Encoding Videos for YouTube
I don't do a lot with YouTube--just upload a home video or two every now and then to share with friends and family. One of the frustrations I've always had with YouTube is the result of re-compressing my video to the FLV format used on their site. I could never figure out exactly what format to use in order to achieve the best results. I Googled it, tried different ideas myself, Googled it again... Nothing. Everything I uploaded ended up looking like crap once it had been "YouTubed".
Today, I think I may have stumbled on the settings that work perfectly for me. I say "for me" because I don't want a bunch of hate mail saying that these settings didn't work for them. I use Compressor with Final Cut Studio, but similar settings in other encoding programs should work as well. So YMMV, but here they are:
It's also worth noting that the two videos I've uploaded so far using these settings have automatically showed up with the High Quality viewing option. Kinda cool. YouTube Compressor Droplets ** UPDATE ** These settings will not allow your video to show up in YouTube's pseudo-HD format. I'll write another post later for that.Audio Encoder AAC Stereo (L R) 44.100 kHz 128 kbpsVideo Encoder Format: QT Width: 640 Height: 480 (for 16:9 videos, Height would be 360) Pixel aspect ratio: Square Crop: None Padding: None Frame rate: (100% of source) Frame Controls: Automatically selected: Off Codec Type: H.264 Multi-pass: On, frame reorder: On Pixel depth: 24 Spatial quality: 75 Min. Spatial quality: 25 Key frame interval: 15 Temporal quality: 50 Min. temporal quality: 25