Best codec for YouTube?

[KenAdamsNSA]

Hey guys! I'm currently looking for a good codec/format to convert my raw video files into that is friendly to YouTube and maintains a good balance between compression and quality. I've tried WMV, MOV, and recently H.264 with varying levels of success (the MOV and H.264 have an odd washed-out look to them). Any suggestions? I've spent far too many hours rendering different formats. Thanks, all!

[John T Smith]

Go to the YT web site and find their page where they tell you what they want

[John T Smith]

Such as starting here

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/

[Ann Bens]

Premiere has an excellent preset for YouTue under H.264.

Works wonderfully well, have used it several times.

[KenAdamsNSA]

When I use the H.264 format, I notice either blurriness, or dropped frames. The video stutters pretty badly, and the colors look too bright. There almost seems to be a lack of contrast. The raw video file was recorded at 59.94 frames, but whenever I set it to that, jumpiness and stuttering occurs. Whenever I set it lower, blurriness and phantom frames show up. This is the only format this happens in. Is there anything in particular I should be aware of, such as number of encoding passes, multiplexer, level, etc.? None of those things seem to really make sense to me. When I encode in WMV, I preserve the colors of the video, but the quality is pretty dramatically decreased, even though the file size is still around 750 MB, down from a 9.7 GB file. Any thoughts? Thanks, guys!

[Ann Bens]

Some people have reported issues with 50 or 60p footage on youtube.

Can you downconvert it into a 30p timeline and set the YT preset to 30 fps.

You could also try wmvHD720, dont look at the file size. You can go up to 2 gig or try the Advanced video-upload.

[the_wine_snob]

I agree with Ann. The two most popular YouTube HD formats/CODEC's are H.264 and WMV HD.

Now, some users have reported issues with their H.264 material. In nearly every case, they were using Apple's H.264. For many, going with the H.264 CODEC from Lead, or MainConcept improved things. Another issue, that seemed fairly common was OOS (Out Of Sync) with the Apple H.264, but you did not notice that.

Good luck,

Hunt

[KenAdamsNSA]

Thanks guys! I think I'll keep tweaking the WMV settings to get a good balance of the important stuff.