YouTube's HQ!

degracia

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Well after a long research, I've come to a conclusion. I know it sounds stupid, but I'm sure it'll solve people's problems and make them a little happy :D
Although this may not apply to the mac users. Unfortunately, I don't own a MAC but I'll get to the research soon.

I know you've wondered..
"Why is my video on YouTube so crappy when it plays wonderfully on my comp?"

The answer to your question;
So ever since YouTube has added their High Quality feature, I tried doing some reasearch on how to upload videos that enables the HQ format for YOUR videos. I read somewhere that you have to save the format to 512 kbps broadband. For months I thought that was it. But no, its WRONG.

So I've found a solution. It's easy and simple!


  • Upload video from camera and open video on Windows movie maker (should come with your computer)

  • When saving your movie file, make sure that instead of choosing 'Best quality for playback for my computer', choose 'other settings

  • Click on Local playback (2.1) mbps

  • Save it, watch it, upload on YT!

It's as easy as that. I've noticed that your video format has to be in a 4:3 aspect ratio, not 16:9. That should be automatic though. 2.1 mbps is way larger than 512 kb, but it still shouldn't take up much space. Depending on the length of you're video, the upload process will range from a few minutes to a lotta minutes.

I always thought only those movie trailers and such only had this feature, when you, yourself, can have it as well. I didn't know if there was another post or where to post it, but if this is a duplicate please remove.

Enjoy the vids :cool:
-- Ibarr


BTW, Here is my quality comparison:

Jammin w/out High Quality;
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jhbj0Wh7E5w

Jammin WITH High Quality;
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rWZ9IsHAgxw

Like Notorious stated, it was a Dramatic difference. Let the vids speak for itself.
 
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Yeah. This is a video I made couple months back when my neighbor moved in. I hadda jam with him :eek:

The non-HQ (uploaded months ago)
Low Quality

The HQ (uploaded 1 hr ago)
High Quality

Unfortunately, my camera isn't good. It's a 5 mp Cannon Powershot. But you can definitely tell the difference. If I had a good camera, like maybe a good Sony or a better Cannon, my videos would now be amazing.

I know you have that HQ enable for your videos right russ? I remember from your uke contest vid :D
What camera do you use? Yours was very clear.
 
dude, that HQ on your second link made a huge difference! right on!!!

good lookin' out Degracia!

p.s. i didn't realize my vids had the HQ link on the bottom until you pointed it out. i upload mine directly from iMovie using their default settings. so i guess i got lucky :)
 
Thanks guys.

Also, here's a good tip. If you're running on fast internet connection, you can enable the Auto-HQ watch in your account settings. Just scroll all the way down below in your Account settings and there should be something about watching videos quality. Enable it!
 
Wow! Nice job finding this out! Huge difference. I shall try this with my next upload, whenever that is.

Thanks!
 
dude, that HQ on your second link made a huge difference! right on!!!

good lookin' out Degracia!

p.s. i didn't realize my vids had the HQ link on the bottom until you pointed it out. i upload mine directly from iMovie using their default settings. so i guess i got lucky :)

so russ, youre not saving it as a quicktime movie file first? youre just uploading directly from iMovie? im gonna try that. my vids come out fine as they are, but if they can be better... why not? hahaha.
 
One of mine available in HQ

I did one video that ended up having the HQ option.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NN16Ht2luaU

I mention it because I did not use MS movie maker. I've opened that program once and I don't have the foggiest idea how it works. I edit all of my videos in quicktime pro for the PC. I export them all to H264 highest quality. But that one was different because I exported parts (the fretboard closeups) of the video to individual jpg frames to run photoshop crazyness and then re assembled them. My assumption as to why I got the HQ option on that video is that it did not compress well and was very large. Usually compressed video will save lots of space because the background remains very static. In this case I replaced the background with images in which each pixel changed completely every two frames. When I export I let QT automatically determine the number of keyframes. I thought that the number of keyframes might have been the cause of me getting that option. Of course none of my other videos have that option.
 
Final Cut Pro _ Mac settings

I have done a couple of HD projects on YouTube using the Macintosh. In Final Cut Pro, choose Export> Using Quicktime Conversion...>Quicktime Movie Options>H264>Quality slider up as high as possible without making file size over 1 GB, size 1280 x 720, sound at 48. Everything else I left at the default settings.

I haven't tried doing this out of Quicktime Pro, but you probably can do the same settings from there.

That quality slider really makes a difference. I had a 9 minute video, and moved the slider from a little higher than High to almost half way between High and Best. It made a huge difference in the quality, and was still under the 1 GB limit for uploading to YouTube.
Some samples at those settings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oPLmAgp0tE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j8pqfEuQw8
Warning, this is a non uke video, but it has some cute dogs, and art!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xybvvZbBDcc

–Lori
 
Hey all,

Youtube HD setting have proved all to unreliable for me, and most my viewers don't have fast enough Internet to stream it. I settled on just getting the best HQ quality video. I'm currently talking with Aaron/UU staff and getting the render settings they used for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhUjJC725G8

the video above when you click HQ is excellent clarity/smoothness and streams fast. So once I get a word back from Aaron(hopefully sooner then later) I will update you guys with the proper settings so we can all have nice quality video like the above!

Mahalos,
D
 
i save mine as a wmv hd 720 25p to my pc first then watch it make sure its ok
then upload it

it seemed that if i did not save it first and upload it straight to YT it gave me black letterbox bars

but it takes ages to upload hd
 
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