Video support for more file formats

[rosiel]

Overview of feature request

Right now the Video media type only allows .mp4. Is it possible to allow other formats?

What kind of user is the feature intended for?
End users doing video storage/preservation

What inspired the request?
Documenting Video Derivatives Islandora/documentation#929 (which work great! But are only mp4-to-mp4.)

What existing behavior do you want changed?
Change the restriction on Video media type's file field to allow such types as:

• .avi
• .mov /.qt (Quicktime)
• .mpg/.mpg2/.mpeg2 (uncompressed digititized video)
• Other formats as suggested in "Video preservation" recommendations(?)

Any brand new behavior do you want to add to Islandora?

Along with being allowed to upload them, I'd like to be able to do derivatives. At the moment, conversion to .mp4 and extracting thumbnails/poster images would be great. There may be other preservation transformations that are eventually recommended.

What constraints does FFMPEG place on us in doing this? Are there extra codecs that need to be enabled? Are they protected by incompatible licenses therefore we can't ship with them enabled and could include documentation on doing this yourself? etc.

Any related open or closed issues to this feature request?

• Meta-Issue: Video Derivatives Islandora/documentation#929

[whikloj]

I think this is just configuration at least for some of the above listed movie types. When testing video derivatives I just edit the file field of the video media type and add "mov" to the acceptable extensions. It works fine.

[rosiel]

Probably! This ticket is partly here to do tests like that.
Smarter people than me would know better, but I suspect that it's not the extension (container format) that will affect whether ffmpeg can handle the file, as much as the audio/video(?) codecs. That true?

[DonRichards]

From the tech call: I think the way forwards is a 2 part approach.

1. Test to see what common formats are already useable when the dot extensions are added to Drupal.
2. Create a list of formats and using that list create PRs to add the necessary codecs/libraries to add to the buildkit.

Common formats:

• .WEBM
• .MPG, .MP2, .MPEG, .MPE, .MPV
• .OGG
• .MP4, .M4P, .M4V
• .AVI, .WMV
• .MOV, .QT
• .FLV, .SWF
• AVCHD

For a bigger list check Wikipedia

Most formats don't need to be web-accessible, the service file derivative on the other hand does.

1st part is a manner of documenting the findings and possibly adding a PR to add all of the extensions to isle-dc/Playbook automatically by default.

2nd is documentation and an example of how to add an external library to the buildkit.

[rosiel]

Several more file types added with #59