KickApps video technical guide

by Chris

Here's your official technical resource for all of your questions about video on the KickApps platform. If you think something's missing or unaddressed, jump over to the Tutorials Talk forum and let us know.

The KickApps platform allows video uploads of up to 100MB per video file. Members may upload as many videos as they like, and all videos are available nearly instantaneously within the community. Members can upload the following file types (this is a full, alphabetical list – the member-facing upload page only mentions the most common formats, to keep things simple):

  • .any
  • .asf
  • .avi
  • .dv
  • .flv
  • .lch
  • .lst
  • .lxf
  • .mov
  • .mpg
  • .mpeg
  • .mxf
  • .omf
  • .qt
  • .raw
  • .ref
  • .saf
  • .wav
  • .wma
  • .wmv

When a member uploads a video, we transcode it into an FLV (Flash Video) file with the following specifications:

  • Bitrate: 750kbps 20 frames per second (fps)
  • 420px wide x 316 px high
  • Codec: on2 vp6 FLV
  • Audio codec: MP3
  • Audio bitrate: 48kbps
  • Audio sample rate: 22.05 mhz Stereo

The KickApps video player uses Flash version 9 and delivers video content as progressive downloads. Any video dimensions will automatically be scaled to fit the video player and it is optimized for a 4x3 aspect ratio. Some compression occurs during the transcoding process, which may affect the image and audio quality. The original video file is archived on the KickApps server in case it is needed at a future date, but it is no longer accessible to you or your community members.

Many of these settings can be reconfigured on request. For example, KickApps can integrate with your own CDN or write logo watermarks directly into uploaded videos. Custom configurations are available to affiliates who choose the KickApps Ad Inventory Buyout. The Ad Inventory Buyout also allows you to run advertisements within your video content (as pre-roll, post-roll, or overlay content).

When a user searches videos within your community, the search is actually checking the video's title, description, and tags, (also called the metadata) not the video content itself. Media tags also power the "related" lists that appear alongside every video.

As a community leader, it's important to encourage your members to title and tag videos appropriately so other members can find them within the community and search engines (like Google) can list your videos in their search results, where new people can find you.

You can help this process along by editing your community videos' metadata within the Affiliate Center. Learn how to moderate and edit your community's video content in the KickDeveloper support section.

Occasionally, videos don't upload successfully. In those cases, you'll typically see a “transcoding failed” status in the Affiliate Center when you view the video in your pending media queue. Typically, videos fail because they are somehow misconfigured or use an audio codec or other specific format that we cannot support. Also note that many video files also have Digital Rights Management (DRM) settings that prevent the KickApps platform from accepting the video.

If you notice any problems, log a support ticket and we'll take a look. Please keep the original copy of the video – we can learn a lot by inspecting the original file.

Did you enjoy this tutorial? Have questions, comments, or want to submit one of your own? Drop a line on the message boards.