Compressing for You Tube
 

I've got a project that I'm trying to post on You Tube and have a couple of problems.

1. When I export my 16:9 project out of Final Cut Pro using Quicktime MPEG-4 compression settings as follows:
Video format H.264
Data Rate 256 Optimized for download
Image Size 320 X 240 QVGA
Preserve aspect ratio using: letterbox
Frame Rate 30
Key Frame Automatic
H.264 options
Restrict profile Main
Encoding Mode Best Quality


The resulting Quicktime file is squished with no letterbox, I've tried multiple times with slight changes in the settings with the same results.


2. The video when posted on You Tube has large pixelation and poor quality. I've taken into consideration that the video is compressed further when hosted but when compared to other videos on the site, my project stinks.

I can't seem to figure out why I can't get a 16:9 w/letterbox and why I'm not seeing a smooth, comparable quality video.

The project was shot on Sony XDCAM with sequence settings:1080p30 (35 Mb/s VBR)

Cheers,
D

See post 35 here re use of DivX with YouTube:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...461#post625461

youtube recompress' at the need they want, not yours

OK, take a look at this one that I did of my kid's band practicing (it's not high art...just did it for them to post on their MySpace pages).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrfhCkJP8H8

What I did here was to output using the H.264 800Kbps Quicktime 7 preset in Compressor. But you have to go into the second to last tab in the compressor settings ("Geometry") and click the bottom-most popup ("Constrain to display aspect") and choose "16:9".

The resulting video will be quite large, but as long as it's under YouTube's max file size (100mb), they'll re-compress it and letterbox it (like they did for mine).

Don't overthink the problem. Throw the highest-quality thing you can at them. It'll look better when they're through mashing it down.

Why not just send Youtube a 16x9 file?

Hey David

This confirms your settings:

http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/workshop/youtuberight

Cheers

Could you take us through this step by step from when the fcp clip is finished editing to you tube if you had time?

youtube supports 16x9, so use a 16x9-format. For example 640x360 or 1024x576. Use a large format, because youtube also stores your files untouched for future-use with higher qualities. So if youtube sometime takes its quality-standards a step further, your video will be effected, too. Youtube did such a quality-progression already before some time: Put &fmt=18 behind a youtube-video-url and you will see a much higher quality even with clips uploaded a long time ago (, if that clip was uploaded with a high quality ignoring the youtube-recommendations).

These are my Sorrenson Squeeze settings.
I encode to MPEG4

David-

I have been pleased with the amount of control offered by Compressor. This is one of my YouTube pages:

YouTube - uimediaproduction's Channel

Several of the shows were produced HD/16:9 but I uploaded high-resolution letterboxed source files for simplicity's sake. If you are interested, I can get back to you with the Compressor settings I use here.

Final Cut Pro Web Export
 

Final Cut Pro Web Export

To compress and encode video for the web. Go to File, Export, and choose Using Quicktime Conversion. Name the file, make sure the format is Quicktime movie, and click on options. Click on the settings, and under compression type select H264.

Now Size. Click the dimensions tab and click on CUSTOM. Export at 480 X 360, which retains the 16x9 aspect ratio of your movie video. Set letter box click OK.

Final Cut Pro Web Export Audio
Now encode the audio. Make sure Sound is checked and click on settings. Under format select IMA 4:1.

Under rate select 22.05. These settings will help shrink the file size. And hit OK. And OK one more time.

Completing Web Export
And finally hit save.

High-resolution is good, but there's no use of letterboxing. Letterboxing prevents the clip from getting full-screen on a wide-screen-monitor without black bars left and right.
No. Select AAC with 44.1kHz or 48kHz stereo and about 96-128kbit/s VBR, for retaining CD-quality-audio.

Compare:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4icdCfx97k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4icdCfx97k&fmt=18

I decided to use letterboxing after having unpredictable results from uploading 16:9 content; some people would see it correctly, others would see it stretched. Maybe they've improved their process in the meanwhile.

I remember there are some buggy clips on youtube, which immediately irreversible change their aspect-ratio if you're skipping or switching fullscreen. I guess it's concerned with not using quadratic pixels, but I don't know.
I didn't have any problems with uploading 16x9-stuff.
Here's an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yL51W9njLM&fmt=18

Thanks for the tip, the sound is much better!

I will be using your audio settings in the future.