KEEP Toolkit Help

KEEP Toolkit Video Compression Tutorial:

At KEEP we have been asked, “Why can I only upload 20mb?" by many of our users. It is this issue that has brought on the KEEP Video Compression Tutorial. In this page, we will cover what compression is, and how it is going to help you crunch your movie to under 20mb.
Why only 20 MB? The KEEP Toolkit has thousands of users. Imagine if each person went to add really large movie files to our servers. Needless to say, it would be a tremendous strain on our servers. However, it is important to remember that 20 MB in web terms is big for anyone. Have you ever tried downloading a 20 MB file off the internet? It takes awhile, especially on a 56k phone line! You can fit around 10 minutes of video into a 20 MB file. If you have more than 10 minutes, then you should consider splitting the video into segments.
Sounding Technical: Compression is the downsizing of a large file, into an easier handled, smaller file. You may recognize the extensions JPEG and GIF on the end of your image files. Theses are compression types for still pictures. Motion video is no different. It has compression types such as MOV, WMV, and MP4. What is a CODEC?: To compress video, you are going to use something called a CODEC. A CODEC stands for “COmpression / DECompression”. So, if we know that compression is squeezing a big file into a little one, then decompression is just the opposite. Simply put, a codec is a strategy for shrinking and enlarging files.		Examples of CODECS
	Exporting Your Movie There are many video editing software packages out there (iMovie, Premiere, Final Cut, etc.), so I am going to cover how to export in general terms. Once you are finished editing your video, you will need to find the button marked “Export” or “Share”. In most applications, this is under the “File” menu. Some programs, such as iMovie, will have presets for compression. These presets allow you to select “compress for web.” In iMovie, you would select the QuickTime button, then “Compress for web.” If you can't find a "Compress for web" in the export panel, keep reading.
Advanced Exporting The KEEP Toolkit will accept files that are: MOV (QuickTime) WMV (Windows Media) MPEG 4 Each one of these file types is a different way of compressing your movie. If your video program does not offer a “Compress for Web” option, you will need to select one of the video types listed above from the output options. If you need to enter a size for your video (as in frame size) type in 320 width, 240 height.
These instructions should be sufficient for fitting your movie into the KEEP Toolkit. However, it is possible that you may encounter problems. If this happens, please post your comments into our Forum, along with a good description of your video (length) and the program you are using.