Speeding up uploading video content

So far, I have seen a lot of video contests going around over the internet. For those of you who want to join these cool video contests, there might be times you will be asked to upload your video on Youtube, or on Facebook so that the public, and the judges can view your entry.


Most often than not, you will feel discouraged to upload your video because it takes too long to upload. When I first tried to join a contest which required video, it took me more than an hour to upload my entry. More than an hour feels like an eternity, and I even ask myself... why does it take that long to upload a three minute video?

For those who experienced the same fate as mine, then read on...

For newbies in the video making realm, we should be aware that there are many video formats used today. There is AVI, MP4, M4V, 3GP, and so on. Why the different video formats? Well, for one thing, we should accept the fact that there is no such thing as a standard video format. Another thing is, there are formats done in high resolution, while others, low. And there are video formats that play better on certain video players only.

When it comes to recording video, try to notice what file format your video is saved. When you try to record your video via video or digital camera, sometimes they save it as an AVI format, for cellphones, they sometimes use 3GP format. To verify which format your video is saved, just check its file properties when you copy your video to your PC.

Check the properties of your video file. In this sample, the video format is WMV or Windows Media Video format

If you want to upload a video, certain formats will take a long time to load on youtube, like AVI for example. It might take you 40 minutes (or more depending on your internet speed) to upload.

But, there is way to make uploading video faster. How? By converting your video before you upload!

How do we convert our video? First, you must have a video converter application. If you don't have one, there are many free downloadable video converters on the internet. Maybe you can try to download one here... or you may google other free video converters on the net (try using video converter as key words)

After downloading, install the video converter on your PC. Then, after installing, you are now ready to covert. But what would be the best format to convert your video into for fast uploads?

The answer is... FLV format.

FLV stands for Flash Video format. This is the type of format used in many of the video sites all over the net, like youtube and facebook.

Try to do a simple experiment to verify that FLV loads faster. Try it out on youtube - your original video taken from your camera versus your converted FLV video. You will definitely notice a dramatic change in upload speed. What might take 30 minutes to upload before with your original (AVI , Quicktime movie, etc) might only take about 5 minutes with the converted FLV file.

This tip is very useful specially if you are joining a lot of video contests but feel you might not have the time to upload them all. Hopefully this tip will help you save time, and at the same time encourage you to upload more video entries on the internet.