Internet Video: From Camcorder to Computer to the World

Larry Lemm
April 2000

Those wild-eyed predictions from a few years back are beginning to come true. Internet video is now better looking and easier to use than ever before. It's become so popular that the television networks are incorporating the Internet into their broadcasts lest they be left behind like the radio networks they replaced. And just who are the networks afraid of? You. Why? Because the Internet allows independent video producers to reach a global audience. With a camcorder, a computer, an Internet connection and a little creativity, anyone can produce and broadcast a program.

There is no questioning the popularity of the Internet. Recent studies indicate that teenagers would rather surf the Internet than vegetate in front of the TV. And with high-speed Internet access such as cable modems and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connections reaching more and more homes across the country, high-quality video distribution via the Internet is no longer a "wait until" scenario. Now is the time for videographers to catch the wave of Internet video. This article will provide a brief rundown of the different Internet video technologies, how they work and what they can do for independent video producers.

There are currently two basic types of Internet video being used: download-and-watch video and streaming video. The differences between download-and-watch and streaming video used to be dependent on the type of file being used, but now it is more a condition of what type of player is being used and the speed of the viewer's Internet connection. Download-and-watch videos is when the viewer downloads an entire file to a hard drive before watching.

Traditional examples of this type of Internet video include MPEG clips, Video for Windows files and QuickTime videos. The upside of download-and-watch video is that it usually looks better than streamed video. That's not due to any inherent superiority of download-and-watch video clips, but rather the fact that most producers will encode their download-and-watch clips with more bits of information per second of video. The downside of download-first video is that many viewers don't want to download a video clip without seeing what it is about first. Depending on the size of the file and the speed of the viewer's modem, some downloads can take hours before a clip can be played. That's a long time to wait only to discover that the video is something you don't care to watch.

Streaming video allows the viewer to watch an Internet video immediately as it downloads. This eliminates the waiting associated with the download-then-watch video clips, but at a price: to allow for faster delivery, streaming video is usually more compressed than download-then-watch video, resulting in lower video quality (smaller images at lower frame rates). Examples of streaming video include RealVideo clips, Windows Media clips and the newest version of QuickTime, which offers streaming QuickTime clips. Regardless of the tools they use, producers making video to stream will want to keep files as small as possible.

There is an exception to this though. Streaming video players will now play traditional download-then-watch video files much like streamed video using a feature known as buffered play. If your viewers use either the Windows Media Player or the RealPlayer to view a download-then-watch file, such as an MPEG clip, the player will download some of the file, and start playing it while the rest downloads. If your viewers use a fast Internet connection like DSL, they'll be able to use buffered play on large download-then-watch files. People who are connected with a phone modem though, will have a rough time trying to buffer a large file, and although they might be able to watch a small bit of video, the buffer won't be large enough to handle the difference between the bandwidth required to watch the file in real-time and the bandwidth available.

Now that you've been introduced to the different types of Internet video, let's look at some of the tools that you will need to put your own video on the Internet.

You need only a few tools to get started with Internet video.
[1] A camcorder. Any camcorder will do, it doesn't have to be digital, although a digital camcorder can make the whole process easier and generally of a higher quality.
[2] A computer. You'll need a PC or Mac equipped with either a FireWire card (if you own a digital camcorder) or a digitizing card (if you own an analog camcorder). Since Internet video is typically less than full frame (640x480), and less than full speed (60 fields per second) you can make do with an inexpensive digitizing card. Remember, if you want to put out full screen, full speed video as well, you'll need a beefier card. See our buyer's guides to full-frame and less than full-frame digitizing and capture cards in our March 2000 issue.
[3] Nonlinear editing software. After capturing your raw footage you'll want to edit your production down to an appropriate length. Most Web hosts (see [5]) have a limit on the size of files that they will store, and since video files are notoriously large, you'll have to make sure that the video you want to stream is going to fit onto your server. You'll have to check with your Web host to see how large of a file you can use, and make sure that your production doesn't go beyond that size. In general, the shorter the better. We recommend limiting Web videos to four minutes or less.
[4] Streaming Software. If your nonlinear editing software doesn't include options to save your file as a streaming format, you can download a free encoder from RealNetworks (www.realnetworks.com) or Microsoft (www.microsoft.com). Also Apple's low-cost QuickTime encoder is available at quicktime.apple.com. All of these encoders allow you to convert a Video for Windows, QuickTime or MPEG file into a streaming format. When you do this, you'll have to re-render your video at a smaller resolution, which may take quite a while.
[5] An Internet connection and a Web site. Lastly, you'll need a place to host your newly created Internet video, and a way to deliver your content to the host. While this may sound intimidating, it really isn't that complicated. And, once you go through the process a few times, it will seem like old hat. There are several ISPs (Internet Service Providers) that will host your streaming videos for free. For example, AT&T Worldnet (www.att.net) provides up to 60MB of personal Web space as part of their monthly dial-up service. Popcast.com serves streaming video free for anyone. Other host sites include www.tripod.com, www.shortends.com and www.yourvideoontheweb.com. Each has its own guidelines and restrictions so check before you buy.

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