How to Embed Video in E-mail for Dummies
August 31, 2011 10:26 AM Subscribe
I just got an iPhone 4. On it, I can take video and then e-mail it, and the video will be embedded in the e-mail. Is there a simple way to do this from my MacBook as well--take video from iPhoto and send it so that it's a nice, small, reasonably high quality video embedded in an e-mail? Everything I've been able to find online seems so complicated. I just want to click a button and have it go.
You can probably do this in Automator, then create an app that you can drag your files to.
Actually, I just set it up on my desktop to do the exact same thing. Here's how...
• Open Automator
• Select "Application" as the type of document from the opening menu.
• Under Library choose Movie
• Within the Movie Library, choose "Encode Movie" and drag it to the workflow area
• Set Encode Movie to "480p"
• Under Library, select "Mail"
• Within the Mail Library, choose "Add Attachment to Front Message" and drag it to the workflow area
• Save your application to your desktop.
After saving you'll get a little robot icon guy. Just drag your movie file to the robot icon guy and it will automatically resize your video, save it as a m4v file and attach it to the topmost outgoing message in your Mail application.
posted by slogger at 11:04 AM on August 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
Actually, I just set it up on my desktop to do the exact same thing. Here's how...
• Open Automator
• Select "Application" as the type of document from the opening menu.
• Under Library choose Movie
• Within the Movie Library, choose "Encode Movie" and drag it to the workflow area
• Set Encode Movie to "480p"
• Under Library, select "Mail"
• Within the Mail Library, choose "Add Attachment to Front Message" and drag it to the workflow area
• Save your application to your desktop.
After saving you'll get a little robot icon guy. Just drag your movie file to the robot icon guy and it will automatically resize your video, save it as a m4v file and attach it to the topmost outgoing message in your Mail application.
posted by slogger at 11:04 AM on August 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Photobooth: But this only works if you take the movie in Photobooth, right? I don't see any way to import movies into Photobooth.
Quicktime: Sorry if I'm being thick, but how does the exported file get embedded into the e-mail? I can export it for web, but then it's still just an attachment.
Automator: Ack, too complicated!
posted by HotToddy at 11:36 AM on August 31, 2011
Quicktime: Sorry if I'm being thick, but how does the exported file get embedded into the e-mail? I can export it for web, but then it's still just an attachment.
Automator: Ack, too complicated!
posted by HotToddy at 11:36 AM on August 31, 2011
The problem here is that video is an inherently heavyweight medium. "nice, small, reasonably high quality video" doesn't really exist, and getting close to it requires heavy-duty processing power. In fact, I would argue that unless you're distilling down to postage-sized 10-second movies, video really isn't appropriate to send by e-mail at all, since many people have limits on how big a file they can receive by e-mail.
iMovie can export to a variety of formats in a variety of quality settings. It isn't as simple as click a button and go, but it does give you some options (including uploading direct to Youtube). You'd still need to learn how to use iMovie and import videos into projects.
Handbrake is program specifically for recoding video at various settings. It's pretty easy to use.
posted by adamrice at 11:52 AM on August 31, 2011
iMovie can export to a variety of formats in a variety of quality settings. It isn't as simple as click a button and go, but it does give you some options (including uploading direct to Youtube). You'd still need to learn how to use iMovie and import videos into projects.
Handbrake is program specifically for recoding video at various settings. It's pretty easy to use.
posted by adamrice at 11:52 AM on August 31, 2011
What is the difference between embedding and attaching a video?
posted by The Lamplighter at 11:57 AM on August 31, 2011
posted by The Lamplighter at 11:57 AM on August 31, 2011
Response by poster: I know iMovie can export to different quality settings, but how would you get those to be embedded in an e-mail? I'm only wanting to send very short clips anyway. How is it that my phone can do this so simply, but my laptop can't?
Lamplighter--by embedding, I mean that when you open the e-mail, you see the movie player right there in the body of it, and just hit play. By attaching, I mean that when you open the e-mail, you see the icon for the file, click on it, then Quicktime (or whatever) launches and then you hit play. I want it to be the former, exactly like what my phone does.
posted by HotToddy at 12:00 PM on August 31, 2011
Lamplighter--by embedding, I mean that when you open the e-mail, you see the movie player right there in the body of it, and just hit play. By attaching, I mean that when you open the e-mail, you see the icon for the file, click on it, then Quicktime (or whatever) launches and then you hit play. I want it to be the former, exactly like what my phone does.
posted by HotToddy at 12:00 PM on August 31, 2011
Best answer: Open in Quicktime, go to "Share" then "Email" - it looks embedded to me.
posted by The Lamplighter at 12:03 PM on August 31, 2011
posted by The Lamplighter at 12:03 PM on August 31, 2011
Response by poster: Yay! Thank you! That's exactly what I wanted! Perfection!
posted by HotToddy at 12:30 PM on August 31, 2011
posted by HotToddy at 12:30 PM on August 31, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by travis08 at 10:35 AM on August 31, 2011