Help: Preparing Your Video for Your eCard

Video Format(s) Accepted

Fido Flix supports all video formats including QuickTime (.mov), MPEG (.mpg), Windows Media Player (.wmv), .avi, .mp4, and Flash video (.flv) formats.

QuickTime is available as a free download from Apple for Macintosh and Windows computers. Windows Media Player is available as a free download from Microsoft.

Please make sure you have properly installed the latest version.

Video Screen Size

320 X 240 is the screen size at which videos are shown on Fido Flix.

If your video looks "stretched" or is too small/too large for the player area on the ecard, it may not be 320 x 240.

Most likely you took the video using your digital camera. Check your camera settings under "video setup" and make sure you are capturing video at 320 x 240.

Assuming you shot your video on Mini DV, for instance, and imported it to your computer to edit in iMovie or another editing tool, be sure to export the final video at 320 x 240.

File Size Limits

You may attach videos to your Fido Flix ecard that are up to 50 MB in size.

We have a size limit on videos for several reasons. First, the cost of storage and bandwidth is high. Second, the average user likes to view videos that are max 1.5 to 2 minutes long. And third, if the recipient is on a slower connection, it can be a frustrating experience to wait for a large video file to download. Make it easy to download and watch, and your fans will appreciate it. Plus, you can keep them coming back for more!

Trick for getting your video file size down: make sure the screen size is set for 320 x 240 on your digital camera, or reduce the screen size to 320 x 240 during export.

Please make sure that you check the size of the video before you upload it. Our system is not able to detect the size of the video until it has been completely uploaded to our servers. If the video is greater than 50 MB, it will generate an error and reject the file, but only after the upload has completed.

Getting Your Video Ready to Upload

Many digital photo cameras and video cameras have the ability to create MPEG or AVI movies. These short movies (usually 15 - 30 seconds) are already compressed and can be uploaded directly onto Fido Flix without additional steps. Make sure your camera is set to capture video at 320 x 240.

The video that is taken by some digital video cameras can be upwards of approximately 200 MB for every minute of video (this is not the case with a photo camera that takes movie clips). In order for the recipient of your ecard to watch your video and have a positive experience, the video has to be both compressed and reduce down to a smaller player size (320 x 240). If not, each video can literally take hours to download and would cost a fortune in bandwidth and storage costs.

Saving your video as a QuickTime or Windows Media Player file performs the compression and gets it ready for Fido Flix.

Receiving Your Video on Fido Flix's servers

During the process of creating an ecard, you will know when your video file has successfully transferred to us. You will see a preview of the ecard with your video playing in it once it has been successfully uploaded. This can take several minutes, depending on the size of the video (see previous question for more information).

If we encounter an error on our side, you will get a message in the upload window telling you there was a problem.

Once your video is successfully uploaded, you will immediately be able to preview your personalized ecard with your video before sending it to friends and family.

Amount of Time It Takes to Upload Videos

The amount of time depends on the size of the file and the type of connection you have to the Internet. For example, it takes about 2 minutes to upload a 1 MB file on a 56K dial-up modem, 20 seconds with DSL and about 10 seconds with Cable. These numbers are all estimates and can vary quite a bit.

Experiencing Technical Difficulties While You Upload a Video

The most common cause of problems during the upload process is not allowing enough time for the file to upload completely. You will not see any indication how much of the file has been transferred and how much is remaining (we're working on it!). Please be patient though, as we have spent considerable time to work out the upload process and make it as foolproof as possible.

You will know when your file has successfully transferred to us because you will see a preview of the ecard with your video playing in it. If we encounter an error on our side, you will get a message in the upload window telling you there was a problem.

Additional Tips & Tricks for Compressing Your Video

When you have finished editing your video, you have to perform an extra step to compress it for the Web. You can save it as a QuickTime (.mov) or Windows Media Player (.wmv) file depending on your editing program, your personal preferences, and the results you get from your program. There is a bit of trial and error here, and you will have to experiment to get good results. This gets easier as you experiment and make a few samples. Hang in there!

You should make a small test video of about 15 seconds in QuickTime and a few in Windows Media to see what gives you the best results. When completed, a 15 second video should be about 500K or less. Look at the test videos and see which one has the best combination of picture and sound.

Almost all of the editing software tools will allow you to save your video as a QuickTime or Windows Media Player movie. This is generally found in the File menu under Save As or Export. For example, Apple's iMovie has a Share menu item that allows your video to be exported as a QuickTime movie. In the options, select Web. You can also use QuickTime Pro to make QuickTime movies.

We highly recommend Autodesk Cleaner for compressing movies for the Web. It is really easy to use and it's fast, and you can select the type of format you want to create. With this tool, you drag and drop your completed video file into the application, then click a play button to process your video. The output is great quality, and the detailed settings are all taken care of by the application.