I’ve got some old videotaped footage I wanted to share with people via facebook.
I’ve already had it transfered onto DVD and am wondering what my next steps would be to get it onto my laptop and then post it on facebook.
I’d rather not put it on something public like youtube.
Any easy way to do this?
Any size limitations for videos posted on facebook?
I cannot answer any questions about file size limits for Face book, but you could convert your video from the DVD’s to an avi, mpeg, or mov file. If you do not have the proper software to do so you might want to check out www.media-convert.com. I think they can convert the VOB file to whatever you want, but it’s been a while since I used the site and there are file size restrictions.
General rule of thumb - If you put it on the web, it can be found by others, even by those who you don’t want to find it.
Facebook rule of thumb - Facebook’s privacy policies are controversial to say the least and what you think you are locking down so only friends may see may not be the case. At the same time Facebook is accused of selling your personal data to third parties, regardless of what privacy locks you have in place on your account.
With those two caveats in mind, if you really wish to share online, then get your own web site and restrict knowledge and access to it. At the same time, go back to the general rule of thumb. Assuming you post the video on Facebook that only your friends can see will not stop one of those friends from downloading the video and posting it elsewhere for others to see, if they so choose.
It’s nothing really sensitive in nature, it’s just a couple of old videos of work functions (silly stuff like relay races, pie eating contest, etc.) Stuff nobody would care is out there but might be odd to post on youtube.
You could create a private Youtube channel. I think that’s more private than Facebook.
But really, if it is on the internet, it is not secure. I mean, more or less.
I do the same thing. I put it up on YouTube and mark it as unlisted and then put a link to it on Facebook. This isn’t really secure, since your FB friends can send the link to other people. On vimeo, you can create contact lists for videos, but I don’t know how secure it is.
There are complicated ways that are more secure, but it is going to be too hard for most people. A easy solution is to just to mail the DVD. I usually just pop the DVD into a 6x9 envelope with a paper sleeve. 61 cents for the postage, (there is a surcharge for rigid contents). My experience with Netflix are that that is good enough 99% of the time and spending more to protect a 25 cent DVD doesn’t make much sense.
This sounds good since I’m not that concerned how secure it is.
Now I just have to figure out how to get it from DVD to youtube.
You need some software that will rip the DVD. I have Magix Movie Studio or something like that that handles this, but there are plenty of free things out there. This, I know people have used before and found it does the job well enough. I also believe Prism can convert files into avi or mpg etc straight from the DVD, and I know for certain this is decent software (use it to convert video all the time).
Incidentally you might not be aware that products like this are available. There’s also versions for cassettes, vinyl etc. Works beautifully for old family videos.
YMMV, but sometimes Windows Movie Maker works with unprotected vob files. I’ve never figured out why it works sometimes and not others. You can then save it as a WMV file and upload it. Keep in mind that need to edit it down to ten minutes for youtube. On Vimeo the limit is 500mb a week, which is a lot of video at a 3mb/s VHS profile.
To import VOB files you have to select any file to import them, since it isn’t on the default list. This is on Vista, so I don’t know if it works on other Windows versions.
If that doesn’t work, then try CloneDVDMobile. It has a 30 day free trial.
http://www.slysoft.com/en/clonedvd-mobile.html
It supports several formats that are acceptable to YouTube.