YouTube Compression Quality & iMovie

[Earl]

I've posted about this before, but I was away for a long period of time and the topic is no longer here.

My YouTube videos have terrible video quality, and I have no idea why. I've tried several different suggested settings, and to no avail.

Here are my current settings:

Expert Settings ---> Movie to Quicktime Movie ---> Options

Video Settings:

Compression: H.264
Quality: High
Key Frame Rate: 24
Bitrate: 1740 kbits/sec
Frame Reordering: Yes
Encoding Mode: Multi-Pass
Dimensions: 320x240

Audio Settings:

Format: AAC
Sample Rate: 32.000 kHz
Channels: Mono
Bit Rate: 40 kbps

 

[pixelkiller]

youtube doesnt use the h.264 codec, nor does it have the flv 8 codec. Youtube isnt a god website for videos tbh, if its something you wnt to show family and friends your much better off loading it onto websites like vimeo or stage6 etc

If you MUST upload to youtube just dont use h.264

 

[AlyciaAnimation]

Those settings seem ok to me. Maybe post a link to one of your links so we can see what it looks like.

 

[Earl]

youtube doesnt use the h.264 codec, nor does it have the flv 8 codec. Youtube isnt a god website for videos tbh, if its something you wnt to show family and friends your much better off loading it onto websites like vimeo or stage6 etc

If you MUST upload to youtube just dont use h.264

Youtube has always used h.264. At least to my knowledge, because that's what everyone on the web suggests using.

 

[Earl]

Bump. Can anyone else help?? Any advice to offer??

 

[xstep]

First, YouTube does accept H.264 video. At least in a .mov file.

I've writting my own guide on what I've done recently. See Preparing Video for YouTube on my Guides page.

I had great results from some 25 year old video recently.

 

[giulio]

Check your account settings on the YouTube website. There is a Quality ~ Speed settings. You may have it on low quality.

 

[AnAppleADay]

Here are the settings I use regularly. To make it easy, I bolded the differences from yours:

Video Settings:

Compression: H.264
Quality: High
Key Frame Rate: 24
Bitrate: 1000 kbits/sec (or 1500 kbits/sec if video has many motion shots)
Frame Reordering: Yes
Encoding Mode: Single-Pass
Dimensions: 320x240 (letterbox to preserve dimensions)

Audio Settings:

Format: AAC
Sample Rate: 46.000 kHz
Channels: Stereo
Bit Rate: 24 kbps


Believe it or not, going overkill on the video quality with the H.264 settings can actually result in a choppy video. (I often have this problem when I select Multi-pass.) I'm not sure why, it could be that my computer (PB G4 1.67 GHz, 1GB RAM) can't keep handle the video encoding at high settings. I'd love to see Apple release a Pro system with a dedicated H.264 encoder chip, as there were rumors about a while back. It would cut down on encoding time immensely and free the CPU for other processes.

Anyway, hope this works for you. To see an example of the quality I get with this on youtube, check out my latest vid, it's an Apple parody, so enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAyBaNwDX8c

 

[xstep]

Check your account settings on the YouTube website. There is a Quality ~ Speed settings. You may have it on low quality.

I just checked. That setting seems to be for download only. Still, a handy thing to know as it can affect what one sees from the site.

 

[xstep]

Believe it or not, going overkill on the video quality with the H.264 settings can actually result in a choppy video. (I often have this problem when I select Multi-pass.) I'm not sure why, it could be that my computer (PB G4 1.67 GHz, 1GB RAM) can't keep handle the video encoding at high settings.

Your computer shouldn't have any issue with multi pass encoding. It should only take longer than say an 8-core Mac Pro.

What kind of choppy playback are you seeing? Is this as you view it from YouTube, or the .mov file you created? I've noticed choppy playback from YouTube and I've found I need to leave Safari alone from doing anything else. I've download said video to my Mac and played back the .flv file with no choppy results, so that suggests to me that it is something to do with the browser.

I'd love to see Apple release a Pro system with a dedicated H.264 encoder chip, as there were rumors about a while back. It would cut down on encoding time immensely and free the CPU for other processes.

To gain encoding speed, you can buy something like the Elgato Turbo.264.

Here are two reviews at the L.A. Final Cut Pro User Group. Review 1. Review 2.

 

[AnAppleADay]

What kind of choppy playback are you seeing? Is this as you view it from YouTube, or the .mov file you created?

It happens in the .mov file, but not when I do single pass encoding.

To gain encoding speed, you can buy something like the Elgato Turbo.264.

Great tip! I didn't know know these existed.

 

[xstep]

It happens in the .mov file, but not when I do single pass encoding.

Weird. Try a frame rate of 15 or 30 (29.97).

Sometime back I tried making a video presentation of stills using 24fps. The result looked a little choppy to me. When I tried those other two frame rates, the results were more pleasing to me. I'll try to remember to try single pass encoding next time to see if the result is different.

 

[xstep]

In case either of you are using 24 frames per second for recording or output, you may want to listen to the March 20, 2008 show of "Creative Planet's Digital Production BuZZ" podcast. The segment starts at the 33 minute, 50 second mark (guest number 3).

The interview was in reaction to the guest, Stefan Sargent, writing "Production Notes: Call the Guy MAD AS ****!". The article talks about the poor 24p capababilty of the Canon HV20.