​Choosing the Right Format to Publish Videos on a Blog

Are you looking for ways to create and publish videos on your blog? But not sure which format you should choose to encode them in? Considering how many options are available at times that decision may seem fairly difficult. But in fact, it is straightforward so long as you first decide how you intend to publish the video. In this article, we will show you ways to publish videos on a blog.

Related: Blogging Tools that will save you time

Upload to Online Streaming Platforms and Embed the Video

One of the most popular ways to publish videos on a blog is to upload them to online streaming platforms. Using this method, you won’t have to worry about the load that will be placed on your web host. Because the video will be stored and streamed from the platform you are using.

Because you are going to be uploading it to an online streaming platform, it is best to follow its recommended settings. For example, YouTube’s recommended upload settings specify that you should use MP4 with H.264 – which is the same format most other online platforms use.

Self-Host and Publish Using a Video Player

Another option that you could pursue is to self-host the video and publish it using a streaming video player. Nowadays there are lots of free video players that you can use. Each is slightly different in terms of the formats that it supports.

Look up the formats that are supported by your video player and select the one that is best. It’s a good idea to find a format that has decent compression so that the load on your web host is lessened. If MP4 with H.264 is supported, it would be a decent option.

Provide the Video as a File Download

Sometimes you may want to not stream the video at all, but provide it as a download link. That will open up your options somewhat, but you will still want to choose a format that is widely-supported. Once again, MP4 with H.264 is a good option in that regard, as it is arguably the most widely-supported format.

What else

If you have already encoded your video in a different format, you could use a converter such as Movavi Video Converter. As you may have gathered, in a lot of situations MP4 with H.264 is a ‘safe’ choice. That may change in the future – but right now it is a good option to consider.

Assuming at some point other formats supplant MP4 with H.264, you should still have no difficulty selecting the right format. Follow the steps described above and base your choice on the method with which you want to publish the video.

*Collaborative