Getting the best quality on YouTube uploads? (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

So here we are out at CEDIA this week doing all sorts of
videopodcasts that we will be uploading to YouTube.

The problem is, we are shooting hi-def, editing in both
iMovie (MAC) and AVS EDITOR (Windows) and then
saving in highest quality to upload to YouTube in .MOV
format.

Problem is, YouTube will not accept the format. In fact,
it's not so much the format rather than the quality.

So, in order to properly upload to YouTube we have to
compress our video to web quality and then YouTube
further compresses it so that the end result looks like crap.

So, how do we take hi-def video and do as less compression
as possible so that we an get great looking results on YouTube?


Please be as descriptive in your reply as possible including
what programs to use on both the MAC and WINDOWS side
pending on your personal experience.

Thanks in advance

 

[Sam Posten]

Easy. Skip youtube and go directly to Vimeo

http://www.vimeo.com

You can put the lower quality ones on YT as a backup if you want.

The nice thing about Vimeo is it allows users to download the original in full size.
http://blog.planet5d.com/2009/07/hypnotic-ocean-aquarium-filmed-with-5d2/

Sam

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Sam,

The only way this platform supports video is by posting on
YouTube first, so we are forced to go that route.

 

[Sam Posten]

Heh, well you know my thoughts on "the platform" so I'll refrain from any "I told ya so"s =)

But, all I had to do was click on my "Embed" link on my own videos and it gives me the HTML I needed and all I had to do was copy that to the clipboard and paste it into this thread, so not sure why that isn't doable.

Here is the original page, you can see the embed link directly above that.


And my videos, like yours, are from an AVC camcorder ingested into iMovie 09 and output as H.264 formatted .MOV quicktime

Cannon Fire from Sam Posten on Vimeo.

Here's another that is a lot more HTF centric:
(See below)

 

[Sam Posten]

Hmm, didnt like that one, lets try it again in a second post:

Terminator2 BluRay EndoSkull Unboxed! from Sam Posten on Vimeo.

Edit: I musta missed something in first copy and paste.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Firstly, the "I told you so" comments are not necessary.
This platform is working out just fine for us.

Secondly, Vimeo only allows a certain amount of MB uploads
under their free account. We are uploading a lot of content
this week.

Thirdly, Vimeo probably isn't nearly searched as much as
YouTube. We get much better exposure on that service.

Thank you nonetheless for the recommendation.

 

[Sam Posten]

You bet bud.

 

[Sam Posten]

OK, this has been gnawing at me overnight and I had to do some searches cause I was pretty sure Apple added the capability to do what you want to do with about 1 button press. Turns out they have, and the following pages should help you do it:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1888768
http://blog.davidglover.org/2009/03/creating-hd-video-with-imovie-09.html
http://www.frommyexperience.com/imovie-video-settings-youtube.php

Hopefully one of those can get you back on track with Yt.

Anyway, just want to address a few of your other points about Vimeo vs. Youtube. Youtube unquestionably has much better search mojo and might have better ways to earn $ back. Agree totally on that.

But... I personally found the quality to be hugely better on both Vimeo and SmugMug than on Yt. So much so that I bought subscriptions to both but will not renew Smug unless something changes. The way I figure it I have a $1k camera and many $k in editing gear, $60 to get my videos in high quality PLUS the ability to let folks download the original many megabyte files is a bargain.

And as far as searchability goes, you might want to consider if the videos you are doing are going to have a lot shorter of a 'long tail' than say something like the Kipness interview might. As these are 'news' the reward might be in the immediate availability of high quality videos vice the long term searchability of lower quality fuzzy videos. Just a thought. You could get the HQ vids up on Vimeo today for a $60 entry fee and then put the low qual ones up on Youtube once you get home and can figure out the codec issues preventing you from publishing there.

Sorry about the other comment! But it did lead me to conclude that vimeo vids can at least be easily embedded here, which I found both surprising and welcome!

 

[Sam Posten]

So, at the end of the day who do you recommend to your client for video sharing? My thoughts are both! It only takes a little bit of time to upload videos to both YouTube and Vimeo, so why not create both? You can get the most exposure inside of YouTube for your content and utilize Vimeo’s customizable embed options to display the video on your website. I don’t see a real problem with handling video content this way, and I have a few clients doing this right now. Granted, it’s a little bit more work, but at the end of the day they realize that they have a lot invested in their videos and usually don’t mind an extra process or two if it means it’s going to give them more bang for their buck.

http://www.cottonrohrscheib.com/blog/2009/08/04/thoughts-on-vimeo-vs-youtube/

This article has extensive comparison of the two systems and this is a conclusion I concur with.