Wikipedia:WikiProject Screencast/Scripts/Script 8

Script	Visual
VOICE READS TITLE CARD; PAUSES FOR A COUPLE OF SECONDS BEFORE TRANSITIONING TO NEXT SCREEN	[title card] Convert a Screencast to Ogg Theora format
Hi, this is user:aude, member of WikiProject Screencasting on English Wikipedia. I am here to show you how to convert a video file from Mpeg or another format into the ogg format so that it can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and be made available for use in Wikipedia! Your video may be a screencast, but this tutorial applies to any type of video.	[1] (graphics)
Before taking the time to convert your file into ogg format, please take into consideration some important caveats about uploading video to Wikimedia Commons. First, your video must contain only free, open source material. This includes the software used to record the screencast. For example, the Safari browser or Internet Explorer browser interfaces contain non-free, proprietary elements. Instead, Firefox is the best for a web tutorial screencast, since it is open source.	see commons:Commons:Screenshots
Your video also needs to be in a free, open source file format. For video, Wikimedia Commons accepts the ogg theora format. These are .ogg or .ogv files. Popular video file formats such as MPEG are encumbered with patents, thus are non-free and Wikimedia Commons cannot accept them. Here, in this tutorial, you will see how to convert your video to ogg format, so that it can be uploaded to Commons.
If either of these are an issue, then you have the option of uploading to YouTube or another video service and link to it from Wikipedia. This is a perfectly valid option, but we would love to have your video screencast on Wikimedia Commons!
Ogg is a newer file format, thus it is not as widely supported in software packages as Mpeg and other formats are. But, there are a number of video production and encoding software packages to choose from that enable conversion from Mpeg to Ogg formats. Support for ogg is best in Linux, but other open source packages that run on Mac or Windows also tend to support ogg, and the ogg format is making it's way into some proprietary packages as well.
If you are running Linux, a number of programs natively support the Ogg format for capturing video, such as XVidCap and RecordMyDesktop. You can use these programs to directly record in the ogg format and skip the format conversion step.
Otherwise, if you are running on Windows or Mac OS, go ahead and record video in Mpeg or another format and convert to Ogg in the post-processing stage. This is also a valid options when working in Linux.
There are a number of options for converting video to Ogg format:
You can use the VLC media player, a free, open source graphical interface program that works on Windows, Mac and Linux. With VLC, you simply open up the source file to check that it works fine. Then, double check that the aspect ratio is set as default and force aspect ratio in the video section of preferences is blank. Then you go to media > save/convert, select the source file again, then specify the output file location and name, select the ogg + theora + vorbis file and run the conversion. The conversion process can take a few minutes or longer, depending on the size and length of your video. Once the conversion is complete, double check the results. If you are happy with the results, then the video is ready for upload to Wikimedia Commons.
Other options for converting to the ogg format include Firefogg, a Firefox plugin that handles conversion and uploading. TinyOgg is another option. For the more technical folks, there is the ffmpeg2theora command-line program that is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS.	You can find more software options and instructions for converting video are available on the Wikimedia Commons help page on "Converting video": commons:Help:Converting_video
Happy screencasting! From @aude of of WikiProject Screencasting. If you enjoy making screencasts, you are welcome to join WikiProject Screencasting. Cheers!
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