We are currently using the Zencoder encoding service to encode videos. This is great because their service provides thumbnail creation in video files.
I would advise doing any processes with an intensive resource, such as coding, outside of a web application. Since this can take the whole HTTP request handler (or in your case web dino). Of course, you can request more web dines. But it's expensive.
An alternative is processing in the background. But such tasks would be better off the web server. An API service such as Zencoder works well here.
Here you will find a set of instructions to help you.
Another alternative is Panda Stream . Which Heroku offers as a supplement. Both Panda Stream and Zencoder will do what you need. Both of them also go for different price models. Unfortunately, I cannot give you more information about Panda since I did not use them.
Regarding which bootloader to use. A paper clip will do the job. I assume you are using Heroku and you are booting into Amazon S3. In our environment, we use Carrierwave .