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This website is great because it archives content before people delete it.
Your natural instinct should be to archive, never to link directly. The moment you link something directly, it can be taken down.
Web Archives
archive.md creates a full, living backup of a website with all its resources. (example)
full page screen capture is a Chrome extension that automatically caps, records, compiles, and sends you a lossless PNG of exactly what you see. It doesn't interact with anything on the page and takes only a second to use. (example)
FireFox now has this built in using the right-click context menu and it is extremely useful, but do not hotlink content from the firefoxusercontent domain. Download it and re-upload it, or use the clipboard option to paste it directly into your post. I always encourage people to use Brave, but I still have FireFox installed for the screenshot tool.
Hosting
You should always want to host on the site. The upload limit is 200MiB and most formats are supported.
Mega is possibly the only OK off-site host. Nothing else can be trusted - both due to their susceptibility to delete things, and for smaller file sites to disappear overnight.
If your file is very large or very important, PM me or email me at null@kiwifarms.net and I will archive it to https://kiwifarms.net/archive - however, I will usually want you to find a way to host it in your post.
This is a standard of archive quality we're using on the https://lolcow.wiki, but it's good if everyone does it. Links to 3rd party websites are rarely a good idea unless you're actually trying to show people the URL, and not its content.
Never, ever, ever rely on social media embeds or direct links. Take care when posting images saved from Facebook. The download URL includes a token which identifies the account that downloaded it. Change the filename, or just copy+paste the image directly.
Video Archives
The tool "youtube-dl" is basically god's gift to mankind and the single most useful utility in the whole fucking world. The name it a misnomer, it works on almost any website (incl. Twitter). It's available on most distros, including FreeBSD. If you know how to use the Windows command prompt, you can use it on Windows as well.
Windows users who are too lazy to figure out command line can try youtube-dl-gui. Yes, even YOU can archive valuable, fleeting content. If it's a big file, you'll have problems, but for little shit
I made a video explaining how to use youtube-dl via the command line.
www.youtube.com
Uploading Videos to the Kiwi Farms
The file size limit is currently 200MiB. This is sufficient for most videos. I appreciate optimizing efforts, and only certain formats play on all sites, so I will teach you how to use a different program to optimize the video.
First, if an audio+video MP4 format is available on youtube-dl (check by adding -F), get that. See below:
See 22? That's the magic number, but 18 also works. You want an MP4 format that has both audio and video, so don't get one that says "video only" like 299.
Then use youtube-dl -f mp4 or youtube-dl -f 22 to grab it as mp4.
If it's under 200MiB, you're done. Upload it.
P.S. youtube-dl likes to name video files from Twitter the entire content of a tweet. If you get an error, try adding -o a_less_stupid_name.mp4 somewhere.
Dealing with Large Videos and Irregular Formats
There's two steps with videos > 200 MiB. If you got it as an MP4 off YouTube using the above step, you can skip reformatting the video.
There's a magic command for taking any video of any format. Got a MOV? Got a weird MP4?
1. Download ffmpeg.
2. Use the magic command. This works on Linux (if installed via package manager) and Windows (as .exe if you've moved your command line to the same directory).
ffmpeg -hwaccel auto -i yourvid.any -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v baseline -level 3.0 -crf 22 -preset medium -c:a aac -strict experimental -movflags +faststart -threads 0 output.mp4
You can also use the -vf scale=-2:720 parameter to scale it to a certain size. 1080, 720, 480, 360 are common ones. The -2 scales it to the nearest even number (which is a requirement for the MP4 container). You can swap it too, i.e. -vf scale=1280:-2[/tt]
The less important the video is, the smaller you can scale the video. If it's totally irrelevant just make it 360p and call it a day. This is the easiest way to reduce video size. Don't fuck with the audio, audio is more important almost always.
Full version with scaling:
ffmpeg -hwaccel auto -i yourvid.any -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v baseline -level 3.0 -crf 22 -vf scale=-2:720 -preset medium -c:a aac -strict experimental -movflags +faststart -threads 0 output.mp4
Under 200MiB now? Upload it, you're done.
3. Splitting the video. Splitting is a last resort, so please don't just split and upload large, unoptimized shit.
ffmpeg doesn't natively split by size, it splits by time. Since the upload limit is 200MiB, take the file size in MB and divide it by 200. For instance, if you have a 2 hour, 53 minute long 443MiB file, you'll need 3 chunks. So divide the total runtime by 3.
(If your video is close to being a factor of 200, split once more than you need, because not all time segments are made equal. If you have a video that's exactly 400MiB and you try to split it in half, you are very unlikely to get two videos that are 199MiB.)
Adjust the -segment_time as needed. This is set for 1 hour each. This part takes very little time.
ffmpeg -hwaccel auto -i input.mp4 -c copy -map 0 -segment_time 01:00:00 -f segment -reset_timestamps 1 -movflags +faststart -threads 0 output%03d.mp4
At the end, I would have have input.mp4, and then 3 videos called output_0.mp4, output_1.mp4, and output_2.mp4. Those are the files to upload to the Kiwi Farms.
Your natural instinct should be to archive, never to link directly. The moment you link something directly, it can be taken down.
Web Archives
archive.md creates a full, living backup of a website with all its resources. (example)
full page screen capture is a Chrome extension that automatically caps, records, compiles, and sends you a lossless PNG of exactly what you see. It doesn't interact with anything on the page and takes only a second to use. (example)
FireFox now has this built in using the right-click context menu and it is extremely useful, but do not hotlink content from the firefoxusercontent domain. Download it and re-upload it, or use the clipboard option to paste it directly into your post. I always encourage people to use Brave, but I still have FireFox installed for the screenshot tool.
Hosting
You should always want to host on the site. The upload limit is 200MiB and most formats are supported.
Mega is possibly the only OK off-site host. Nothing else can be trusted - both due to their susceptibility to delete things, and for smaller file sites to disappear overnight.
If your file is very large or very important, PM me or email me at null@kiwifarms.net and I will archive it to https://kiwifarms.net/archive - however, I will usually want you to find a way to host it in your post.
This is a standard of archive quality we're using on the https://lolcow.wiki, but it's good if everyone does it. Links to 3rd party websites are rarely a good idea unless you're actually trying to show people the URL, and not its content.
Never, ever, ever rely on social media embeds or direct links. Take care when posting images saved from Facebook. The download URL includes a token which identifies the account that downloaded it. Change the filename, or just copy+paste the image directly.
Video Archives
The tool "youtube-dl" is basically god's gift to mankind and the single most useful utility in the whole fucking world. The name it a misnomer, it works on almost any website (incl. Twitter). It's available on most distros, including FreeBSD. If you know how to use the Windows command prompt, you can use it on Windows as well.
Windows users who are too lazy to figure out command line can try youtube-dl-gui. Yes, even YOU can archive valuable, fleeting content. If it's a big file, you'll have problems, but for little shit
I made a video explaining how to use youtube-dl via the command line.
Archival 101: Downloading any video off the Internet
www.youtube.com
Uploading Videos to the Kiwi Farms
The file size limit is currently 200MiB. This is sufficient for most videos. I appreciate optimizing efforts, and only certain formats play on all sites, so I will teach you how to use a different program to optimize the video.
First, if an audio+video MP4 format is available on youtube-dl (check by adding -F), get that. See below:
Code:
$ youtube-dl -F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxW_sLNQKsI
[youtube] NxW_sLNQKsI: Downloading webpage
[info] Available formats for NxW_sLNQKsI:
format code extension resolution note
249 webm audio only tiny 46k , webm_dash container, opus @ 46k (48000Hz), 59.95MiB
250 webm audio only tiny 64k , webm_dash container, opus @ 64k (48000Hz), 83.33MiB
251 webm audio only tiny 116k , webm_dash container, opus @116k (48000Hz), 148.92MiB
140 m4a audio only tiny 129k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@129k (44100Hz), 166.00MiB
160 mp4 256x144 144p 61k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d400c@ 61k, 30fps, video only, 78.47MiB
278 webm 256x144 144p 68k , webm_dash container, vp9@ 68k, 30fps, video only, 87.54MiB
242 webm 426x240 240p 94k , webm_dash container, vp9@ 94k, 30fps, video only, 120.79MiB
133 mp4 426x240 240p 136k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d4015@ 136k, 30fps, video only, 174.81MiB
243 webm 640x360 360p 164k , webm_dash container, vp9@ 164k, 30fps, video only, 210.94MiB
134 mp4 640x360 360p 249k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d401e@ 249k, 30fps, video only, 319.61MiB
244 webm 854x480 480p 255k , webm_dash container, vp9@ 255k, 30fps, video only, 328.21MiB
135 mp4 854x480 480p 427k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d401f@ 427k, 30fps, video only, 548.62MiB
247 webm 1280x720 720p 484k , webm_dash container, vp9@ 484k, 30fps, video only, 621.01MiB
302 webm 1280x720 720p60 616k , webm_dash container, vp9@ 616k, 60fps, video only, 789.87MiB
136 mp4 1280x720 720p 779k , mp4_dash container, avc1.64001f@ 779k, 30fps, video only, 999.44MiB
298 mp4 1280x720 720p60 1063k , mp4_dash container, avc1.640020@1063k, 60fps, video only, 1.33GiB
303 webm 1920x1080 1080p60 759k , webm_dash container, vp9@ 759k, 60fps, video only, 974.28MiB
299 mp4 1920x1080 1080p60 1932k , mp4_dash container, avc1.64002a@1932k, 60fps, video only, 2.42GiB
18 mp4 640x360 360p 322k , avc1.42001E, 30fps, mp4a.40.2 (44100Hz), 413.64MiB
22 mp4 1280x720 720p 912k , avc1.64001F, 30fps, mp4a.40.2 (44100Hz) (best)See 22? That's the magic number, but 18 also works. You want an MP4 format that has both audio and video, so don't get one that says "video only" like 299.
Then use youtube-dl -f mp4 or youtube-dl -f 22 to grab it as mp4.
If it's under 200MiB, you're done. Upload it.
P.S. youtube-dl likes to name video files from Twitter the entire content of a tweet. If you get an error, try adding -o a_less_stupid_name.mp4 somewhere.
Dealing with Large Videos and Irregular Formats
There's two steps with videos > 200 MiB. If you got it as an MP4 off YouTube using the above step, you can skip reformatting the video.
There's a magic command for taking any video of any format. Got a MOV? Got a weird MP4?
1. Download ffmpeg.
2. Use the magic command. This works on Linux (if installed via package manager) and Windows (as .exe if you've moved your command line to the same directory).
ffmpeg -hwaccel auto -i yourvid.any -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v baseline -level 3.0 -crf 22 -preset medium -c:a aac -strict experimental -movflags +faststart -threads 0 output.mp4
You can also use the -vf scale=-2:720 parameter to scale it to a certain size. 1080, 720, 480, 360 are common ones. The -2 scales it to the nearest even number (which is a requirement for the MP4 container). You can swap it too, i.e. -vf scale=1280:-2[/tt]
The less important the video is, the smaller you can scale the video. If it's totally irrelevant just make it 360p and call it a day. This is the easiest way to reduce video size. Don't fuck with the audio, audio is more important almost always.
Full version with scaling:
ffmpeg -hwaccel auto -i yourvid.any -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v baseline -level 3.0 -crf 22 -vf scale=-2:720 -preset medium -c:a aac -strict experimental -movflags +faststart -threads 0 output.mp4
Under 200MiB now? Upload it, you're done.
3. Splitting the video. Splitting is a last resort, so please don't just split and upload large, unoptimized shit.
ffmpeg doesn't natively split by size, it splits by time. Since the upload limit is 200MiB, take the file size in MB and divide it by 200. For instance, if you have a 2 hour, 53 minute long 443MiB file, you'll need 3 chunks. So divide the total runtime by 3.
(If your video is close to being a factor of 200, split once more than you need, because not all time segments are made equal. If you have a video that's exactly 400MiB and you try to split it in half, you are very unlikely to get two videos that are 199MiB.)
Adjust the -segment_time as needed. This is set for 1 hour each. This part takes very little time.
ffmpeg -hwaccel auto -i input.mp4 -c copy -map 0 -segment_time 01:00:00 -f segment -reset_timestamps 1 -movflags +faststart -threads 0 output%03d.mp4
At the end, I would have have input.mp4, and then 3 videos called output_0.mp4, output_1.mp4, and output_2.mp4. Those are the files to upload to the Kiwi Farms.
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