Encoding videos for mobile
Over the last couple of months I have been encoding videos for mobile websites. Although it sound quite technical its pretty straight forward once you know how. So take a seat and get yourself comfortable whilst good old Gary gives you a quick guide to encoding videos for mobile.
The most common format of videos for mobile phones is 3GP. To cover the majority of phone capabilities on the market you need to encode a particular video into 3 different formats within this. These are SQCIF, QCIF and QCIF HiQ all of the MP4 Codec. There is another lower quality codec called H263 but if I’m honest the majority of the market now operate well above this level. So I don’t waste my time with it. So lets break these down individually:
Q.C.I.F – Quarter Common Intermediate Format
SQCIF – “Sub-QCIF” This is the standard size for low-resolution video files and streaming videos on mobile phones, the file size should not be above 250kb to be downloaded to the devices.
QCIF – This is the standard size for videos on a mojority of mobile phones, video cameras and digital cameras. For mobile websites the file size for QCIF videos should be between 250-500kb.
QCIF HiQ – This is a higher quality version of QCIF, sometimes referred to as CIF, but who cares either way, it is ideal for the top end of the mobile phone market like Nokia N95, Blackberry and iPhone etc. The file size can be up to 1MB and is dramtically different in sound and visual quality.
So how to you actually encode a video and what file types can you convert to 3GP. Well getting your hands on basic video encoding software is no problems, I’ve got a great little freebie tool which I would recommend to start off with, you can buy the full version for $35 which is a snip really check it out here:
http://download.cnet.com/ABC-Video-Converter-Pro/3000-2194_4-10761688.html
This encoder can handle anything from MPEGs to AVIs. I’ve crushed 400mb files right down to less than 1mb its great!
Its a drag and drop scenario, where you can edit which part of the video you want to encode and a handful of quality controls allow you to adjust the file accordingly. Easy peasy.
So there you have it, an extremely quick guide to encoding videos for mobile.
Gary
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About Me
Hi, I'm Gary Taylor. I have bought and sold domain names since 2002. In January 2008 I won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the Midlands Business Awards. I have been featured on sites like Mortgage Strategy, speak at events like Think Visibility and SAScon and develop sites like Rottweilers.co.uk and South Africa. I am a Director of One Result and head up all aspects of SEO, Project Management and Internal Operations. I live in Birmingham with my dog Alfie and love to play the guitar. You can follow me on Twitter or connect with me on Linked In.
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[...] bearing in mind mobile content should not be too large, adversely affecting load times. See Encoding Videos for Mobile for a quick guide to formats and download [...]
[...] I’m going to refer you to an old post of mine which clearly explains mobile video encoding [...]