How to shrink a video for WordPress?
 

I'm trying to add videos to a WordPress site.

You can only upload a video file of a 64 mb max size.

For example, I just uploaded a video that was 411 mb. So, I put it into a program and shrunk it down to 64 mb, and I changed the size to 380x264, because I want to be able to put 2, side by side all the way down the website page.

The video is now on the site, and if you watch it on the small size that it is on there, it looks fine, but it's obviously small. However, if you maximize it, it becomes extremely distorted, and you can't even tell what's on the video.

How can I fix this?

Thanks!

The upload limit is due to trying to use the GUI interface to upload. It routes the video through the PHP, which apparently has a 64mb limit for one of the server settings.

You can FTP a video of any size, and manually place it in the page.

I'm new to WordPress. I don't think I've ever FTP'ed a video before. I've only made DVDs pretty much

Can you walk me through the steps of that, and any programs I'd need?

I need more specific details for your hosting.

- Who is the host?
- Using cPanel?
- Have you ever used FTP?

I don't know who the host is...it's not my site. I'm just doing this part of the work for their site. No, not using cPanel. It's just WordPress

I used FTP many, many years ago. I think it was for pictures or something, but it was so long ago that I don't even remember what it was for. I know that's not much help, sorry.

-- merged --

Still need help with this. I don't have the info that was asked, but still want to try to work on the project
Update on the questions that were asked

There is is Cpanel plugin, but it's not currently being used on the site.
GoDaddy is the host.
Still really need help with this problem, please.

Can I use an FTP program to forgo the 64 mb limit and put any size on that I want?

Depends on your hosting service. Mine has a hard limit on any media files...I forget exactly what it is, but it's pretty small. I'm thinking seriously of moving to self-hosting now that I have an appropriate server and business-class Internet with a static IP.

I should add to this to mention that it also very much depends on what kind of hosting plan you have. I'm on a "shared hosting" plan which is inexpensive but quite limited in the terms of bandwidth it will support...it's OK much of the time but one time a discussion on Reddit about one of my pages went viral and the hosting service locked me down for a week until I put a throttling policy in place. And they're the same folks who have the cap on hosted media size.

Of course, they're trying to upsell me to a VPS (Virtual Private Server) account, where theoretically you should own everything on the server and be able to set any limits which your RAM and disk capacity will support. However, that kind of plan is MUCH more expensive and since I already own appropriate hardware I'm thinking seriously about self-hosting. One other caveat to keep in mind...note that I said the higher grade service was a VIRTUAL private server. There's always a "hypervisor" at least a level above you who can look at anything on your VPS server. If you're hosting sensitive or proprietary data (think US government on Amazon World Services :rolleyes:), then self-hosting on your own hardware on your own premises is still the ONLY way to go.

Most people don't know it, but this site started out on a free plan at Hypermart in the late 90s. After traffic started to exceed the free tier, it was upgraded to the annual paid (still cheap) tier. Remember, back then, this was pure hobby for me, and most of the site was dedicated to cartoons more than video tech.

Shortly after the site was redesigned in 2002 (what I consider the founding of digitalFAQ.com, though it didn't bear that name for a few more years) -- and focusing on video tech (primarily capture, especially ATI AIW), adding a foru, removing most toons info, and now using the FQDN lordsmurf.com -- ATI started to send users here for tech support. Lots and lots and lots of their users were having issues.

And it immediately crashed the Hypermart server. :laugh:

I was about 3gb over my allowance, it slowed the server to a crawl, and apparently cascaded into some sort of crash. The server was clearly overloaded, but it was still 'my fault' to them.

I was kicked off, and had to scramble to find new hosting that would withstand the influx of traffic. I actually sought some legal advice because it pissed me off. Here was a company offloading customers to my hobby site, causing me to pay more to have it online, and I got nothing out of it. Not even a free ATI card, those SOBs! (ATI never gave me a thing, never contacted me, never responded to my correspondence. Nor did AMD. I've always been quite fond of the AIW and 600 USB cards, but I have a somewhat low opinion of them in general. Blackmagic reminds me of ATI, but BM has the added bonus of making crap.)

Fast forward 15+ years later, and the site is powered by several dedicated and VPS servers. We've been hit by Twitter, Digg, Reddit, and others multiple times over the years. Always a nice traffic bump, but shortlived.

There is is Cpanel plugin, but it's not currently being used on the site.
GoDaddy is the host.
Still really need help with this problem, please.

Can I use an FTP program to forgo the 64 mb limit and put any size on that I want?

Servers have set limits on php and database, including both size and time.
Only the server admin, not a site admin, can change it.
cPanel plugins can only be added by server admins.

Godaddy is mostly a shared host, but with VPS and dedicated plans. (And these days, they're not terrible.)
Godaddy is the admin here.
On a shared host, you cannot override the admin settings as a mere user.
Shared hosts set somewhat low settings, or even just use the defaults of the server software. Sometimes a shared host will increase the limits, but only the actual hosting client can request it. Not the site users, editors, whatever. Maybe not even the site admin, if different from the hosting account holder.

Most likely, you're contained to 64mb, maybe 128mb at most. So not file you upload through php (ie WordPress) can exceed that.

For files larger than the minimum, only FTP can be used. You'll need a FTP program (Filezilla is most popular), and the FTP credentials. The site admin can create special FTP accounts for users, and do not have to give the master FTP login (because it's also the cPanel or even WHM login!)

Then when it WordPress, you'll have to manually link to the file. You still cannot upload, which it can also be told to do (copy from a location via php to the upload location; don't do that!)

Videos will always be too large to upload via the php site admin GUI.