Choosing between a background image and a background video requires both esthetic and technical considerations. Before I get too deep into this, I’m going to assume that you are using a template that has text that is readable over the top of a background video or a background image. If you don’t, then I suggest you use the WordPress Big Bob theme. It’s free, and it will set you up with everything you need.
Technical Considerations When Choosing Between a Background Image and Video
Creating background images and videos that perform well across all browsing environments is difficult. And contrary to what might seem intuitive, it is actually more complicated to set images than videos. Whether you want to learn the technical stuff, or you don’t want to learn it at all, I suggest trying the WordPress Big Bob theme. If you don’t want to learn, then this template has everything you need. And if you do want to learn, the template is open source, so you can feel free to open it up and see exactly how it works.
Regardless of how you deliver the image or video, you’re going to have to consider the differences between the files themselves. First of all, the availability of images is far more prolific than videos. The other consideration is the difference in file size. Even if an image is a little too big, it still loads pretty fast. But it’s easy to find a video that has a file size that is too large to be usable.
Esthetic Considerations When Choosing Between a Background Image and Video
When you’re talking about a background video, you’re referring to a video that loops silently over and over. This can be annoying or distracting if the difference between the end and the beginning of the video is disjointed. However, it can also be demonstrative, and if the text being read is not too long, then a video is often the ideal choice.
However, if you’re only looking for something that is approximately illustrative that makes your page look a little cooler, then an image is probably the way to go.
Conclusion
Most of the time, an image is the way to go. Usually I do a quick search for videos and if I can’t come up with anything too quickly then I look through images. I also have a greater tendency to collect images, so a lot of times I already have something ready to go.
Creating a website from scratch that can support background images or videos is a labor intensive process, and the volume of labor required often keeps people from ever trying it out. I highly recommend you set up your site using a template. So if this is something that you’ve been trying to do and struggling with or if it is something that you want to see if you like but you don’t want to deal with all the technical hassles, then give the WordPress Big Bob theme a try. It will save you a lot of time and hassle.
Hi, i am tying to set up video as background, but it will not show, it is just white background.
The same video file loads nicely as header video.
Is there something i am doing wrong?
It is windows machine, chroma.
It is bigbob them.
It may be an issue with the video itself, or it may be that the controls are set so that the video doesn’t display on the pages that you want. How are you trying to set the background video? Are you using the background media section of the the customizer? In the Big Bob theme, the user interface for background media is a little cryptic. The controls were improved in the Big Scene theme. If you are using that section, then can you tell me how your controls are set? If not, then how are you trying to set the background video.