You can upload videos from digital still cameras, mobile phones and camcorders to vzaar.
But don't rush off and buy the latest video recording equipment just yet. You don't need a top-of-the-range digital video camera to make a good video. Any device that records video will do and you may already own one without knowing it.
Digital cameras usually have a video recording feature on them. The common icon for this feature is a movie camera or a film strip. Your cell phone may also have a built in camera that can capture video too. ↵
As a general rule, the better the camera, the better the quality of the video. But don’t worry too much. On the internet, people are used to viewing videos that might look out of place on the TV. In some ways, an honest, real video shot from a mobile phone is as good as a polished, edited video.
Remember, any video is better than nothing. Anything that gives your buyers more information and helps them bid and buy is good news for you and your sales.↵
You can transfer your videos from your digital camera in the same way as you extract your photographs. Videos are stored as digital files just like photos and you can transfer them in the same way: using a lead between camera and computer or by inserting your camera memory card in to your computer.
Just save your video files to your computer’s hard drive and you’re ready to upload them to vzaar. ↵
This one is slightly more complicated. If you have a video camera that records directly to a media file (often .mp4 or .avi) like a digital camera you can just upload directly to vzaar in the same way as above. If you have a camcorder, it's probably mini dv camera, and you'll have need some software on your computer to help you with this. If you have an Apple Mac, you'll have iMovie which can import directly from the camera and then be exported to video file to be uploaded. If you have a Windows machine you can use Microsoft Movie Maker (for XP or Vista) in the same way.
If you have a professional camera we think you probably know more than us on this. ↵
Many mobile phones use a memory card or memory stick in the same way as normal cameras. If you stick this into a card reader you will be able to easily copy the files off and upload them. If there is no memory card, you should have got a cable and some software when you bought your phone that should allow you to do this.
Bluetooth phones should also have a feature that allows you to send files to a bluetooth enabled computer.
If you have internet enabled on your phone you can upload files directly to vzaar from your phone. More details on that in the phone section. ↵
We should be able to handle almost any video from mobile phones, digital cameras and camcorders. This is a list of formats we support.
Simply put, we’ll be impressed if you produce a file type we don’t support. If you do manage it, let us know what it is and we’ll make the changes needed to get it on the site. ↵
We presently block flash (flv and swf) files. There are numerous reasons for this, some tech related, some security related. We may be able to change this in the future. However if you do only have a flash file that you need to upload, contact us and we'll do our best to convert it and get it up on the site for you.
You can upload files up to 100 MB in size. The average at the moment is about 15MB so for the most part this limit shouldn’t cause too many problems. ↵
Well that depends which package you are on. You can upload up to 1GB of video for free. 1GB should allow over 100 videos taken on a mobile phone and 20 to 50 videos taken on a normal camera. As you are limited to 20 listings with video in a month this should be ample.
This upload limit and the number of listings with video (embeds) increases with the packages.
Take a look at the packages and choose the best one for you. Let us know if you need something different. ↵
There are a few ways.
The easiest is to shoot a shorter videos.
If you are editing your video make sure when you export that it's under 100 MB. Use a good compressed codec like MP4.
You can also shoot the initial video in a lower resolution setting. 320x240 is ideal for these videos.
And if you set the sound to mono this will help keep the file size small too. ↵
If your files are taking a long time to upload and you'd like to speed this up, there are a few ways to compress your video before you upload to vzaar. We've suggested some free software to do the job and made you a "How to" video to show you how to use it too. Watch it here. ↵
The length of the video allowed also depends on which of the packages you have chosen. The Free package allows videos of up to 2 minutes. The Max package allows videos of up to 10 minutes long. ↵
We rather ruthlessly chop off the rest of the video (... but let us know if you do need longer videos as it may prove a case to lengthen them if the demand is there.) ↵
This may be one of many things.
Firstly it may be a problem from our end:
You can’t do anything about this from your end - so best let us know, or have a look at our Twitter feed to see if there is something going down at the vzaar bunker.
Secondly this may be a problem at your end:
If your internet connection is only so wide, it takes a longer time to fit a file through it, like it would getting a lot of traffic down a small lane. If your internet connect is wider, like broadband is you can get the file down it quicker - like traffic down a highway.
If your file size is also quite big this will take longer to upload. The max file size we allow is 100MB (a good quality 2 hour movie would be around 600MB - just so you can put it in perspective) On average the file sizes we see being uploaded to vzaar are around 20MB.
TOP TIP: You can always compress your video before you upload it to vzaar. Find out how and get some free software that does it for you.
We rather ruthlessly chop off the rest of the video (... but let us know if you do need longer videos as it may prove a case to lengthen them if the demand is there.) ↵
First of all give it two hours. eBay trawls through the API every two hours and will pick up any new videos. If it still doesn’t appear, let us know and we’ll go look for it. ↵
eBay will NOT allow any changes to the listings after it has received any bids on it or while it is in the last 12 hours of the auction. So we’re sorry to say that once your video is in there and receiving lots of attention, it’s eBay’s policy that the listings must remain unchanged.
Otherwise, in neither of these cases you’ll be able to delete the video from your admin panel in your “My Vzaar”. ↵
No. We made a conscious decision to put in an optional play button as we thought that it would annoy people to have a video with sound play automatically without their consent (especially those people that might be in the office trying to be very subtle about doing their shopping!) ↵