I thought I’d post up all of the most recent questions we’ve had about our Video Upload. This may help out others who aren’t quite clear on how it all works.

Do you have a preferred video file type?
No we don’t have a preferred file type. All of the following video files are fine: .avi, .mov, .wmv, .flv, .mpeg.

What kind of speed and quality of playback can I expect?
Our videos once uploaded will play back as fast as on YouTube and will be of a very similar quality.

How big can the video file be that I want to upload?
We recommend files up to 100MB.

Do you recompress all videos submitted? If so, what codec and settings? What compression on our end gets the best quality?
All .wmv, .avi, .mov and .mpeg files are converted to Flash Video (.flv) using the On2 VP6-E codec. We compress to 480×360 using a bitrate of 700k. If you upload your own .flv file it will not be modified.

Do all videos play in your proprietary player?
Yes.

If I embed a video, does it play in the same player, or can I embed a video that has it’s own player. already in a player (swf)?
Embedded videos play as they are embedded. i.e. If you embed a YouTube video you get the YouTube player.

There is one issue when embedding content from sources that don’t use SSL. Depending on the web browser used, a security message could be displayed as the embedded video is not coming from a secure source. However, the rest of Litmos is fully secure.

Do you support high definition files such as .h264?
We currently don’t support high definition video (.h264) but this will be available very shortly.

Is there an alternative to uploading video files?
The alternative to uploading the video file is to paste the ’embed code’ of the video, in to the Video Upload area and this will then link to the video file.

Here’s a short demo on how to embed a video from YouTube in to Litmos: https://www.litmos.com/video.aspx?v=961380

Once my student has watched the video do they have to close the window to go back to Litmos?
There’s no problem getting back to the training course as the video will play within Litmos. When it finishes, the student clicks a link to say the video has finished, and the course modules continue. At no point do they leave the Litmos framework.

If you have a different question about the Video Upload, please write it in the comments section and I will post the answer.