WikiQueer:Creation and usage of media files

Images, audio and video files must be uploaded into WikiQueer using the "Upload file" link on the left-hand navigation bar. Only logged in users can upload files. Once a file is uploaded, other pages can include or link to the file. Uploaded files are given the "File:" prefix by the system, and each one has an image description page. Please consider uploading freely licensed content to the Wikimedia Commons instead of here. This allows the files to be used in articles instantly by all Wikimedia projects. Files from Wikimedia Commons use the same syntax described below, there is no extra step needed. The maximum size of an uploaded file is 100 megabytes.

If you want to give a link to the file description page in an article, use an extra colon at the front, e.g., " ". If you type " ", a download link to the media file is created. The file name has to contain the file type.

Special characters and math
It is not necessary to upload images to use special characters or even complex mathematical expressions.

WikiQueer uses a UTF-8 encoding scheme, which means that any Unicode character can and should be entered directly. See m:Help:Special characters for details and help.

For mathematical formulae, we use TeX markup. For help and instructions, see m:Help:Formula.

Text files
Please do not upload plain text (.txt), Microsoft Word (.doc), or text files in other formats. Instead, please start a new page and input the text using standard wiki formatting. Please do not dump text into WikiQueer unless you wrote it yourself, or you know that it meets the project's stringent copyright licensing requirements. If you do not have time to format it yourself, add the wikify tag at the top of the page.

Textfile usage
Type " " to create a link to the media description site of the document.

Images
Images can be displayed directly on WikiQueer pages.

The preferred formats are JPEG for photographic images and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) for drawings, though PNG can also be used. Vector graphics are preferred to raster graphics for drawings, because they can be scaled as needed without losing information, and can be edited more easily.

Image usage
Type " " when you want to display an image file directly. In most cases, a thumbnail is more useful: " ". See WikiQueer:Picture tutorial for further information.

See also:
 * WikiQueer:Extended image syntax
 * WikiQueer:Image use policy

Audio
WikiQueer uses the Ogg Vorbis format, developed by Xiph.Org, for audio. The Ogg Vorbis format is not encumbered by patents, an issue which prompted MP3 files to not be hosted at WikiQueer.

Software supporting Vorbis exists for many platforms. Mozilla Firefox 4, Opera 10.5 and Google Chrome 3 and later each include their own support for Ogg Vorbis files. As for multimedia players, Winamp can be used to play Ogg Vorbis files. Although iTunes does not natively support Vorbis, Xiph.Org provides a QuickTime component which can be used in players that rely on QuickTime, such as iTunes, on both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. DirectShow filters exist to decode Vorbis in multimedia players like Windows Media Player and others which support DirectShow.

Useful software for audio:
 * For audio editing, Audacity is a high quality free audio recorder/editor for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux/Unix.
 * Sweep is another free audio editor which can be used in Linux environments.
 * For encoding to Ogg Vorbis, it is recommended that you use Hydrogenaudio-recommended encoders for best results. oggenc (cross-platform) is the command-line encoder, while OggDropXPd (Windows-only) is an easy-to-use GUI for encoding to Ogg Vorbis.
 * dBpowerAMP Music Converter (proprietary, Windows-only) offers a convenient GUI for transcoding between most audio codecs, including Ogg Vorbis. The Vorbis encoder must be downloaded separately from the software, but it is freely available from the same website.
 * The easiest way to play Ogg Vorbis files on legacy Macintoshes (OS 9 and earlier) is to use JustOgg.

The VorbisSoftwarePlayers node at the xiph.org wiki has an up-to-date list of Vorbis-supporting software for all operating systems. Users can test these players using the list of Vorbis audio streams available at.

Audio usage
Most viable is to use Template:Listen, see its page for detailed description, common usage is listed here:



Example:

There are several other audio templates used primarily for demonstrating pronunciation of foreign languages or obscure terms, such as audio-IPA. When adding a sound file to an article, such as English language or Irish phonology avoid using a template that only links to the raw sound file, as this effectively hides important licensing information that allows readers to see who created and uploaded the file, its source and under what license it was published.

Further information on audio files

 * Category:Song articles missing an audio sample
 * WikiQueer:Media help (Ogg)

Video

 * See also Commons:Video

WikiQueer uses Ogg Theora for video because it is open and royalty-free. Because most popular movie/audio formats are patented and require a royalty, there are no free all purpose video converters. See also WikiCommons' Theora video conversion help page.

Limitations and Implementation Issues

 * Both the WikiQueer project and the Wikimedia Commons limit uploads to a maximum of 100 megabytes.
 * There is currently no standard for acceptable streaming bitrates in articles. For the widest broadband compatibility, a bitrate of no more than 220 kilobits/sec will work for users of 256 kilobit DSL. Very high bitrates near or over 1,000 kilobits/sec may outstrip the ability of WikiQueer or the Commons to deliver the streaming data fast enough.
 * Resizing a video to use a smaller thumbnail does not change the bitrate or bandwidth requirements. A video recorded at 640x480 but shown in an article at 160x120 will still stream all the data that would be used to display it at the 640x480 size. If you need a smaller video size in an article for some reason, you are much better off to just recompress the larger video to the smaller size to bake in the bandwidth savings. Better quality can be obtained in these small videos, by having the original uploader create the smaller size using their original uploaded content.

A template to make this technical issue more prominent in articles is available as: -- this same template also exists in the Wikimedia Commons for insertion into video upload descriptions.

An example usage of this template can be seen in the video File:Rhof-histWaschmaschine.ogg on the Wikimedia Commons. This page also includes links to smaller, low bitrate, downsampled versions of the video.

Offering multiple bit-rates
There is currently no defined method to offer readers multiple video versions, in order to select a quality and speed most suitable for their network bandwidth. While any video may be fully downloaded first for local playback, streaming of video requires that the file size be small enough to be reliably streamed continuously to the user within their bandwidth limits.

One possible option for offering multiple bitrates is shown here. This is a custom wikitable and is used in the washing machine article to showcase use of a vintage washing machine.

There is no predefined ready-to-use template for creating a multi-bitrate thumbnail like this and there is no built-in facility provided by Wikimedia to automatically downsample video into various smaller thumbnail versions with lower bitrates.

If you intend to offer multiple bitrates to readers you will need to construct a custom wikitable similar to this one which references each derivative transcoded low-bitrate version.

Useful software

 * Firefogg.org offers a web UI for transcoding video into ogg theora. Alternatively the mwEmbed gadget can be used to enable firefogg on the commons upload page.
 * For video, ffmpeg2theora is a command line encoder capable of converting numerous file formats (.mov, .mpg, .mpeg, .avi) into Ogg Theora. It works on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux/Unix.
 * You can also use the encoder_example application included with libtheora in combination with a program like MPlayer that is capable of dumping raw (yuv4mpeg) video and sound to encode in Ogg Theora
 * http://programmer-art.org/projects/arista-transcoder and http://www.linuxrising.org/transmageddon/ are graphical transcoders for Unix / Linux
 * LiVES and Cinelerra are video editing programs for Linux which are able to edit Ogg Theora videos
 * The directshow filters can be used to encode Ogg Theora using GraphEdit.
 * The Xiph.org wiki has a list of Theora Software Encoders
 * handbrake is a free (GPL'd) transcoder for Windows, Mac and Linux

Video usage


The easiest way to embed video directly into an article is by using the same tag as for image files. The result is on the right.



By default, a frame from the midpoint of the video is used for the initial still image. To use a different frame, use the thumbtime parameter. For instance:



Specify the time in seconds, or use colons to separate hours, minutes and seconds.

To just give a link to the video, use:



See also:
 * WikiQueer Media Help (Playback)
 * commons:Category:Commons video resources