As all of us know, the file formats that are compatible with all browsers are mp3 and mp4 for audio and video, respectively. This is why BuddyPress Media only supports these file formats.

In case, you had to support other formats, they had to be converted to mp3 or mp4. Till now, we had two popular addons for this, the FFMPEG addon and the Kaltura addon. However, the FFMPEG addon required a private server. Sites on shared hosting could not avail of such a conversion, unless they used the Kaltura addon.

Encoding Service for audio/video

We conducted a survey and based on user feedback, we’ve just launched an audio/video encoding service. BuddyPress Media 2.13 adds support for this encoding service. Now, even sites hosted on shared servers can get audio and video from other formats converted to mp3 and mp4.

encoding

Plans and pricing

The plans, pricing and other details can be found here.

How does it work?

Once you opt for this service, your users will be able to upload audio and video in different formats. These will be sent to the encoding service. It will then convert these into a standard mp3/mp4 file. This will be sent back to your server and saved. This will go on till your quota is valid. Once it is used up, the uploading will go back to the mp3/mp4 only default.

Who is this for

Anybody can use this service to support audio and video uploading in multiple formats. However, it’ll be most useful for sites hosted in a shared environment with limited permissions and resources.

Coming soon

We’ll be expanding and improving upon this model to provide more services apart from encoding:

  1. Webcam recording and upload for videos
  2. Amazon S3 support
  3. HD profiling

If you have any suggestions or queries, do contact us on our support forum.

Service or Addon

If you have the right resources (a dedicated server) and the permissions (to install media node and FFMPEG), you should opt for our FFMPEG addon. Since all the conversion happens on your own server, there are no bandwidth and or size constraints.

If you are not using a dedicated server, for whatever reason and/or don’t have a high volume of videos, you should opt for the encoding service.

Links: BuddyPress Media | Demo | Encoding Service details