How to upload a custom video to Vine, like the 6-second ‘The Wolverine’ trailer
UPDATE 06.10.2013: I can confirm the trick still works: http://blog.webjournalist.org/2013/06/10/intro-to-ninja-gaiden-via-vine/.
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I tweeted this a few days back and thought I should add it here too.
On Monday a 6-second preview of The Wolverine was posted on Vine:
Clearly, this wasn’t made through the Vine app… which got me thinking, how could I post my own edited content onto Vine too?
Less than six seconds later I found the answer on YouTube:
I created this URL linking to the video: http://bit.ly/vineupload
After stumbling a little — the video isn’t perfect — I was able to create my own 6-second trailer:
Before we get into the steps, let me tell you where I got my video:
- I downloaded the Dune trailer video from YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwPTIEWTYEI via SaveVid or something like it.
- I imported the video into iMovie. (I wanted to test this thing fast and quality didn’t matter to me.)
- After editing and creating a 6-second video, I exported as an MP4. Here is that file.
- Critical step: I ran the video though HandBrake and re-encoded/re-exported my video as an MP4. I have Version 0.9.6 x86_64 (2012022800). This was the key step to get these videos to work: http://bit.ly/ninjagaidenvine. For those who are curious, this is a screenshot of my Handbrake settings. They are the default settings, I believe, for ‘regular.’
Then I proceeded to follow the steps outlined in the video, but I am adding more details from my experiences.
Here are the steps, thanks to the video and my own experience doing it:
Step 2: Connect your iOS device to your computer via your USB connector. For some reason, the first time it took a few minutes for iExplorer to recognize my iPhone (4S) was connected to my computer. (It was a few days ago, so I don’t remember exactly what I did outside of changing the USB port and restarting the program a few times. I think I might have even restarted my machine too. I noticed that I had to have the phone unlocked as well. Hopefully it just detects for you.) UPDATE: It immediately detects my phone every time I launch now.
Step 3: Like the video shows, you want to navigate to your list of apps, going to Vine and then Vine’s ‘tmp’ directory. This is where all your Vine videos appear after recording, as an MP4. It also generates a thumbnail based on the video too.
Step 4: Drag-and-drop your already edited 6-second video into this tmp directory. Call the file some you’ll remember… obviously.
Step 5: Launch Vine and start recording the Vine video. DO NOT reach the time limit of the Vine. For me, I stop recording one the green check mark appears. What you record doesn’t matter because it will be overwritten by your edited file.
Step 6: Immediately refresh the tmp directory. I go up one level, refresh ‘tmp’ and go back into in and I immediately see the new temp Vine… (something called temp_record_1370842632.980168.mp4). Like the video shows, copy the new file’s name, then rename it to something different (like by adding an “x” at the end of it). Then, go to your manually edited file and rename it the new file name. Vine continues to process the temporary video and *poof* it makes the swap on the app, including generating a thumbnail. UPDATE: I don’t know if this matters, but when I published it, I only published it to Vine… not my social media platforms.
Step 7: Go back to the Vine app and click on the green checkbox. Your manually edited video should appear. Add your meta information and publish. (To test if it worked, click on the three-dots-icon in the lower right hand corner, select ‘share this post,’ then tweet it out or select ’embed’ to email yourself the URL.)
So what’s cool about this?
Imagine content creators using this method to promo their content. An edited video Tweet that is a teaser to your produced Web video. Try it out!
Here’s an easy link to this post: http://bit.ly/uploadtovine
P.S. I uploaded the entire RickRoll video to Vine and it got published… but the app killed it. The video was 13.4MBs and 3:33 minutes, so quite large and much longer than 6 seconds. I uploaded a 30-second version, which was 2.7 MBs and that also didn’t work. I tried again with a 10-second clip, which was 914kb, and it worked:
Hi,
I did post my Vine with this method and it was great ! But after a while they disappear and I did lots of reposting, and they keep disappearing after a while. It seems like someone has access to remove them. Last night they kept playing for about 5 hours and I got lots of activity (koments and likes) but today they can’t stay more then 10 min. Something unexplainable ??
Do you have any idea what is going on and how to make it work ?
Thank You, E
@Era
Yep. Same thing happened to me. It works great until they are removed.
@Era @Peter
I was toying with this last Friday and my first couple attempts got removed as well. Then I checked the metadata of an actual Vine video and was meticulous to match those specs in my encoding. I put two videos up on Friday and they made it through the weekend without issue. Make sure you encode 480×480 and keep it under 1 MB. Both my videos are about 750kb. Good luck and happy posting!
https://vine.co/v/bQDPr3rjDWI
@Joey
Did you use a program to change the metadata? My vines are still deleted even with the encode and under 1MB.
@Joey
I’d be so grateful if you extended the tutorial to show how to keep our footage on Vine, so close! Thanks for the inspiration in the first place!
Thanks for this great article! It took me few hours to download/install/understand how to do it but your steps were really helpful! Yep, i’m not the smartest tech lady… :-)
I actually had some videos i took with vine (but i didn’t share at that time) that i wanted to post later.. i had them like normal video files in my iphone library.
Thanks!
Hey Joey,
How did you encode your video to be 480 x 480? I can only get 640×480.
@Joey
Just tried this method and it seems like they patched it up already. Not too sure about the Jailbreaking method but so far the app WILL CRASH when you try to make the swap.
Thanks very helpful.
UPDATE: I tried this again and I can confirm that Vine patched the loop hole… sorry! I’ll keep an eye out for another hack.
Because the quality of Vine is low anyway, I’ve just been
taking Vine videos of pre-recorded and edited clips playing on my
computer screen on iMovie. Sure, it’s not ideal, but because Vine
videos are already low-res, you can’t really tell the difference.
Will keep using this method until I find another way.
Hey @Robert , just checked the new update and its working again! (Vine recently sent a bug fix for “crashing when closing application in their Version 1.1.2
We’re BACK IN BUSINESS!
-Jay
@Jay Really?! Wow cool… I haven’t tried yet.
Last I did, though, the entire Vine experience via iExplorer was different, loading a temp file (with a different name), that lead to the thumbnail and eventually the vine video file.
Here’s hoping you are right!
UPDATE: @Jay I tested it out twice and, while it does upload and I can override the file — creating a new Vine — it doesn’t stay and it doesn’t get published to the site.
My tweet tests:
https://twitter.com/webjournalist/status/343086314196971520
https://twitter.com/webjournalist/status/343088470203441152
Screengrab of Vine test:
https://twitter.com/webjournalist/status/343096876473667584 (I stupidly, accidentally deleted the tweet with pic because of a typo. Will redo again soon.)
In other words, almost, but not there. It does not work.
I got a report via Twitter that a friend has successfully uploaded a video — as recent as this morning. She says he re-encodes the video, a step I haven’t done but others have mentioned in the past.
I am away from my computer until tommorow, so I won’t be able to test. Let me know if y’all try it and please post your results!
UPDATE 06.09.2013:
1- I re-encoded my video using http://www.encoding.com, outputting to h.264, but it still didn’t work. It does appear in the app, but doesn’t stay or publish. Here is my pic proof: https://twitter.com/webjournalist/status/343963925341159425/photo/1
2- More importantly: Out of curiosity, I re-uploaded my original test Dune video… and it worked!: https://vine.co/v/bLY7QiJtgKA/embed
For context: I downloaded the Dune trailer from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwPTIEWTYEI via SaveVid or something like it. I imported the clips into iMovie and edited into a 6-minute trailer. Here is the MP4 file I exported from iMovie and manually uploaded into iExplorer into the Vine app: http://webjournalist.org/vine/6-second%20Dune%20Trailer.mp4
Robert – I successfully created a properly coded MP4 file and using your tips added to the app with iExplorer. It showed up as a completed upload, but then disappeared as you mentioned above. Have you been able to determine the exact steps necessary to have them stay live? Or, has Vine closed that door?
UPDATE 06.10.2013:
Okay all, I just updated the post… the key to my videos staying in Vine and getting published was http://handbrake.fr/. I re-exported/re-encoded my video through HandBrake as an MP4.
@Melissa You had an issue we all had… the key is HandBrake. I just updated my post with that information. Good luck!
@Melissa
Thanks for the update. I keep trying, but now I can’t seem to copy the files over with iExplorer. I won’t give up :)
@Robert
It worked! Woo Hoo! https://vine.co/v/blOggDzmHWJ
@Melissa I’m still unable to make it work, even using a previously recorded tmp .mp4 file straight from that folder so no encoding or re-rendering should be applied…
I Uploaded my vine and it stayed. now it doesnt play on the vine app but it does play on facebook and twitter. any idea on why doesnt it plays on the app?
David, do you have a link to the Vine video? What was posted on Twitter. What I have experienced is that IF it doesn’t stay in the app, it will eventually — within 15 minutes — be removed from the site.
@Robert
I just deleted it. i am going to do it all over again. Thanks Anyways! ;)
Hi
This trick works perfectly!
except for one thing Vine keeps deleting my custom ones.
Its very frusterating because other people do it and there vines stay on.
Do you no what i could do
Yep… make sure you run your video through Handbrake.
Is there anyway that I can save someone else’s video if they didn’t share it to twitter or Facebook ? Please help.
A Vine? That I don’t know… but check out SaveVid or Keepvid.
Any one want to test if this behavior is still allowed on the version released today?
Haven’t tried it yet. (6/18)
Hey dude so I tried everything and even the hand brake method but it for some reason adds about 3 seconds to my clips. I have it at 9 seconds then when I run it through hand brake it goes to 11. It plays the 9 seconds of video I have but then it is blank for the last 3 seconds!
it looks like on my settings everytime I put a video into hand brake it says duration 10:27
one more thing… I noticed that the video quality suffers severely when run through hand brake.. or is it just me?
handbrake for Vine works great!!! BUT now Instagram released video… i tried the same tricks n steps on the instagram app thru iexplorer but NO LUCK!
So does anyone know how to upload custom video to Instagram??!!
Thanks for trying the trick on Instagram’s video… I don’t know if there is a new hack for that… yet.
if you come across it… Please keep us posted!!!
yeah it’s possible on instagram video as well. if you look up @based_ryan .. he has a custom video uploaded on his account. i spoke with him and he said it was much more complex than the vine method
Anyone figure out how to do it on instagram yet?
Did he or anyone else post a tutorial on how to post custom video to Instagram? I’ve been trying to do this for a few days – and it’s kicking my ass. @Dominim
No Instagram tutorial yet… we’re all on the look out.
Here’s one tutorial (I haven’t tried it):
http://fouriiii.com/?p=8
How:
Make / record / get / steal (not really) the video you want. It MUST BE UNDER 15 SECONDS LONG or you will go through all this trouble just to have Instagram crash on upload – at least on my phone.
(Optional) Crop the video to Square / 1:1 ratio. This is optional because Instagram will do this automatically, I believe in the center of the video, so if you want more control do it beforehand.If you don’t want a cropped video, you will have to use video editing software (or an app if you know if one) where you can set the output to 1×1, and place your video inside of that. (Letter boxing) I use sony vegas pro – but that’s not free. Also if you want it to look a little cleaner, make sure the empty / letterbox space above and below your video is white, not black. This isn’t necessary, but looks a bit nicer on instagram
Convert your video to mp4 (if it’s not already) and rotate your video 90 degrees counter-clockwise. This is important or your video will be sideways. Not sure why but IG always rotates it 90 degrees clockwise, so you’ll have to counter that.
Put your rotated mp4 file on your phone. I use google drive but you can copy it to SD, email it, wifi, scan, whatever you want, just get it on your phone.
If you don’t have a file explorer on your phone / tablet, get one now. I recommend ES File Explorer (free).
Open Instagram, and start a new video. If you already had one open discard it and start over just for simplicity. Hold down the record button until it passes the minimum time mark – the little vertical line the progress bar passes through. If you don’t see it, just record until the bar is about half way full and that will be more than enough.
Now is where it gets tricky(er) – hit the home button (leaving Instagram open) and open ES File Explorer.
Navigate to your mp4 video that you put on your phone before and copy it (long press – copy in ES File Explorer)
Navigate to SDCARD / Android / com.instagram.android / files / videos
Here you should see a folder with the name “VID_” followed by a bunch of numbers. If you see more than one folder with that type of name, delete them all and go back to step 6 of these instructions. If there is only one folder with that name, open it.
Inside you will see an mp4 with a similar “VID_” name – this is the video that you recorded in Instagram a minute ago. Paste the video you copied earlier into this folder. You should now have your Instagram-recorded video and your pre-made video in this folder.
On the Instagram video starting with “VID_” – rename it (long press – rename in ES File Explorer) and COPY the whole name.
Delete the Instagram “VID_” video, leaving just your pre-made video.
Rename your pre-made video, and choose to PASTE the name you copied earlier. BE SURE there is no spaces before the name, or between the name and .mp4, or after .mp4, or this will not work.
You should now just have your pre-recorded video in this folder with the new name starting with “VID_” and ending with .mp4
Go back to Instagram, and click the next button at the top right.
HOORAY! You are done! Chose a filter, and upload.
I used the Vine hack and found the place where the Instagram videos are housed… tried to replace one, but it didn’t work. But that’s a big step closer. Boarding a plane, but will write something about my findings soon!
ummmmmmm so we totally ignored Android phones? ok
Looks like this post also figured out how to upload… but also just for Android: http://techenvy.com/hardware/iphone/uploading-external-video-files-to-instagram // We’re getting close!
Here’s a quick blog post giving a wrap-up update on where we are in uploading a video into Instagram: http://blog.webjournalist.org/2013/06/25/uploading-a-custom-video-into-instagram-app-almost/ // Android seems to be cracked, but not iOS… but we’re close!
So while you guys are figuring that out, have you decided that Gingerbread will absolutely not work?
I’ve successfully uploaded multiple videos to vine using the iexplorer/handbrake method. They look and sound amazing. The only problem is they can’t be seen in the feeds. If you go to my page it’s there, but nobody is seeing them otherwise. There’s another level of protection in place that can sense it’s not made in the app and nobody sees the videos an therefor no likes on them. And I have about 4000 followers. I could say “poop” in the cam and i’d get a bunch of likes. I’ve uploaded cool videos multiple times that show on my profile but nobody sees them…. UNLESS they actually visit my page. Not in the feeds. So nobody sees them basically. If someone knows why, please post! I’m sure it’s just a minor setting that is making these stand out as not legit vids. But they’re legit enough to make it in! Just not be in the feeds.
I’m trying on Android. I don’t know if it works differently… There is no tmp or a straightforward vine folder. Any tips on that?
Tried the hack with the July 3rd update, and sadly cannot get it to work.. will play some more…. but think it’s fixed. (vine hack)
I’ve recently tried to put a up a video on vine using your instructions above but only managed to upload one and it only showed on my profile page and not the main stream. This was right before the new update, now if I try to do the same thing the app says that a problem has occurred and crashes. Sometimes the video shows up on the main feed but disappears as soon as I load the feed or if I try too look at it in my profile. My question is, has Vine patched this workaround or am I doing this wrong? Also, is it better if I upload the video through a jailbroken iPhone/Ipodtouch?
Vines will not stay anymore. Anyone else having this problem?
The videos will not stay anymore. Anyone else having this problem?
I figured out that the problem is a re encdoing issue.. again. Vine checks the videos you upload against the proper codecs/metadata that should be there. If they don’t match up, your uploaded video gets deleted. Heres what a Vine video should look like. Anyone know how to match this up on handbrake?
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L3.0
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, ReFrames : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=30
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 6s 473ms
Bit rate : 1 128 Kbps
Width : 480 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 1.000
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Minimum frame rate : 28.571 fps
Maximum frame rate : 30.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.163
Stream size : 891 KiB (94%)
Title : Core Media Video
Encoded date : UTC 2013-06-21 00:48:43
Tagged date : UTC 2013-06-21 00:49:11
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.601
Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 6s 548ms
Source duration : 6s 618ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 64.0 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Original Channel count : 1 channel
Channel positions : Front: C
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 50.7 KiB (5%)
Source stream size : 51.2 KiB (5%)
Title : Core Media Audio
Encoded date : UTC 2013-06-21 00:48:43
Tagged date : UTC 2013-06-21 00:49:11
It is still possible to upload Vines without them deleting. There is a new page called Vine Mashups and all of the vines there are custom made. Lets figure this out guys!
I’m not getting a temp file to show in iExplorer.
I’m following all the directions.
– Making sure it doesn’t finish
– Immediate refresh
Nothing I can do seems to produce a temp. file for me to copy and replace.
I can get my mp4 produced and pushed through Handbrake, but no temp file can be made.
Boooo.
Thoughts?
Hello,
Please advise, would you happen to know how to delete comments off your vine profile? I know it can be done but have not figured out the trick yet.
Thank you for your time.
Dess’
So, has it been confirmed that the bug that allowed the custom videos on an Android has been fixed? :(
This is very disappointing to me. I wanted to experiment with the medium!
Hi guys if you keep struggling, I’ve just made a tutorial to explain how to achieve do this trick :
http://youtu.be/QL4yEnqRtPM
Ps : sorry for my pour accent :(
@Jay I tried it, did not crash, however it was removed almost immediately
Can’t you just make the video and then record the screen of your PC/Laptop to upload?
I know you wont get the same quality, but it might be a better and easier way :)
Hey,
I followed your hack tutorial and am able to upload a pre-recorded video to the app, but the video doesn’t appear correctly on desktop web browser. The audio plays, but the video appears black. Any ideas how to resolve this? Thanks man!
@Jay
i use isquint go to advance and set the dimestions for 480×480
Any idea on how to make the vine stay? all of your steps are correct, I can even click on publish but as soon as it refreshes >poof> it disappears. Have you figure out something to make the vines stay?
@Robert
I found my vine video differently on my android, I downloaded the android file manager went in to internal storage and then I looked for a file named android from there I went in to data and co.vine.android and cache and then look for a mp4 file and do the same as the deacription
Hello!
Great post. I just stumbled upon it. How was your experience using Encoding.com for your h.264 output? We’d love to hear from you.
The Encoding.com Team
As of the newest update (this morning) – this no longer works!
Anyone have thoughts on how to upload prerecorded videos with the newest version of the App?
this no longer works as if the 1.4 update. The tmp file does not show up and cannot be replaced. sorry kids.
We’ve released a new native iOS app that lets you post straight from your camera roll without any hacks!
Check out Vinyet: http://vinyet.co
@Michael Holroyd
Michael your app Vinyet works perfectly for uploading edited videos to Vine. I made a quick tutorial showing how your app can be used https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JplFa-WHS2s
I’ve been working on a chrome extension for web browser for Vine. And I have been messing around with the uploading sequence. I have a lot of answers to all your questions.
Vine checks for creation time of the video. If your video is older than a minute, it gets automatically deleted from the AWS S3 bucket after the upload.
Vine also checks for duplicate uploads within profiles, not within the whole database. So you could upload someone else’s video, however you can’t upload the same video twice. Even if you are to delete the video and re-upload it, it will not be successful.
Vine basically checks at the video stream’s checksum and at the audio stream’s checksum and not at the overall file’s checksum.
Vine checks for video duration and not video size, you could upload 1gb+ videos to the S3 bucket, but as soon as the post endpoint is called, the video gets removed from the bucket.
Vine also appends an “author” tag at the end of the video with “vine” which is not necessary for uploads.
For the upload sequence to complete properly, you require to have a valid thumbnail and a valid mp4 file on the S3 bucket before calling the “posts” function of the API.
Some of you may want to know how I know all of this. I deconstructed all of the endpoints from the Android app and used Charles proxy to see how all the content sequences and upload sequence works.
You can simply go and use the extension I created, it’ll avoid you a whole lot of trouble. You can experience Vine seamlessly from Chrome.
http://www.vineclient.com
I’ve just released a google chrome extension that enables you to experience Vine seamlessly from your web browser. You can browse, upload, share, download, interact and more with it. All of the features from Vine are included.
http://www.vineclient.com
Nice!!! Being a family member of Frank Herbert (Dune) this is really cool to see. I am going to try this out. Thanks!
You do not need this kinda hassle. Just download “Upload Custom Video to Vine” on the App Store at http://bit.ly/1e8XaMV
Upload custom videos to Vine has never been so easy.
Thank me later and you are welcome ;)