I tried to upload a 3 second video from my laptop and it says it's too large.
There video, and then there's..VIDEO! We've all see video that was grainy, blurry, slow to load. That's low quality -low resolution video.
Look at video the same as you would an image (photo), except video is kind of a crapload of individual images all strung together.
In a photo, you have the physical image size, stated in the number rows and columns of pixels (dots). Width x Length 640 x 480 for instance.
But, you ever notice some people's photos on CT take longer to load than other peoples do? It isn't necessarily because of physical size-how many rows and columns. It's because of resolution. How tightly packed together those rows and columns of pixels are. High quality photo vs low quality photo.
Video is the same ways and depending on how good the video was (in definition/resolution/frames per second) and what kind of and how much compression you used that you would know what the true file size would be. How 'long' the video is doesn't really tell you the whole story. How much bandwidth it takes up comes into play as well which is why CT has a 10meg limit on their videos. That bandwidth isn't just used when you upload it, it gets eaten up EVERY time someone views the video.
Go to a you tube video of your choice.
Click on settings and you will see different options quality (definition) options. (some of you may recognize this stalwart gentleman). The larger number represents frames per second (and other stuff) but for Youtube to present the same video in 144 vs 720 or 1080, it costs them MORE in bandwidth. And, a video of the same length shot in 1080 is a LOT larger file size than one shot and saved in 360 or 144.