Youtube Compression settings

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flipsidekrew

Well-known member
Hey does anyone know what is the best settings to get high quality video on youtube, I've been uploading using H.264 at 15fps, but the video ends up pixelated and choppy. I know its possible to obtain high quality stuff because i've seen many youtube videos, even with a lot of motion. Could someone please help me. Thanks
 
Youtube repcompresses your footage making it look bad in my opinion. I was always told to compress your footage at the highest level you can within the guidelines of you tube then upload it. When they recompress that footage it won't look as bad. I have yet to try this. I have been using www.sharkle.com (free video hosting site) and my projects look a lot better than on you tube.
 
I've been doing some tests, and Divx exported at 320x180 (from HVX) is looking best when exported from Final Cut Pro aiming for as close to the 100mb limit as possible. So try uploading the divx file (rename the extension AVI, it's the same thing) at the right size, but with as large a file as possible.
 
I just tried basically all of the tutorials that i could at that site, yet they all turn out bad.
 
There is NO BETTER way to put youtube videos up except making flv files. What your flv file ends up like is exactly what it'll end up like on youtube. Youtube doesn't recompress when you use FLV as your upload file.

- Kyle
 
KyleProhaska said:
There is NO BETTER way to put youtube videos up except making flv files. What your flv file ends up like is exactly what it'll end up like on youtube. Youtube doesn't recompress when you use FLV as your upload file.

- Kyle
Click to expand...
FLV compressed with the on2 VP6 or the Sorenson codec?
 
KyleProhaska said:
There is NO BETTER way to put youtube videos up except making flv files. What your flv file ends up like is exactly what it'll end up like on youtube. Youtube doesn't recompress when you use FLV as your upload file.

- Kyle
Click to expand...
does anyone disagree?

i seek the best recipe for chocolate cake, too.
 
Does this still hold true for the new format that Youtube are now using, i thin iread somewhere that they are going over to h.264 or something else? i wish they had something on their site about the best compression...
 
Yea I am running out of ideas myself. I tried to make sure I was exporting the best quality I could in Final Cut Pro then I uploaded that file to youtube and it looks okay but I know it could look better! Now how come mainstream artists/musicians music videos on YT are crystal clear!!!!??? If I can get my videos to be sharp, bright colors like I was watching a DVD that would be cool!
 
I've been playing around with FLV to get good results on YouTube.

I found that setting the bitrate WAY up there - ~6000kbps, and the keyframes to 1 (yes, 1!) yields a REALLY nice, sharp image. I did this just exporting through FCP, using the 'Export Using Quicktime Conversion.'

A couple downsides:

1) Although the video is 2:55, the exported FLV clocks in at 3:11; the extra 16 seconds being a completely white, blank screen.

2) This 3:11 video is massive - 85.8mb. I haven't tried uploading it to YouTube yet (I have a pretty slow connection and want to do more tests) but if it is indeed true, according to KyleProhaska, that YouTube doesn't recompress FLV's, then this would be very slow to buffer.

3) The worst problem - The video and audio are OUT OF SYNC! And I'm compressing a MUSIC VIDEO!!

Has anyone else had this problem when compressing to FLV? I've never experienced it with any other format, but I have noticed a lot of out of sync stuff on YouTube.

I can't upload the damn thing as long as it's out of sync, cos it makes me look like a crap editor.

EDIT: Just had an idea: is it possible the sync problem could be caused by going from 25fps to 30? Cos I'm in PAL land, so the vid was shot 25fps (SD, interlaced) but YouTube shows 30fps, so I changed the fps when exporting to FLV.

This was done on the assumption that even if I uploaded a 25fps FLV, YouTube would recompress it to conform to 30fps.

Is this assumption perhaps wrong? Maybe YouTube really doesn't recompress any FLV's, but merely suggests people convert to 30fps because they recommend uploading in H.246, which they will then recompress to 30fps FLV.

Does that make any sense?
 
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OK, because this issue is getting me really worked up, I tested Kyle's claim about YouTube not recompressing FLVs:

There is NO BETTER way to put youtube videos up except making flv files. What your flv file ends up like is exactly what it'll end up like on youtube. Youtube doesn't recompress when you use FLV as your upload file.

- Kyle
Click to expand...

I took a 20.7mb FLV and uploaded it to YouTube. According to my computer, 'Date Modified' is 6:17pm.

I went to http://downthisvideo.com/, one of the many YouTube video downloading websites, and downloaded the same video.

The file that appeared in my Downloads folder was 6.8mb, 'Date Modified' 7:01pm. Visually, it looks slightly (but not very noticeably) more compressed than the file that was uploaded.

I'm not Sherlock Holmes, but to me this suggests YouTube IS in fact recompressing FLVs.


I feel a bit stupid for not running this very obvious check earlier.

Has anyone else looked into this?
 
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Is there any reason why Youtube just isn´t listing the best settings for encoding?
Even if most "normal" people don´t have access to Flash encoding, why shouldn´t there be a How-To for people who can encode to flash...?
 
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