Depending upon your Internet connection and the resolution and duration of your video file, you could expect a Kaltura video upload to take as little as 5-10 minutes to upload, or as much as an hour or more.
The file upload is only part of the process: After uploading is completed, your video will need to be processed into multiple flavours (resolutions and codecs) for delivery on different platforms and screen sizes. Kaltura does this automatically, but it takes additional time. Typical processing time could be equivalent to the length of your video (in minutes) multiplied by a factor of four or five - longer if there are many other users also uploading videos to Kaltura at the same time.
Tips for faster upload & processing
The upload and/or processing times for videos depends on a few factors, including home internet speed, video duration, video quality, and how many other videos are in the processing queue at the same time as you.
- Keep your videos as short as possible. 6-10 minutes is best. Research indicates that shorter videos are more effective pedagogically and faster to upload and play. Instead of recording an hour-long lecture in one piece, consider breaking it into smaller chunks. When recording your longer Zoom lectures, you can use Start/ Stop recording at natural breaks in the session to avoid recording empty moments when nothing’s going on.
- Use a wired Internet connection instead of WiFI. Wired internet speeds are generally faster and less prone to interference. (WiFi reception can be adversely affected by walls, bookshelves, metal furniture, and RF noise from appliances like microwaves.)
- Check your Internet Connection speed. On home internet connections, upload speed might be quite limited, and could result in slow upload times in Kaltura. We recommend that users struggling with large video uploads check their upload speed and review the capabilities of their plan. Also, VCC’s on-campus upload and download speeds are much faster than many home internet connections. If possible, consider doing your video uploads on-campus.
- Adjust your device, camera, and recording software settings to use lower resolution. For most lectures and presentations, especially if you’re shooting what looks like a “head and shoulders” presentation at your desk, full 1080P high-def is not necessary. You can save storage space, processing power, and upload/download time by lowering your device’s recording resolution to 720P (1280x720).
- Upload videos at off-peak times when possible. You might find it less busy early in the morning, or at the end of the day.
- After upload, there’s no need to sit and watch your video process. Once Kaltura says “Upload Completed!”, go do something else and come back later! It’s fine to close the browser window while the video is processing.
Note: do not quit or exit during video uploads as this will halt the upload.