Recording videos and uploading them to YouTube to share is a common practice nowadays. However, most video sharing websites limit the video by either length, file size or both. Therefore, compressing the video before uploading it is important. It also shortens the uploading time.

For example, recording an 8 minutes video (320 X 240 pixels and 30fps) on my digital camera took over 200mb. After compressing the video, the size was reduced to 60mb. That is roughly a 70% reduction.

I am currently using eRightSoft’s SUPER to compress my video files. To download the software, click here and scroll to the bottom of the page. Click on one of the four links that says “SUPER © setup file”.

I notice a problem with the audio when I first compressed a video using its default settings. It sounded like “chipmunks” talking instead of a human (ie. Fast and high pitch tone). I tweaked the settings a little and it solved the problem. Below is a screenshot of the settings I am using. It may not be the optimum compression so post up your settings if it is better.

Do you have any other suggestions for software with better compression quality?

If you blog, chances are that you have uploaded a picture file into your blog in the past. I noticed some bloggers do not optimize the size of the pictures before uploading them into their blog. Failure to do so not only increases the uploading time of the pictures but also increases the downloading time and bandwidth of the server.

The 3 methods to optimize the size of the pictures are:

Method #1: Image Resizer (Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP)

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP is packed with a tool called Image Resizer. It enables a user to quickly resize an image by right-clicking on the image and selecting “Resize Pictures”. Image Resizer can be downloaded here.

Examples on how to use it can be found here and here. This tool requires Windows XP to run. I do not know if it works on other OS.

Method #2: Picasa from Google

Select the file you want to resize and click on the Export button at the bottom right of the program.

Insert the number of pixels you want to resize the image into. Set the “Image Quality” to “Normal” or the desired setting you want. Click OK to export the image.

Method #3: Adobe Photoshop

This is a two step process. Firstly, resize the picture to the desired size by selecting the menu (Image –> Image Size) or Ctrl+Alt+I. Select the “Constrain Proportions” checkbox to ensure the image is resized with the original ratio.

Next, further optimize the size of the image by saving it to web quality. You can do so by selecting the menu (File –> Save for Web) or Alt+Shift+Ctrl+S. Select the “Optimized” tab. Check out the size of the image if it were to be saved as gif or jpg as circled at the bottom left in the screenshot below. Depending on the image itself, sometimes saving it as gif will result in a smaller file size, or vice versa.

To get the best quality for jpg, select the “JPEG High” preset option. To get the best quality for gif, select the “GIF 128 Dithered” preset option. Save the image.

I’ve come across a few bloggers mentioning that they scheduled their posts to be automatically published by WordPress in a future date. After going through my WordPress menu without finding a “schedule future post” option, I searched for it at Google and found two articles that helped:

• Schedule a future post in WordPress written by Bruce.
• Scheduling posts in WordPress written by Luis.

To write a post and have WordPress publish it in a future date, all you need to do is to edit the “Post Timestamp” option before publishing the post as shown in the screenshot below.

Right after completing your post, look for the “Post Timestamp” option on the right. Check/select the “Edit timestamp” checkbox. Select the future date and time you want the post to be published. After that is done, click on the “Publish” button like how you would normally publish a post.

I’ve scheduled this post to be automatically published at 25/6/2007 at 2:00pm. I’m publishing this 2 and a half hours earlier. If everything works accordingly, this post will only be visible at the scheduled time.