This is really cool tool, Dev. Thank you for making this. Just uploaded a
short video of a train arriving and the tool was faster than the train!

Subhashish

On Sat, 16 May, 2026, 6:53 pm Dev Jadiya via Wikimedia-l, <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi James,
>
> Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully, legal resolves the MP4 situation
> soon.
>
> Best,
> Dev Jadiya
>
> On Sat, May 16, 2026 at 6:41 PM James Heilman <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Hey Dev
>>
>> Excellent work. Hopefully we will be able to upload MP4s via the
>> Upload Wizard soon. I think we are just waiting on legal.
>>
>> James
>>
>> On Sat, May 16, 2026 at 3:02 PM Dev Jadiya via Wikimedia-l
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>> >
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > I'd like to share a Toolforge tool I've built for uploading
>> > device-recorded videos to Wikimedia Commons: clip2commons.
>> >
>> >   https://clip2commons.toolforge.org/
>> >
>> > It encodes locally in the browser using the WebCodecs API and uploads
>> > via the official MediaWiki API.
>> >
>> >
>> > WHY ANOTHER TOOL
>> >
>> > This is intended to complement, not replace, video2commons.
>> > video2commons handles URL imports (YouTube, archive.org, etc.) and
>> > remains the right tool for that workflow.
>> >
>> > clip2commons covers a different case: a video file already on the
>> > user's device that needs to reach Commons. For that case, the
>> > existing options are:
>> >
>> >   - video2commons (file upload mode): the file goes to a Toolforge
>> >     encoder pool that is shared and currently overstretched
>> >     (Community Wishlist W447, W392, W443, W512, W523, W536 are open
>> >     about v2c stability or capability gaps).
>> >   - UploadWizard: accepts files up to 5 GB chunked, but does not
>> >     convert formats. iPhone .mov and many Android .mp4 files fail
>> >     TimedMediaHandler post-upload or upload as patent-encumbered
>> >     formats.
>> >   - Manual ffmpeg + UploadWizard: works for those who can do it,
>> >     but is outside what most uploaders are willing or able to manage.
>> >
>> > clip2commons does the WebM/VP9 conversion in the browser via
>> > WebCodecs, then uploads chunk-by-chunk to commons.wikimedia.org.
>> > There is no shared queue, no server-side encoder pool, and no
>> > infrastructure that needs maintenance to keep the tool running.
>> > The only resource constraint is the user's own device.
>> >
>> >
>> > VALIDATION
>> >
>> > End-to-end test, 1-2 Mbps connection, 683 MB 1080x1920 portrait
>> > (Original) file (6 min 13 s):
>> >
>> >   - In-browser encode: 15 min 20 s
>> >   - Total wall-clock (encode + upload combined): ~16 minutes
>> >   - Final file: 163 MB, VP9/Opus, 1080x1920
>> >   - Result on Commons:
>> >
>> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_Script_Publisher_Presentation_at_Developer_Skill_Development_Program_India_01.webm
>> >
>> >
>> > PROVENANCE / LICENSING UI
>> >
>> > The "Release rights" step mirrors UploadWizard's question tree
>> > exactly: same root choice (own work vs. someone else), same
>> > sub-questions for "contains the work of others" and "not protected
>> > by copyright law", same hard blocks for "I don't know" and
>> > "copyright-protected", same VRT-pending workflow for permission
>> > uploads, same set of accepted CC license templates per branch.
>> >
>> > This was deliberate. Files uploaded through clip2commons should be
>> > indistinguishable in policy terms from files uploaded through
>> > UploadWizard or video2commons. The wikitext output uses the
>> > standard {{Information}} + {{self}} / bare-license-template
>> > structure with [[Category:Uploaded with clip2commons]].
>> >
>> >
>> > BROWSER SUPPORT
>> >
>> > Verified working (full encode + upload):
>> >   - Google Chrome (desktop and mobile)
>> >   - Microsoft Edge (desktop only)
>> >   - Brave
>> >   - DuckDuckGo browser
>> >   - Samsung Internet
>> >   - Dolphin
>> >   - Bing browser
>> >   - Opera Mini (already-WebM/VP9 files only)
>> >
>> > Limited mode (already-WebM/VP9 files; cannot re-encode):
>> >   - Firefox (desktop and mobile)
>> >   - Safari (encoder support coming in 26.1)
>> >
>> > Not currently supported:
>> >   - Microsoft Edge on Android (WebCodecs implementation incompatible)
>> >   - Opera (decoder errors at encode start)
>> >   - Yandex
>> >   - Tor Browser (WebCodecs disabled as fingerprinting protection)
>> >
>> > Browsers in the "limited mode" or "not supported" lists show a
>> > clear banner up front instead of letting the user start a doomed
>> > upload. video2commons remains the recommended fallback for those
>> > browsers.
>> >
>> >
>> > KNOWN LIMITS
>> >
>> >   - No URL imports. video2commons remains the right tool for that.
>> >   - Hard cap: 1 GB / 1 hour input file. Larger files risk OOM during
>> >     in-browser encode on memory-limited devices.
>> >   - Encode time depends on the device. Modern hardware encodes at
>> >     roughly 0.2x to 1x video duration; older devices can be slower.
>> >
>> >
>> > FEEDBACK WELCOME
>> >
>> > This is beta. Bug reports, policy / wikitext / copy review, and
>> > testing on devices and connections I do not have are all welcome.
>> >
>> >   - GitLab issues:
>> >      https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/toolforge-repos/clip2commons (MIT)
>> >   - My talk page:
>> >     https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Dev_Jadiya
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > Dev Jadiya
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected],
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> James Heilman
>> MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
>>
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