TODO: rewrite to be relevant to 2022
Table of contents
Preamble
It is a requirement that new publications be placed on a streaming media site. This page documents current site best practices for uploads to one of those sites.
Streaming media sites currently in use
- YouTube
Guidelines
Encodes intended for publication on streaming media sites have some special requirements to ensure they are processed properly by the site in question. Where possible, high definition encodes should be used to ensure the maximum possible video quality is provided by the streaming site's post-processing. For YouTube and Dailymotion, videos may need to be segmented.
There are some differences between the standard encoding process for creating mirrored/torrented encodes and creating encodes intended to be uploaded to a streaming media site.
Dos
Use larger resolutions (for YouTube only)
YouTube, for example, processes high definition videos much better than standard definition videos.
High-definition encoding strays considerably from our standard encoding techniques. For further information, consult Encoding Guide / Legacy / High Definition.
Use partial frame blending (for YouTube only)
YouTube's frame rate limitations lead to jerky video or lost video effects without special precautions. For the most common technique used for this, refer to ng_deblink.
Prescale to the correct aspect ratio
Most Flash-based streaming players don't recognise the aspect ratio flags normally set in containers; as such to display properly they need to be prescaled to the correct (4:3) aspect ratio if they are for platforms intended to be displayed on a TV.
However, for YouTube uploads you may avoid aspect ratio correction and just add a special tag to your video, that does ARC for you.
Split your videos
All of our official encoders have no timelimit on YouTube, but if your channel has it, you can add the command to mkvmerge script to split the video by what your limit is (15 minutes for YouTube).
Don'ts
Use duplicate frame removal
Don't use DeDup or direct264's deldup - most video sites can't handle variable frame rates and you'll end up with video playing at whatever speed the site feels like.
When uploading to archive.org, it is worth creating an entirely separate encode which uses limited range and does not use duplicate frame removal (but is otherwise unchanged) and uploading it as '<filename>_512kb.mp4' to the archive.org mirror; this ensures that archive.org's streaming works properly.
Adding Movies
Uploading
- Make sure the tags, name, etc. are the same for each segment.
Name
- Many streaming media sites have limits on how long the name of a video can be; this can be too small for some of our movie names.
- If a movie aims for fastest time use this naming convention:
- Platform Game "Category" in Time by Author
- All this information should be identical to the published movie.
- Add Part 1, Part 2, etc. to each movie segment.
Shortening the Name
- If the name can't be done within the above name requirements, here are some guidelines to shortening it:
- Do NOT shorten the platform name.
- Shorten Part 1 to Pt.1 or even Pt1.
- Shorten the game name to by leaving out a subtitle or abbreviating if it is a VERY common abbreviation; for example:
- The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time could be Ocarina of Time (avoid using OoT);
- Sonic the Hedgehog could be Sonic 1.
- 'and' can be replaced with ',' to separate authors.
- The fractional part of the time can be taken off.
- Remove spaces between dashes.
- In summary, preserve the platform, the author's names, and keep the game name as easily recognizable as possible.
Description
- Add a URL link to the tasvideos.org movie page in the description.
- Add the movie's description below this.
Tags
- Use 'Tool-assisted' and 'Speedrun'.
- Other tags such as the authors or the genre are okay too.
Channel
- Select Gaming.
Link
- Add the URL to the movie page in the publishing form, or once the movie is published. Please make sure the link begins with "
http://<website>". - The link should use the main domain for the site. Use
http://www.youtube.com/instead ofhttp://uk.youtube.com/, and any similar changes as necessary. - After adding the link to the movie's data, make sure the "watch using" buttons appear and work properly.
Although suffering from many limitations at this point in time, YouTube is the streaming media site most commonly used by our encoders these days due to its support for high definition videos.
Upload
- Encoders are able to upload to our YouTube Channel.
- In order to ease uploading in general, try using our YouTube Uploader.
Link
- The site now fully supports YouTube playlists in most of its modules, so please link to the playlist.
Archive.org normally post-processes MP4s/MKVs into a streamable "512kb" encode, which is automatically linked to from the site if the archive.org link is added as a mirror.
Unfortunately, archive.org normally does a very poor job of deriving these encodes, so you may need to provide your own. It should:
- be encoded with H264
- be packaged inside MP4
- have constant framerate
- not have soft aspect ratio correction (resize to the target resolution before encoding
otherwise Archive will create its own reencode.
Other streaming media sites
- Publishers are welcome to upload publications to other streaming media sites such as Nicovideo. It is preferred, however, that one of the above sites be used - the site is currently configured to only accept streaming links from a handful of streaming sites.
- Links to these sites should only be on the movie page if they link to official (properly subtitled and described) encodes.