Youtube - How to get best video quality?
Posted on August 5, 2007
Found Inside the Life Box-> Computer and Internet, Tutorials |
Youtube - How to get best video quality?
There is a lot of confusing and contradicting resources on the web and on blogs about how to make your video look great on Youtube.com. But many have failed to tell you to “Have Fun” and hence this post is created.
When you try some of those methods, you learn that they don’t work for you, am I right?
Trouble starts as Youtube doesn’t explain to us or care about the required settings to get a good quality video. I strongly believe that the Quality of your video depends on You, not the methods. Perhaps that is precisely why youtube doesn’t tell us.
I believe that a video is as unique as the person who shoots it. So how is it possible for youtube to dictate the methods when there are 6 billion people on the planet? Tell them the file formats and leave the rest to their creativity. Now that’s Youtube!
Now, without spending more time, I wish to share my experience with you. I’m not going to promise anything here. Use this as a guide if you like, but not as a method.
- Video Source : Yes, Yes and Yes, a video is as good as it was recorded. Nothing to argue on this one. If your source video is of poor quality, there is nothing you can do about it. So get a recorder that records at least 30fps, 2000 kbps bitrate or Higher the better. When shooting videos, remind yourself that no matter how good your hands are they can’t replace even the cheapest tripod. It’s good if you can use tripods but who in the world is going to carry it along all the time? Even if you have the world’s most expensive tripod, there will be moments where you will have to use your hand. Hold your camcorder using both hands and act like a steady tripod. When our hands shake, our camcorder records more objects such as colors, shades, shapes and all. But what is the fun of recording a still video? Don’t concentrate too much on making your hands fixed for a very long time. The rule is not to shake, but keep moving if your video desires that effect. Move slowly but that doesn’t mean you can’t have one or two fast moving shoots even if the video looks fuzzy later on. Go for it! Don’t worry too much about the quality. Remember to have fun. Avoid too many objects in your background. Experiment yourself and findout what works good for you. As for me, extreme bright light does more harm than the sun after a heavy rain. When I have too much brightness, I seem to record more objects and hence my video looks ugly. If you are shooting in the jungle, say for Nature related videos, I find trees with big leaves do better than the pine tree with infinitive thin hairs! lol! Experiment. Experiment. Learn yourself. It is worth learning about your camcorder before learning about the quality of your video on Youtube. I find my cheap camcorder gives me fuzzy video when I get too close to the object. Learn something similar about your device.
- Tools : Even if you decide to upload your video as it was recorded, you will need some video editing software so that you can adjust the size of your video as required / requested by Youtube. It would be wrong to just write, these tools are good and these are bad. So find yourself which software is easy for you to use and buy. Software that I use are Windows Movie Maker which comes with Windows OS and Apple Quick Time Pro for $30
- When you are saving your video, make sure the required video settings are correct. Youtube recommends that the video size be 320×240 in pixel. Stick with that size. Giving a large video size to Youtube is useless. I have tried this and have noticed no difference in Video Quality. Encode using 2000 kbps bit rate. Going higher is simply a waste of your time. Remember to minimize the time it takes for youtube to process your uploaded video so you save your time and youtube saves the bandwidth. Save video in either of these file formats, .Avi or .Mov or .Wmv using the encode you are familiar with. I have noticed that using Mpeg4 or H.264 gives the same quality. In quick time pro using the option Deinterlace video gives me good results for most videos. I find using a black screen for 5 second at the beginning of the video reducces some video distortions.
- Brand your video : Start your video with a logo or your name, etc. I haven’t been able to do this well. Be serious about making videos. Branding helps you send a message to the viewers. I find giving credits at the end of the video as a great way to socialize. Also keep the creativity in mind. Try making videos your own way. Also don’t just upload, watch other videos and learn.
Make your Source Video of Good Quality, the rest should be easy. If you would like to see my videos goto k6yar films and videos Remember, that is a link for your out of the curiousity question, but not to say my videos are of good quality. If you have any questions, just comment to this post and I will be with you.
When you have Fun, and When your are serious and creative
The Quality should follow you….
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