Video Compression

Hi everyone. Here is my question:

I've edited some music videos in Final Cut Express HD, (the original content was from a DV camera), and I want to upload them to Utube.
I've exported one of the edited videos (from FCE), using Quicktime with conversion. I've tried with different types of conversion, but always the quality of the exported file, is poor. At the same time, the video turns wider.
I also have compressed the video in imovie, with similar results.
The size of the edited video (Final cut) is almost one Gig, and the size of the converted file, is less than 50 Mg.

I also have exported the video with no compression, using Quicktime (no conversion). Then, when I open it in Final Cut, it appears fine, but when I open the same video in Quicktime, it appears wider.

I'll appreciate any help. Thanks in advance

Well I'm mostly confused by your round about wording.

Was the original content from a DV camera. Check the project or sequence settings in your origianal FCE HD project. Off the top of my head I forget. Something like 720x480 I think. (for NTSC)

For YouTube export to the image size that it is they recommend on their site. Try using deinterlacing I suspect and use H.264 with multi-pass encoding. Restrict the data rate to the highest value possible without braking their 100MB file limit size, or try Automatic at first.

You want to give the video service the best quality you can within their limits. I uploaded a 250MB file last week and YouTube compressed it down to 16MB. I'm still experimenting with YouTube and haven't found a formula I like yet. I have figured out one odd thing though. They now increase the picture size by 50% on the webpage although they haven't increased it internally. Their is button you can click to set it to real size.