Panopto Video is Gettysburg College’s online video distribution platform that allows faculty and staff to upload and stream video through Moodle or another web site. Video files are much larger than text or image files, often leading to lengthy download times. Streaming technology sends small pieces of a video file in a continuous stream to users’ computers, thereby allowing them to watch the video in real time rather than waiting for the file to download. Using Panopto, faculty members can embed their uploaded videos into Moodle pages or other preferred web site providers, such as WordPress.
Storage Space Limits and Video Retention Policy
Due to large file sizes, video consumes considerable amounts of storage space, which adds cost to the system. While IT no longer limits the amount of storage space that a user has, we do have to pay for storage. To keep costs down, the system is set up to delete any videos that have not been played in the last four years. Every time a student or other user clicks on a video in Panopto this four-year time limit is reset for another four years. This ensures that old, outdated material that is no longer being used is not taking up space on our Panopto system. Thus, think of Panopto as a video distribution system rather than a file archive space. Always back up videos you wish to archive permanently to either an external hard drive or your Microsoft OneDrive storage space.
Supported Video Formats
Panopto accepts a variety of video formats, including avi, m4v, mov, mp4, mpeg, mpg, QT, and wmv. If you have a choice regarding the file format of your video, choose mp4, as this format provides good quality with small file sizes. Remember, always save a copy of your original video file for future uses, as Panopto will re-compress the file for more efficient streaming.
