Tips for YouTube authoring?

[zambelli]

I'm looking for ways to get the most quality out of videos uploaded to YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/t/help_makevideo suggests 320x240 MPEG-4 video and MP3 audio as the recommended upload format, but I'm pretty sure they're actually transcoding everything to Flash/VP6, right? If I encode the video as VP6 in AVI, will YouTube still force a transcode? If transcoding is absolutely necessary on their end, I'd like to minimize the quality loss as much as possible.

The only other limit I'm aware of is 100MB/10min upload limit. That would imply that the video bitrate needs to be ~1250kbps if the audio soundtrack is 128kbps.

[videomixer9]

iirc youtube converts videos to sorenson video (a.k.a FLV1) and doesn't keep the original encoding no matter what you do.

[zambelli]

iirc youtube converts videos to sorenson video (a.k.a FLV1) and doesn't keep the original encoding no matter what you do.
Ugh. Does it always scale it down to 320x240 as well?
They're kind of unclear about which input formats they actually support. They mention .AVI, .MPG and .MOV, but of course that doesn't tell us much. Will they only accept MPEG-4 ASP in AVI? Will they take H.264 in AVI?

[Blue_MiSfit]

right. pretty sure they re-encode even if you already give them "correct" video.

So I usually send my stuff with cq2 (or cq3 if it doesnt fit) xvid to preserve as much detail as possible.. and always CBR MP3 in case their decoders/splitters desync VBR.

Dv->premiere->huffyuv->avisynth(reduceby2, denoise, etc)->xvid->vp6(on their end)

seems simply dreadful, and it doesn't look great, but for static scenes its acceptable. Pans across a landscape look like crap.

I tried e-mailing them several times about whether or not it was possible to author your own VP6 and have them not touch it, but such "special treatment" was apparently not an option as they never replied to my 5+ emails. Definately not a videophile site...

~MiSfit

[zambelli]

So I usually send my stuff with cq2 (or cq3 if it doesnt fit) xvid to preserve as much detail as possible.. and always CBR MP3 in case their decoders/splitters desync VBR.
Dv->premiere->huffyuv->avisynth(reduceby2, denoise, etc)->xvid->vp6(on their end)
Do you know if they accept AVC in AVI? Or is XviD pretty much the best they'll take?

seems simply dreadful, and it doesn't look great, but for static scenes its acceptable. Pans across a landscape look like crap.
Yeah, I'm surprised that their transcoding mechanism can't be a little smarter.
What about resolution? I have a 16:9 video. Must I scale it to 320x180, or will they accept 432x240 without resizing, for example?

[videomixer9]

how about just hosting your own video elsewhere? :P YouTube is pretty much bullshit site imo, amazing how such a mass of people in the age of very high resolution video watch that crap, but so said many watch crappy cellphone video too ... even though all is even worse than videos from 10-20 years ago :P

[zambelli]

how about just hosting your own video elsewhere? :P YouTube is pretty much bullshit site imo, amazing how such a mass of people in the age of very high resolution video watch that crap, but so said many watch crappy cellphone video too ... even though all is even worse than videos from 10-20 years ago :P
Of course there's that option too, but that's not the question I asked. :sly:

[DigitAl56K]

A little OT, but with regards to hosting your video elsewhere, try http://stage6.divx.com . It's free and you can upload your high quality DivX/XVID videos, even in HD if you like.

[zambelli]

A little OT, but with regards to hosting your video elsewhere, try http://stage6.divx.com . It's free and you can upload your high quality DivX/XVID videos, even in HD if you like.
Are they streamable?

[DigitAl56K]

Yes. Actually, it's progressive download, but it's almost the same effect.

[trinidav]

way OT, but ever notice how runnin a flv without the extension plays larger?

[Shinigami-Sama]

it required flash player?
if I guessed the question correctly that is :P

[foxyshadis]

flvs are the same no matter what they're called, but if you have different extensions associated differently, of course it could change.

Also, zambelli's issue is why I like google video so much more, and I hope that they quickly institute full-source downloading on youtube. I need my hi-res Dschinghis Khan. The more useful search function and better duplicate detection doesn't hurt.

[IceManTX]

Since Google is purchasing YouTube I wonder if any of this will change or they will leave it completely a seperate entity ran exactly as it is.

[zambelli]

Also, zambelli's issue is why I like google video so much more, and I hope that they quickly institute full-source downloading on youtube. I need my hi-res Dschinghis Khan. The more useful search function and better duplicate detection doesn't hurt.
So it's possible to upload video to Google without it being re-encoded? What's the required format and specs?

[foxyshadis]

No, I'm pretty sure it's not possible, they re-encode everything to 250kbps FLV1, like youtube. However, you can submit in practically anything, and it lets you download the original on the right-hand side of the video. The vast majority are divx/xvid, but I've seen some avc and wmv on there.

Their submission guidelines: http://video.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=26562&topic=1488&hl=en

[zambelli]

and it lets you download the original on the right-hand side of the video. The vast majority are divx/xvid, but I've seen some avc and wmv on there.

Are you sure about that? I submitted an H.264 encoded AVI recently and it didn't keep the original.