Blog
How video actually works
Explainers for the questions underneath the tools. Written to be understood once rather than looked up repeatedly, and honest about the places where the answer genuinely depends.
23 articles across fundamentals, codecs, compression, troubleshooting, rights
Fundamentals
How Streaming Actually Delivers a Video
Streaming does not send you a file. It sends thousands of small pieces and decides which quality to fetch next while you watch. That design explains buffering, quality shifts and why seeking is instant.
3 min read
Fundamentals
What Happens to Your Video When You Upload It
Every platform re-encodes what you send. Knowing what that process does explains why your upload looks softer than your export, and what actually helps.
3 min read
Codecs
Audio Codecs Explained: AAC, Opus, MP3 and the Silent Video Problem
Video codecs get all the attention, and audio is where playback quietly fails. What each common audio codec is for, which containers accept it, and why a video plays with no sound.
3 min read
Compression
Keyframes: Why Scrubbing Jumps and Cuts Land in the Wrong Place
Most frames in a video are not pictures, they are descriptions of change. That single fact explains jerky seeking, cuts that miss by a second, and why some files compress so much better than others.
3 min read
Troubleshooting
Why Videos Play Sideways, and the One Tag Behind It
A video that is upright on your phone and rotated on your computer has not been damaged. A single rotation flag is being read by one player and ignored by the other.
3 min read
Fundamentals
Interlaced and Progressive: What the i and the p Actually Mean
1080i and 1080p are not two grades of the same thing. One sends half a picture twice as often, and knowing which you have explains combing, weird motion and a surprising amount of bad conversion.
3 min read
Fundamentals
Why the Same Video Looks Different on Every Screen
Washed out on one device, too dark on another, oddly green in a browser. The file has not changed. Here is what colour information travels with a video and what happens when a player ignores it.
4 min read
Compression
VBR, CBR and Constant Quality: Which Bitrate Mode to Actually Use
A constant bitrate spends the same amount on a still shot and a fight scene. A variable one does not. Here is what each mode is for, and why the third option is usually the right answer.
4 min read
Troubleshooting
Why Screen Recordings Look Blurry, and How to Fix Them
Text that turns to mush and interfaces that look soft are not a resolution problem. They come from how video compression treats sharp edges, and there are specific things that help.
3 min read
Codecs
What Is AV1, and Is It Worth Using Yet?
Smaller files than H.265, no licensing fees, and encoding times that can still be measured in hours. Where AV1 makes sense today and where it does not.
4 min read
Troubleshooting
Why Your Video Will Not Play, and How to Work Out Which Part Is Wrong
Sound but no picture, picture but no sound, or nothing at all. Each symptom points at a different cause, and none of them usually means the file is broken.
4 min read
Rights
Why Some Websites Do Not Allow Video Downloads
The licensing, business and technical reasons behind a missing download button, and what the absence of one actually means.
2 min read
Rights
Creative Commons Video: What the Licences Actually Allow
The six licences, what each condition means in practice, and how to attribute properly so the permission holds.
2 min read
Rights
Public Domain and Copyrighted Content: Telling Them Apart
What public domain actually means, how works get there, and why free to watch is not the same thing at all.
2 min read
Rights
Copyright Basics for Online Video Creators
A plain overview of who owns what, what permission actually means, and the assumptions that get creators into trouble.
3 min read
Fundamentals
Understanding Video Aspect Ratios
Why video is the shape it is, what changed when phones arrived, and how to handle footage that has to fit a frame it was not shot for.
2 min read
Codecs
What Is H.265 (HEVC), and Should You Use It?
Roughly half the file size for the same picture, with real costs attached. When H.265 is the right choice and when it will simply fail to play.
3 min read
Codecs
What Is H.264, and Why Is It Still Everywhere?
The codec that made online video practical, how it works in outline, and why newer and better codecs have not displaced it.
2 min read
Fundamentals
Understanding Video Frame Rates
Why 24, 25, 30 and 60 all exist, where the odd numbers like 29.97 came from, and what changing the rate does to your footage.
3 min read
Fundamentals
How Video File Size Is Calculated
One multiplication decides how big a video is. Here it is, along with the unit confusion that makes files come out different from what people expect.
2 min read
Fundamentals
720p vs 1080p vs 4K: What Actually Changes
A comparison of the three resolutions that matter, in pixels, in file size, and in whether anyone can see the difference.
2 min read
Fundamentals
What Does 1080p Actually Mean?
The number, the letter, and why a 1080p file can still look poor. A short explanation of a term everyone uses and few pick apart.
2 min read
Fundamentals
What Is Video Bitrate, and Why Does It Decide How Good a Video Looks?
Bitrate is the budget an encoder has to describe a picture. Here is what it means, why the same number can be generous or hopeless, and how to judge it.
4 min read