Since the inclusion of audio and video files natively in WordPress (since version 3.6 I believe), the necessity to include large files in the media library has jumped up but the maximum upload size is often determined by factors we cannot change (for example a hard PHP limit on shared hosting).
A way around the upload limit is to upload files via FTP but these don’t show in your ‘Media’ library in WordPress meaning that WordPress doesn’t automatically generate the ‘player’ or insert code for you.
Until recently I had simple been uploading the files and then hand coding a HTML5 video player for my clips.
A Better Way
I have now discovered however, the joys of a free plugin called Add From Server by Dion Hulse (see http://dd32.id.au/wordpress-plugins/add-from-server/).
This allows you to use whatever means you can to get the file in to your websites folder and then ‘import’ it in to the WordPress media library with a few clicks!
As the official website says:
The heart of a CMS is the ability to upload and insert content, WordPress does a fantastic job at this, unfortunately, some web hosts have limited servers, or users simply do not have the ability to upload large files through their web browser. Add From Server is designed to help ease this pain, You can upload a bunch of files via FTP (Or your favourite transmission method) and simply import those files from the webserver directly into WordPress.