How To Optimize Video For Smooth Website Playback Using Handbrake

This tutorial walks you through using a free program named Handbrake to optimize your videos before self-hosting or uploading to BunnyNet.

To start, you’ll need to download Handbrake and install it on your computer. Once it’s installed, start Handbrake and follow these steps to optimize your videos:

Step 1 – The first thing that you’ll see on your screen, will be the file selection. Select the location of your video file and click “Open”;

Step 2 – Next, choose the resolution you want for your video. To do this, click on Presets > General and select the format you want;

Step 3 – Below, under the “Summary” tab, make sure that you have the following settings done:

• Format: MP4;
• Web Optimized: Box checked;
• Align A/V Start: Box checked;

Step 4 – Now, click on the “Video” tab. Here, make sure the “Video Encoder” is set to “H.264 (x264)”. Further, you can set the “Framerate” – 30 would be in the general standard option, but you could choose the values between 24 and 60. Though there are more options than this range, we wouldn’t recommend using those values;

Step 5 – Also, move to the “Audio” tab and check the “Codec” dropdown – it should be set to “AAC (CoreAudio)”;

Step 6 – Finally, confirm the location where you wish to save your video (bottom of the window), and click “Start” (on top);

This will save the optimized video to the location you set on your computer. From there, you can upload and use the video with Presto Player.

In addition, if you wish to use the values you selected as your standard configuration, you can save it as Preset. In the menu, you can click on the “Save New Preset…” to save these settings for future use. In this case, you would find this preset under Presets > My Presets on Step 1.

Also, you can also import the following presets we create for you. To import these, navigate to Handbrake main menu and click on Presets > Import:

• Full HD 1080p Video Preset
• HD 720p Video Preset