According to search engines, our Step-by-Step Handbrake Tutorial is still among the top resource pages for video compression. Created as a chapter in a Video Compression Resource Page in 2014, it’s been getting nearly a thousand views per week.

Today, we’re excited to tell you that we’ve updated the Handbrake Tutorial and our other video compression resources (both on EngageMedia.org and video4change.org). The Step-by-Step Handbrake Tutorial now reflects the latest version of Handbrake.

For the Video Compression Q and A, we’ve added information and best practices for live video streaming. It also answers common questions about video resolutions, given the growing availability of 4K Ultra High Definition playback in various video platforms over the internet. The glossary and other information pages have also been improved to include recent developments in video technology.

We’ve also created a new guide: DSLR Camera Footage Over the Internet: A Handbrake Tutorial Using H265 Codec. It introduces High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H265, that compresses video more efficiently without degrading its quality.

I have done a couple of tests on file sizes and video quality, comparing H264 and H265 codecs and found that the latter is really more efficient.

The guide is intended for videomakers sending or receiving raw video files for post-production, a scenario becoming more common these days.

We look at this effort as a fulfillment of our mission to demystify technology, especially those relevant to changemakers working on the ground. However technical (or geeky) it may appear, video compression’s importance is growing, given the demand for video both offline and online.

Commercial video practitioners and high-end professionals often have access to faster internet and bigger bandwidth, so their circumstances and workflows may be different compared to the ones discussed here. These resources are intended for video for change practitioners working with limited resources — the main constituents of EngageMedia.

We hope you find these resources helpful, and we’ll continue to update them and create new ones that support the use of video for change efforts. Have questions about video production or want to request a tutorial or guide? Please let us know by leaving a comment, and we’ll see what we can do. Until next time!

EngageMedia’s video lead, King Catoy is an independent documentary filmmaker and alternative media practitioner in the Philippines. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of AlterMidya- People’s Alternative Media Center, a national network of independent and grassroots-based media outfits in the Philippines. He has directed numerous videos and trained indigenous and urban poor communities and alternative media practitioners on video production.