YouTube Upload Settings

Kimberly wrote on 12/23/2009, 12:23 AM
Hello All:

I have a 3 minute video I'd like to upload to YouTube. This would be a first for me as I don't look at YouTube very much.

I uploaded a test video using SD files I'd rendered for use in DVD-A for burning a DVD. They come out great on DVD, but it looks terrible in YouTube . . . very pixelated and low-resolution. So bad that I would be embarrassed for anyone to see it.

Any suggestions on the optimal project and rendering settings for SD footage on YouTube? I searched our forum for references to YouTube and didn't get enough hits to piece it together for SD, although there is a lot of good guidance for HDV.

My SD footage has a native aspect ratio of 720x480 NTSC. The first render that I uploaded done using the Main Concept MPEG-2. I didn't like that so I deleted it. The second render was a WMV file, which I also deleted. However the audio was fine for each upload.

It took about 10-15 minutes for YouTube to process the upload. I viewed it immediately after processing and then promptly deleted it. Was I too hasty? Does YouTube quality improve after the site runs some background process overnight? I saw a message about the quality improving, but I thought applied only to the actually processing.

Thanks for reading. If I can get a good upload I'll post a link!

Kim




Comments

Eugenia wrote on 12/23/2009, 12:54 AM
Use this
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/11/09/exporting-with-vegas-for-vimeo-hd/
but simply change the resolution and bitrate, everything else is exactly the same as in the tutorial:
854x480 (I assume your footage is widescreen)
2500 kbps
Sonata wrote on 12/23/2009, 6:24 AM
Eugenia posts a good link as always, but if you are using the basic Movie Studio (instead of Platinum, for example), I don't think you can render anything bigger than 720xXXX, so you won't be able to render in 854x480. I could be mistaken, but I believe I ran into that issue when I asked this very same question a year and a half ago.

Anyway, below is what I do for my own YouTube videos, widescreen NTSC, *standard* definition, and they turn out fabulously:

---I render in WMV 11
---640x360 resolution
---3M bitrate
---Square pixels (1.000)
---Use the preset 16:9 crop if working with 720x480 widescreen source; not needed if working with 704x480 widescreen source.

I set all this up and saved it at a custom template so I don't have to redo it every time.

The quality is fantastic (and I am very picky) and the quality can actually increase after it gets processed, so *do* wait a bit before viewing your video so you aren't judging the quality too soon before it is completely ready on YouTube.
Kimberly wrote on 12/23/2009, 9:04 AM
Thank you Eugenia. Your tutorial includes the following advice:

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After you have edited, select ALL clips in the timeline (e.g. by using the SHIFT key), right click, Switches, Disable Resample. By disabling resample we ensure no ghosted image (especially if you used slow-motion).

======

Do you perform this operation for all videos, or just the ones destined for YouTube?

Kim
Kimberly wrote on 12/23/2009, 9:20 AM
Many thanks Sonata.

About how long does it take for YouTube to finish all processing so that the quality is optimal? I waited until I saw the "processing" messages disappear (about 15 minutes), but I'm a newbie with YouTube so I don't know if this is all it takes. Maybe there is a background process that takes several hours? I don't know.

Kim
Sonata wrote on 12/23/2009, 10:46 AM
The time it takes for videos to look their best depends on the length of the video and even moreso with how busy YouTube is at the moment. I have had some videos go live and have great quailty within a few moments and others that aren't at their best for several hours or more.