08-04-2011, 06:42 AM

hi,
i need some help please, a little confused...

I use a HD digital camera to record videos (in HD), and i edit these videos for youtube in iMovie..

though here I get confused... once i 'share to youtube' , i then have the option of what size, one size being HD... and if this is clicked, before the status of 'uploading to youtube' , i get 'converting video to HD' or something along them lines... now why would it need to convert to HD, if i recorded in HD?

Anyway, thats not all, iMovie will only upload to YouTube, videos 10 minutes or less, though if i uploaded a video from my desktop to YouTube, i am allowed 15 minutes?

Ontop of this, uploading a 10 minute video takes around 5-8 hours via iMovie, which i think is ridiculous,
yet if i were to upload the exact same video from my desktop to YouTube, it will take near enough the 6 hour mark every time..
I've heard people say that their 15 minute HD videos take at most 3 hours to upload (without using iMovie) ...

So if possible, could you answer me these following problems:

1. Why if i recorded in HD, does it need to convert to HD?

2. Why does iMovie only allow 10 minute videos? Not like my 15 min allowance on YouTube?

3. Why does it take so long to upload?

4. Is there a way to have my HD video on YouTube, without the file type being .mov ? because i've seen that my 10 min videos are around 900mb each as a .mov, yet if they were a .mp4 or anything, they would be around 500mb , essentially halving the upload time?

Sorry, and thanks in advance!

08-04-2011, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by alewis

1. Why if i recorded in HD, does it need to convert to HD?

Because "HD" is a meaningless term in this context. Youtube will only accept video in certain *formats,* and the one you shot your HD video isn't one of them. Thus it must be converted to one of the acceptable HD *formats* (probably H.264 in this case, YouTube likely has a FAQ on this).

2. Why does iMovie only allow 10 minute videos? Not like my 15 min allowance on YouTube?

After iMovie '11 came out, YouTube changed the limit. iMovie has not been updated to reflect the new limit. For 99.5% of the people who upload to YouTube, 10 minutes is way too much already.

You can get around this by learning (from YouTube's FAQ) exactly what format the video needs to be in, then using iMovie to EXPORT the video rather than share it and export in the format YouTube wants, then upload it manually.

3. Why does it take so long to upload?

This is dependent on your ISPs upload speed as well as other factors. Hint: upload speeds are usually 1/10th (or less) the speed of downloads. I have 15mbps download and 512kbps upload, for example. Awful.

There are other factors but that's the main one. People with better upload speeds cut their upload time dramatically.

4. Is there a way to have my HD video on YouTube, without the file type being .mov ?

Yes. Again, check YouTube's uploading FAQ on this.