one video for most of the cases, I keep these on the self-hosted version. About the rest - yes, this manager is a good solution. But I might want to wait for the next privacy shield agreement coming this year (until it gets taken down by Schremps III :-) )
1 Like
This does not help. Even when selected, data is being transferred into the US.
Well, the user clicks on “OK, show me the video”. That’s fine with GDPR if it’s stated in the privacy policy.
1 Like
You’re right.
Germany’s privacy law is not different to other EU members privacy laws (they’re all based on GDPR), but Germany has developed a weird eco system of lawyers and consultancy firms that will threaten website owners with legal action if there’s even a hint of data being forwarded without user consent. Legal action which, of course, can be prevented by paying a sum of money. Really, they call themselves lawyers but they look an awful lot like the mafia.
Preventing any embedding or scripting to run before the user clicks a consent button is what’s demanded. Luckily there are stacks (like the free Cookiemanager stack that I mentioned earlier) that make this easy to implement.
Hosting your own videos is easy too, but will impact your bandwidth and possibly will cost serious money because of it. It’s a fine balancing act: make users click a consent button before loading a video (not user friendly, but legally the only way to go if externally hosted) or go for ease of use and foot the hosting bill for all that data.
Dilemmas, dilemmas!
Cheers,
Erwin
4 Likes
In my humble opinion I don’t see data being transferred via UTUBE 5 or VIMSTACK VERSION 2
In vimstack only the Sync_active cookie which does not communicate externally
Sync_active: Cookie purpose description: Contains data on visitor’s video-content preferences - This allows the website to remember parameters such as preferred volume or video quality. The service is provided by Vimeo.com.
However for more precise information (they could make your job easier) you could send a message to Will
Yes, I just wanted to avoid this extra click.
@dave’s suggestion was not to use Vimeo to serve your videos but rather just to use it to compress them. You can then download them, delete them from Vimeo and self host them all without the video ever being public on the Vimeo servers. There is thus zero GDPR implication.
3 Likes
I know, the discussion just went to the possibility to host there as well.