Vid.ly is an application that can take any video and change its format for viewing on any device. Usually, it is a long and tedious process to reformat a video with the necessary codecs to view on whatever device you want. This is NOT an easy process. Vid.ly allows users to choose their video, upload it and wait for them to do the work.

Vid.ly is a product of Encoding.com and is currently in public beta. President of Encoding, Jeff Malkin solves the problem he says everyone has: 'Can you just make my video work for everybody?'

Vid.ly takes any video and makes is playable on any device.

Vid.ly actually creates several versions of the uploaded video and when it is requested by the URL, the correct version will be sent to the device requesting it.

Users can begin immediately by simply clicking “start”. To reserve a custom vanity vid.ly URL, users may email vid.ly with the request. After clicking start, the user must locate the source video – FTP, HTTP, Cloud files, or upload and then click next.

During testing, the upload choice was used. A video was located on the computer’s hard drive. An email must be provided for notification after the video conversion is finished. While waiting, users may watch the process of vid.ly building the customized universal video URL, or simply wait for notification. Watching the process can be tedious, but it does update each step as it uploads the video and creates versions for various smartphone, computer, PSP, Wii, and other feature phones. This is a long process – the sample video for this review was 10.26 minutes long and the upload and conversion took well over an hour using a turbo broadband connection on a new computer.

Vid.ly’s converted videos are compatible with multiple browsers, Apple, Blackberry, HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Opera, Palm, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson mobile devices, as well as Playstation 3 and PSP consoles.

When the pro

*Note: The full process took an hour and a half. Ten minutes after the process was reported as complete, a new screen opened to begin sharing the video.

When sent to an iPhone, a “video converting, please wait” message appeared and stayed. Next, an attempt to share via Facebook was attempted. The same message was received. This was very disappointing, as all of the converting was supposed to be done and the program was to pluck the correct format for the system and play it. Neither video loaded and the test was abandoned after ten minutes of waiting for them to load.

*After another half hour, an email was received letting us know that an error occurred while encoding our video and that in the world of video encoding this occurs often. I was invited to try again. I declined.

There is no registration necessary during this beta phase. There will likely be more requirements when the pro version becomes available.

As it is in beta, Vid.ly’s basic service is free, but soon a paid version will become available. No information about pricing and whether there will still be a basic, free version is available. There is a mention of a pro version with an API to add/delete/modify a high volume of vid.ly URLs; the ability to use the app with your own CDN network; ability to customize encoding profiles, and adaptive bitrate delivery for Apple iOS.

This service is more than just for professionals wanting to transfer video formats. Families who take digital home video in one format will be able to upload it to vid.ly and send it to multiple family members who have various computers, models of feature and smartphones, or gaming consoles. In the past, most of the recipients would not be able to view the video as it was in an incompatible format. Changing a video’s format takes a lot of knowledge, codecs, and patience. It is time consuming and not an easy task. By using vid.ly, each person who follows the link will be able to view the video in a format supported by their individual device.

Anyone willing to take a chance that this may or may not work for them—and are willing to spend some time waiting—might end up liking this application… if it works.

• Currently free to use
• Does all of the converting into multiple formats for various OS
• Provides a custom URL for viewing the video
• Takes more than an hour to convert a short video over a high speed connection
• During testing, did not play on iPhone or computer

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