Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

In which formats should I encode my videos?

Under normal circumstances you can get video working in all browsers by serving videos in webm, mp4, and OGG/Theora with a Flash fallback. But, as of now, only Chrome and Firefox support WebGL, so for Seriously.js, only webm is necessary. In the near future, Safari will likely support WebGL, so you may want to serve your videos as mp4/h.264 as well.

You can convert your video files easily using Miro Video Converter or, if you're more advanced, ffmpeg.

Can I apply effects to YouTube videos?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: While YouTube does serve videos in an HTML5 player, they are encapsulated in an iframe. While it is theoretically possible to sneak around and link directly to the webm video, it is almost certainly against YouTube's terms of service. Even if it were allowed, it still wouldn't work. As a security measure, browsers do not allow Javascript pixel access to a video or image from a different domain (except in certain circumstances).

Any videos that you'd like to incorporate into a Seriously.js comoposition are best served from your own web server. If you're going to grab a video from YouTube or another service, it's up to you to ensure that you're following the relevant terms of service and copyright laws.