Wikimedia accepts and encourages uploading video files on Commons. Videos, like images, must be freely licensed. The preferred video format isVP9 video in theWebM container, butTheora video in the ogv container andVP8 orAV1 video in the WebM container are also allowed. For help on converting to a preferred format, go toHelp:Converting video.

There are more than360,000 video files on Commons.^[1]

Good examples of videos:

• Nature videos, such as a recording of a scenic view or a hurricane (ex.#1)
• Wildlife videos, such as the behavior of animals (ex.#1)
• Sports videos, such as demonstrating a particular rule, exercise or method of playing (ex.#1)
• Cultural videos (ex.#1), beware of any possible music copyrights! Even the new rendition of old folk songs can generate a new copyright held by the musicians
• Explanatory videos, such as videos explaining scientific concepts or archaeological understandings (ex.#1)
• Architectural videos, such as building elements or construction (ex.#1)
• Event videos, such as of protests, parades, conferences or ceremonies
• Science videos, such as of chemistry experiments (ex.#1)
• Tutorial videos and demonstrations of tools, showing how they work. (ex.#1)
• Visualization of3D data where one of dimensions is shown as time (ex.#1 &#2)
• Historical videos (ex.#1 &#2)
• ⇒ Many more high-quality video examples can be found inthe category for files featured as Media of the Day on the frontpage (wall-of-videos view)

Check out theList of Wiki video projects; there is a dedicated discussion and support mailing list for makers of video in Wikimedia projects,WikiVideo-l (archive). You can also join theWMF Multimedia Team mailing list (archive).

Several file formats are in use for video on the Internet, but the ones most widely used are not open formats orroyalty-free.Wikimedia uses three formats:

• WebM format (AV1,VP9 andVP8 codecs are supported)
• Ogg Theora
• MPEG-1 andMPEG-2

These formats are open and royalty-free; seeCommons:File types#Video for more details. Commons doesnot support the more commonly usedpatent-encumbered video formats such asH.264 andH.265 that are used in MP4 and MOV files, since their use could require royalty payments.

The process ofuploading a video is similar to uploading an image. First, ensure the video isfreely licensed andwithin scope.Now you have several options:

• New uploads:
  • UseVideo2commons, a tool integrating both conversion and upload, for both locally stored videos and videos from some websites. This might be an easier method since you don't need to perform video conversion by yourself, but may take more time as third-party conversion has limited capacity.
  • Alternatively, follow these steps:
    1. if the video is not on your local computer but online, first download the video – likely as described inCommons:YouTube files/Downloading.
    2. once you have the video on your device, check if it has acompatible format. If necessary,convert the video to the Theora or the WebM format.
    3. start theUploadWizard and follow the instructions. Alternatively, you can usechunked upload. Include appropriate topic categories. It will take some time to upload. Files can't be larger than 5GiB. Theoretically, it is also possible to split the video into shorter parts and upload each part separately. The template{{Split file}} could be used to link the parts of files split in this way.
• Upload to overwrite an existing video: download the video to your devices as described above, and followCommons:Overwriting existing files andHelp:Overwrite.

A transcode is a VP9 or WebM file with a smaller resolution, smaller file size, or lower bit rate than the original video, created to optimally serve one of our videos to web browsers bymw:Extension:TimedMediaHandler. After each video is uploaded, that extension creates a "Transcode status" section on the video's file description page, which contains a link to "Update transcode status" (which willpurge the page) and then a table which details the following statistics for each transcode: "Format" (sorted by video format (VP9 then WebM) and then by decreasing video resolution); "Bitrate" (in kbps or Mbps); "Download" (a link to download that particular transcode); "Actions" (a link to "Reset transcode" for that particular transcode, in case the transcoding failed); "Status" (what happened last to that transcode and when (UTC)); and "Encode time" (how long it took a backend server to finish the transcoding process, in seconds or minutes and seconds).NB that at presentnew users are unable to upload video or audio files, because of frequent abuse of this related to Wikipedia Zero. SeeSpecial:AbuseFilter/180. (this is probably outdated?)

For trimming videos these commands can be used:

1. Installffmpeg and run the below commands in the console. You need to adjust the timings and the file paths.
2. ffmpeg -copyts -ss 00:00:23.000 -to 00:01:24.400 -i ./file.webm -c copy ./output.webm
3. The above command will run through very quickly. Now check the video: if it trimmed at the right times, you're done but if not you need to use the command below which can take a while to run.
4. ffmpeg -ss 00:00:23.000 -to 00:01:24.400 -i ./file.webm -c copy ./output.webm

We have a tool in the early stage of developmenthere (currently dysfunctional). For extracting single images from videos, seeCategory:Still images from videos.

• Video with a lightning - 11 seconds length
• Just the lightning - 2 seconds length - edited by application of the trimming and cutting tool for videos

Creating a link that appears at first as a still image of a video and that plays the video after its play button is clicked is called “embedding a video”. The easiest way to embed a video directly into an article (or another page) is by using the same [[File:]] syntax as for image or sound files. The result is on the right. The video can be resized by adding a fixed size (like "|200px") or - preferable - the "|upright" parameter. In most cases you should stick to the default size. If it is higher than wide, use the pure "|upright".

[[File:Time Lapse of New York City.ogv|thumb |200px |New York City Time Lapse]]

[[File:Time Lapse of New York City.ogv|thumb |upright |New York City Time Lapse]]

[[File:Time Lapse of New York City.ogv|thumb |upright=2 |New York City Time Lapse]]

In case of Ogg Theora files, a keyframe from the midpoint of the video is used by default for the initial thumbnail image. To use a different keyframe, use the thumbtime parameter. For instance:

[[File:Time Lapse of New York City.ogv |thumbtime=12 |thumb |200px |New York City timelapse]]

Either specify the time in seconds or use colons to separate hours, minutes and seconds. Separate a fraction of a second by a "." (dot). Only tenths (0.1, 0.2, etc.) of seconds work, currently.

• Default still image
• Still image at 12 seconds
• Default still image
• Still image at 7.8 seconds

There are two types of links to a video:

• File – To create a link to the video's file description page,
  • use[[:File:Time Lapse of New York City.ogv]].
  • To make the text of a link to the video's file description page appear as some text other than the video's filename, use[[:File:Time Lapse of New York City.ogv|some text you prefer]].
• Media – To create a link that downloads the video,
  • use[[Media:Time Lapse of New York City.ogv]] or use[[:Media:Time Lapse of New York City.ogv]].
  • To make the text of a link that downloads the video appear as some text other than the video's filename, use[[Media:Time Lapse of New York City.ogv|some text you prefer]] or use[[:Media:Time Lapse of New York City.ogv|some text you prefer]].

Allows embed code to reference a segment of the video stream or set a start time. Hover over the player to see start time listed as 5s, press play and notice it stops playback at 7 seconds.

[[File:Weeding.ogv|thumb|300px|start=5|end=7|Starts at 5 seconds and ends playback at 7 seconds]]

This feature depends on anHTML5 video browser.

Note: For URLs used outside Wikimedia wikis, the start of a section can be linked to ashttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WikiCite_2020_The_frontend_of_WikiCite.webm?start=1:12:30 where the three colon-separated value represent hours, minutes and seconds respectively. Values in the formatstart=mm:ss andstart=sss are also accepted.

In case of animatedGIF files, the animation is played continuously in a loop. Animated GIFs are (currently) scaled down on server-side to the required thumb sizeif they do not exceed the 12.5 Megapixel limit. If they exceed it a still frame will be displayed.

Main article:Commons:Timed Text

To upload an already created subtitle file, open the file on your computer in a text editor (such as Notepad) and copy the text into a new page in the TimedText namespace that matches the filename of the video and the language code.

Keep in mind to paraphrase not spoken sounds and encompass them with rounded brackets. E.g.

 1 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:24,400 (engine sound)

You can alsoimport subtitles from YouTube orcreate a transcript using machine transcription so you only need to correct any flaws if there are any. This can also be used to translate transcripts.

Make sure there is{{Closed captions}} below the file description once the file has closed captions.

See also:Commons:Media help

Playing video and sound embedded on Wikimedia sites requires no additional software in current desktop and mobile web browsers. On iOS a software decoder is used, which might make the video experience a bit slower than what you are used to on other websites.

You must install software to play video that you have downloaded to your computer. You can learn atCommons:Media help what software you need to play our media files.VLC multimedia player,mpv, andSMPlayer are open-source and multi-platform.

Main article:Commons:Licensing

In addition to checking for video copyright, the audio must not contain copyrighted sounds. This includes any copyrighted songs that were added to the video. Ask questions regarding the copyright of the video atCommons:Village pump/Copyright.

Examples of videos that would not be allowed due to copyright:

• Screen captures of software that is itself not under a free license. This includes the macOS and Windows operating system. However, screen captures of software under the GPL or a similar free software license are generally considered to be OK.
• TV/DVD/Videogame/Music video clips and recordings, unless their copyright has expired.
• Copyrighted symbols, logos, etc. (Not to be confused with trademarks.)
• Models, masks, toys, and other objects which represent a copyrighted work, such as a cartoon or movie character. SeeCommons:Derivative works.
• Video that contains copyrighted music. Remove the copyrighted audio from the video and try to replace it with free licensed music, then upload.
• Videos of a presentation or lecture,unless the person(s) making the presentation has/have granted explicit permission to allow a video of their performance to be published under a Commons-compatible license viaVRTS.

Examples of videos that would be OK to upload:

• Nature videos (video taken at a National Park or of a bird in your backyard)
• Videos from the United States government, such as from NASA.

See also:Commons:Free media resources/Video

Several media resources contain video that is public domain or licensed under a free license. These can be converted and uploaded to Commons. A more comprehensive list can be found at the link above.

• Archive.org open-source movies - Movies under several licenses. Some licenses are accepted in the Commons.
• Archive.org movies - Presentation of several collections of videos, some with free licenses.
• Flickr Creative Commons videos - all assortments of videos licensed under CC-BY or CC-BY-SA
  • Flickr HD videos - high definition videos that are freely licensed
  • Flickr The Commons (public domain) - a variety of videos licensed freely by many institutions, including the Library of Congress
  • Flickr copyrighted videos - these are mostly copyrighted but the uploader might relicense if asked. Use the ticket request system,VRTS.
• YouTube - Creative Commons. Search videos licensed as Creative Commons Attribution onYouTube by doing a search there. Then a filter menu will show up with one of the choices being "Creative Commons". You can also useVera's Tool to find all open-licenced videos in a given YouTube channel. See alsoCommons:YouTube files.
• Vimeo - Creative Commons - Public Domain Dedication, Attribution, and Attribution Share-Alike are acceptable for our purposes.
• Free Stock Footage Archive - Videos that are licensed under CC-BY.

Main article:Commons:Audio and video requests

Specific videos may be requested atCommons:Audio and video requests. Please search Commons to see if a similar video exists before making the request.

• Move video files inCategory:Videos to appropriate sub-categories, such as those inCategory:Videos by subject). (Seelist of video categories)
  • For example, categorize videos by audio channel – mainly language with categories likeCategory:Videos in English orCategory:Videos without audio as well asCategory:Videos with music
• Find orphaned videos and add them to Wikipedia articles.
• Fix issues atCategory:Video repair needed
• Check latest video uploads for copyright issues and proper categorization intoCategory:Videos subcategories
• Tag videos with cleanup templates, including{{Audio out of sync}}.
• More backlog tasks can be found inCategory:Commons requests related to videos

• Special:TimedMediaHandler^[1]
• Most used videos on Commons
• Tool to see most used videos in a category
• Commons:Animated image resources#Videos to animated GIFs
• meta:Video policy, out-of-date but still useful

Video categories

• Category:Videos, base category for video files
• Category:Videos by subject, subcategory where most videos are located
• wikiversity:Category:Video, video files on the Wikiversity project

English Wikipedia image syntax and video documentation

• w:Wikipedia:Extended image syntax#Video files specifically for sound and video
• w:Wikipedia:Videos
• w:Wikipedia:Creation and usage of media files#Video
• w:Wikipedia:WikiProject Lights Camera Wiki

Video links in Wikipedia articles

• w:Template:External media. Link to videos, or articles with videos. Only for videos where free ones have not yet been found.

• Commons mobile app code issue: enable searching & playing videos
• Most recent Creative Commons Flickr video
• Media formats supported by the HTML audio and video elements (Mozilla)
• Get ready for plug-in free browsing (MSDN)

1. ↑^abSpecial:TimedMediaHandler invokesSpecial:Transcode_statistics which needs time to answer and currently requires reworking. Try to open the link in a new tab of your browser if you encounter timeout problems (seerelated topic) or try cache results fromSpecial:MediaStatistics.

• Commons help
• Commons video resources