How to convert your video into the best format for live streaming
We at OneStream often have to deal with users who are unable to stream their videos or do not get the streaming quality they are looking for. Today we will explain how to convert your video into the recommended format and settings needed for a smooth, jitter free and high quality stream.
A video is composed of many elements like a video codec, bitrate, frames per second (FPS), resolution, audio codec etc. All these parameters have an impact on how your video feels and plays. When you upload a video to Facebook or YouTube, they can take your video and, if needed, encode it into the right format before making it available for the viewers. However this cannot be done with streaming as everything happens on run time. Viewers cannot wait for encoding to take place as it is time consuming and will ruin the live feeling of the video. Therefore it is imperative for live streaming that your video has the exact correct settings and format, otherwise stream can fail, break in the middle or be of very poor quality.
Although OneStream is capable to handle any kind of mp4, mov and mkv video file, we recommend the following video settings for best live streaming results when streaming via OneStream.
Format: mp4
Video codec: H.264 (AVC)
Audio codec: AAC
Resolution: 1280 x 720 (width x height)
Video bitrate: 1500–3500 kbps
Audio bitrate: Any
Orientation: Landscape
Generally if your video is in mp4 format you do not need to worry about the other details. There are a few ways you can convert your video into mp4 format.
Solution 1
Use online video converter tools. There are several online video converters that can achieve this for you. Zamzar and Online Video Converter are two great options.You just need to upload a video file and it will be compressed/encoded automatically into the desired format.
Solution 2
If you are an advanced user and want to be more specific about your video format, bitrate, codec type etc, use handbrake. It is a great tool that you can download and install for free. You have more control over your video settings and you can set very specific values for different video attributes.
Here is how to convert your video files into mp4 format with handbrake.
- Install Handbrake by choosing the version for your operating system from http://handbrake.fr/
- Open your video file in Handbrake.
3. Choose Format MP4 file.
The output video attributes and size are visible in the summary tab.
If you wish you can change them by clicking the dimensions, video, audio tabs. If you are converting the video only for streaming purpose you can leave all the settings as default.
Click Browse at the bottom and select your output folder.
4. Click Video tab and make sure Video Codec is H.264 (x264). Select Avg Bitrate (kbps) and enter a value of 3500.
5. Hit the Start button and wait until the video encoding has finished.
6. Handbrake will let you know when it has finished.
OneStream is a cloud based app to live stream your pre-recorded videos to social media. Please let us know your feelings in the comments section. You can also write to us at care@onestream.live
