Squeeze More out of Sorenson Squeeze

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Originally published at Internet.com

If you're making video for online use, few tools are as valuable as Sorenson Squeeze. To learn how to get more out of it, we spoke with Grady Player, the Assistant Product Manager for Sorenson Squeeze, and asked him for his best insider tips.

FTP ASAP
After you've converted videos with Sorenson Squeeze, the program can FTP the files for you, saving you a step. 1. To set up automatic FTPing, first load videos into the content window and add the filter of your choice. 2. Right-click on the filter name and select Modify Optional Tasks from the resulting pop-up window. 3. Click the button Copy Output to FTP and fill in your directory and password information.

Note: You can also use this pane to automatically send videos to an application, if you're not done with them yet, or to send them to Vital Stream Hosting, if that's your media host.

Pimp Your Player
You don't have to settle for default playback. You can set options in Squeeze to control how your video plays and how the media player looks. 1. Add your video to the content window and add an .SWF filter. 2. Click the triangle to the left of the filter name to open it, then right click on Player OptÂ… From the pop-up window, select EditÂ… 3. You'll then get an options window with two tabs. The first lets you set how many times your video will loop, whether is plays automatically or after a pause, and the actions resulting from a mouse click or the video ending. 4. The second tab lets you select a template for your video player. Unfortunately, Squeeze doesn't show previews of the templates within the application. But if you open the Templates folder within your Squeeze application folder, you can see them.

Automate Your Workflow
You can set up to 100 watch folders in Squeeze, so the program will automatically find and process new content. 1. Click the Watch Folder button in the top left corner. 2. Select a local or networked folder for new video content. The folder will show up in the content window. 3. Add a filter from the list on the left. You can add different filters to different folders. 4. Click Squeeze It in the lower right and the program will monitor for added content as long as it's running.

Mark Your Property
You can use Squeeze to add a watermark to your videos, so that other sites won't rip you off. Only QuickTime filters offer watermarking, so this is a two-step process. 1. Add a video to your content window and add a high-quality QuickTime filter. 2. Click the triangle to the left of the filter name to open it and right-click on either of the contents. Select EditÂ… from the resulting pop-up window. 3. Change the stream type to Not Streaming. Adjust the audio, sample size, channels, frame size and other options to maintain video quality. You don't want to compress with this step. 4. Scroll down to the see the Options button in the lower right corner and click it. 5. Select the Watermark tab from the resulting window. Click the button for Watermark and then select the graphic you want to use for your watermark. 6. Use the on-screen options to adjust the position, offset, and opacity of the watermark. 7. Output your video to create a version of your content with a watermark. 8. Import the resulting video and convert it to your preferred format.

Note: The next version of Squeeze, version 5.0, will offer watermarking with any type of filter.