Frequently Asked Questions

Making Videos

To create a video, you will need a device that can capture it. The device can be a camcorder, digital camera and even your mobile phone. Once you have captured the video you wanted, transfer it to your computer, and you can edit it using applications like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker.

	For video press releases, SNNwire recommends that you use a camcorder that captures your body at half-length.
	For v-cards, we recommend using a webcam on your computer, and capturing you from shoulders up.

Optimizing videos

For best audio and video results to work on SNNwire, we recommend the following:

Video
Resolution	SNNwire’s video players are formatted for widescreen (16:9) presentation. Videos captured in standard definition (4:3) are accepted and will be presented with 2 black vertical bars on either side of the video player. For optimum viewing experience, we recommend that the video be captured in web HD (1280x720) or SD (640x480). From there, it is easier to downscale the resolution for web delivery later. In general, the higher the resolution, the better your video will appear. At the same time, HD videos tend to create larger files and will take a longer time to upload as well as to stream.
Bit Rate/ Data rate	Bit rates tend to be dependent on CODEC and there is no recommended or minimum value. SNNwire recommends that you use the “auto” option or “default” when available when encoding your videos. Videos should be optimized for resolution, frame rate and aspect ratio (16:9 vs. 640x480) instead of bit rate.
Frame Rate	Frame rates are measured by the number of frames per second (fps). For best results, SNNwire recommends that the frame rate be set at 30fps (also 29.97fps) or the same as the original where possible.
CODEC	H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 are preferred.

Audio
Sampling Rate	44.1kHz
Channels	2 (stereo) or 1 (mono)
CODEC	MP3 or AAC preferred

Prior to uploading your video to SNNwire.com, please preview your work locally on your computer to make sure that it is to your satisfaction. Once the video is uploaded to SNNwire.com we highly recommend that you preview it online prior to making it “live” on the site.

Video length and file size

SNNwire.com recommends that the videos be no more than 10 minutes in length or 250MB per video.
As bandwidth improves, we hope to accommodate larger files for longer videos.

Acceptable video file formats

SNNwire.com currently accepts a variety of video files in the following formats.

MOV (Quicktime)
WMV (Windows Media Video)
MP4 (iPod/PSP)
FLV/F4V (Adobe Flash Video)
M4V (iPod)
MPEG

SNNwire recommends formats that are H.264 based as they are highly scalable. The following formats are H.264 based:

MOV (Quicktime)
MP4 (iPod/PSP)
M4V (iPod)

If you are working with a video format that is not listed, there are a variety of transcoders available, both free and paid, that you can use to convert to any of the acceptable formats listed.

How to upload your video

Creating a video press release campaign on SNNwire.com is easy. The first step is to make sure you have an account and is already logged into your account. Once you are signed in, you should be able to see the following screen:

Under Tools and Resources, click on Video, and you will see the following screen below.

Select Add new video. You will be taken to the Add New Video screen.

Enter a title for the video. Click on Choose File button and browse to your video file location. Click Upload.

You will see a message on screen once the video has been uploaded successfully. Click Save.

On this video library list, you will see all the videos you have uploaded previously.

How to prepare a video press release

Sign into your SNNwire account. Upload your video. Once your video is uploaded and processed, click on My Account. Under General, go to Press Releases and click on Add New.

You will see the following page: