When uploading a video to the web, it's best to compress the videos so to maintain a balance between performance and quality.  Bandwidth speeds, CPU specs, and other factors will affect video performance and will vary between locations.  It may take some trial and error to get the right settings for your video.

Keep in mind that videos will have to load and play properly at the training locations with the worst connection speeds.

Handbrake is a free program that makes video compression easy and that we recommend utilizing. 

You can download Handbrake from: HandBrake: Open Source Video Transcoder

If this is your first time using Handbrake, begin by completing our One-Time Setup Guide.

Quickly Compress a Video Using Handbrake

• Make sure you have completed the One Time Setup if you have not already.

• Drag and drop your video into Handbrake to get started.

Open

• In the Preset: dropdown, select Fast 720p30.

Open

• Make sure the Web Optimized checkbox is checked (this is the most important step!).

• Click Start Encode.

• Once the encoding is complete, you will get see Queue Finished in the bottom-left. 

• You have now successfully created a preset and compressed your video!

• The compressed video will appear next to your original video with “_HB” at the end of the filename.

• Watch the video locally for quality and accuracy before uploading.

• If anything seems wrong, try adjusting the settings and clicking Start Encode again. 

  • Note: If you do end up re-encoding, make sure to do so from the original version of the file, not the compressed version.

One-Time Setup - Settings Configuration

Begin by configuring these settings. These should only need to be configured once.

• Click Preferences in the bottom-left corner.

• Click on the Output Files tab on the left.

  • Default Path: Type in {source_path}

  • File Format: Type in {source}

  • Filename collision behaviour: Select Postfix and type _HB into the next field.

  • MP4 File Extension: Make sure this is set to Always use MP4

• Click < Back in the top-left to return to the main screen.

You are now ready to begin compressing.

Additional Tips

Smaller Video

• If you are still experiencing issues when loading/playing videos in Cognition that you have compressed with Handbrake, try selecting a smaller preset.

  • This time, select the Fast 480p30 preset instead of Fast 720p30.

  • Remember to check the Web Optimized checkbox before clicking Start Encode.

Splitting

• If your video is really long, it might make sense the split the video up into multiple smaller videos and use Video Chapters in Cognition to tie them back together into one video.

  • You can use the Range: settings at the top, to split this up into smaller videos. We've found that the Frames option seems to be the most accurate.

    • QuickTime Player has a way to easily view frames

Batching

• Once you've gotten used to using Handbrake, you can batch process multiple videos at the same time by copying them into a folder and using the Folder Scan option along with a Preset.  (You may still need to adjust the Dimension of each video when using this method.)

Web Optimized

• Using Web Optimized in Handbrake puts the video header information at the beginning of the file, which allows the video to start playing sooner. If you don't check this checkbox, it will have to wait until the entire video has loaded for the student before it's allowed start playing.