New Youtube standards

[johnnywellas]

I was planning on uploading my first batch of videos to youtube, given that now it supports higher resolution, but i couldn't really find much information about the encoding details.
First of all, the new video window is now 640x360, but supposedly only videos that are uploaded as 720p are displayed correctly (as high-definition) . I want to rip some bits of a DVD, which is SD (720x576), would i have to render the clips as 720p in order for them not to appear as the older, less quality videos? What about maximum video length, now that the maximum file size is 1GB? And maximum bitrate? Can i just render the clips to 640x360, and they'll show as &fmt=22, or just as &fmt=18? What about the audio? What's the maximum attainable bitrate?

I am sorry to put all these questions to you guys here, but honestly, youtube support doesn't say shit. They should really build a detailed table or how-tos for everyone to upload the best quality videos possible, whithin youtube's actual limitations.

Thanks for your help.

[jagabo]

It sounds like you'll have to upscale to 1280x720. Then they'll downscale it to 640x360.

[Baldrick]

Make some short test encodes examples and test upload and see how it works. Last post your results here as I would like to know also.

[aedipuss]

there doesn't seem to be any limit other than 1gb. bitrate and audio seem to be open ended. - for now - it can change at any time.

the HDV 1440x1080 cam files i uploaded only got normal def treatment 480x270. so not all "HD" uploads are treated equal.

the 1920x1080 i upped ended up as 1280x720

[johnnywellas]

OK, I'll test and then post some feedback about it. Can you detail anything about the audio codec and bitrate I should use? The stuff I want to upload is from a concert, so I'd like to preserve the audio quality as much as possible.

Thanks for the replies so far.

[aedipuss]

what format is your source video in? i've uploaded everything from pcm wav to aac and they all have worked lately.

[NerdWithNoLife]

Make some short test encodes examples and test upload and see how it works. Last post your results here as I would like to know also.

I did just that. 1280x720p gets the HD link even at bitrates as low as 1000kbps. 640x360 got a regular "Watch in High Quality" link. 1280x700 also got a regular High Quality link, so I think 1280x720 is the minimum.

So yes, you'd need to upscale if you want a "Watch in HD" video with SD footage.

Edit: Also, I have found that audio is irrelevant to YT's decision to give the link to a higher quality video. I almost always upload it uncompressed though, so it only gets compressed once.

[aedipuss]

Make some short test encodes examples and test upload and see how it works. Last post your results here as I would like to know also.

I did just that. 1280x720p gets the HD link even at bitrates as low as 1000kbps. 640x360 got a regular "Watch in High Quality" link. 1280x700 also got a regular High Quality link, so I think 1280x720 is the minimum.

So yes, you'd need to upscale if you want a "Watch in HD" video with SD footage.

what codec did you use to make your 1280x720p? and how was the quality of the yt HD output compared to your source upload?

[NerdWithNoLife]

I uploaded an x264 AVI. The requirements don't seem to be much different than with "Watch in High Quality," except for the resolution. Here is a link to a "Watch in HD" video. Settings: 1280x720 x264 AVI, 2000kbps video, uncompressed stereo sound.

[jagabo]

The "Watch in HD" version gave a 1280x720 MOV file (downloaded via orbit) with 2000 kbps h.264 (AVC1) video and 240 kbps stereo AAC audio.

[Starkian]

I made some test uploading different video to youtube and here's my results
1- a upload a video in x264 , 720 by 480 with a DAR of 16:9 ( ITU NTSC 16:9 (1.822784) )and the DAR was discarded and so youtube plays it at 540 by 360 (same ratio a 720 by 480 , 1.5)
2- a video in mpeg2 720 by 480 with a flag of 16:9 will be played in the entire 640 by 360 player
3- a video in x264 , 852 by 480 (16:9 with square pixel) will be played in 640 by 360.

All video have "watch in normal quality"

Audio is AAC 128 kbps stereo ( from my files)

[johnnywellas]

So, after some impatience and stress, i accidently found out that it takes a while for utube to process the video and make the HD mode available (apart from the time it takes to render the vid and upload it, sheesh... ). For a while i thought that maybe only wmv would work, given that almost all the video tutorials around suggest that as the working setting. In my case i upscaled the original 720x576 video to 1280x720, 2000kbps x264 .avi, pcm uncompressed audio.

Here you have my youtube cherry popping -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpOb9fM2iII&fmt=22

I'm gonna upload some more vids, testing contents a bit over 10 minutes, just to check whether it works.

Thanks again for all the comments. Hopefully we can all draw some conclusive results on how to best publish these kinda vids on youtube.

[Starkian]

So update on youtube new standard ....

I got to admitted I mixed up their term for normal,high and HD quality at first

Normal Quality : every video get this quality at first, this the first that will be available after processing and should be watch only if you internet connection is really really slow! It's really bad!

High Quality : After a while , you get "watch in high quality", it seems that no matter the resolution or bitrate i used for my videos, youtube make a High quality copy of it! If youtube would care a little bit more about quality it would be called "normal quality",still a step down from your original file but less than "normal quality"

Watch in HD: long after, if the video is 1280 by 720 or higher you get it! Once again ,if youtube would care about quality you would be able to send a quality 640 by 360 video and found a video on youtube that is close to your original but it's youtube so you have to upscale your video to 1280 by 720 to have a high quality
640 by 360 video at the end!

here's some test , videos are x264 (CRF21 with 3 B-frames) with 128kbps AAC stereo
720p (1280 by 720) :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niOS60stPK8

2nd test
720p (1280 by 720)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4HQ7QT8jUo

[jagabo]

I used Orbit downloader to download the first of your 720p links:

720p (1280 by 720): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niOS60stPK8

Although the video in the web page is playing in a 640x360 window, the downloaded video is a 15 GB 1280x720 h.264/AAC MOV file. I suspect if one uploads a real 720p video (as opposed to an upscaled SD vidso) it would be much sharper when displayed full screen.

[Starkian]

a 15 GB ? really ?
the original file I send is 27.1 MB (h.264/AAC) in mp4,
it 's sure that the upscaled video look shit if view at the original size (1280 by 720) I would never make a video like that but the HD youtube video ends up more closer to a quality 640 by 360 , that's sad you have to use trick like that ! I will continue to make a few more test!

15 GB ... wow!it doesn't make any sense but hey it's youtube !

[jagabo]

Sorry, that's a typo! It should have read 15 MB. Yes, it's just unfortunate that youtube doesn't resize the video window when you resize the browser. It's just silly that a 1280x720 video always plays in a 640x360 window.

[Starkian]

I will soon have an answer to your question regarding Scaled HD vs. real HD , i'm uploading a video sample used by HD-DVD in 1080p vc-1 !
Of course the term soon is always relative !

[codechan]

There's a new parameter in the page source:

<div id="watch-video-quality-setting">
watch in normal quality
watch in HD
</div>

Watch in HD setting, this is new to me anyway...

I'm surprised YouTube isn't more secretive about this o_O i guess Google is compensating for Viacom well with the ads?

Edit: OK so we know, but the above shows that the HD wont work for blogs or featured videos. Heres the old embed code to blog using the &fmt=18

<object width="480" height="397"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3Xz3Zi9Drh0&ap=%2526fmt%3D18"></param><param name="wmode" value="window"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3Xz3Zi9Drh0&ap=%2526fmt%3D18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="window" width="480" height="397"></embed></object>

Obviously you need to replace 18 with 22. and you may want to switch 480 to 640 ish

Sorry i haven't tested this with fmt=22 myself(i dont do myspace)
Can someone try it and see what results you get. Note that the video above doesn't have an HD just a fmt=18, so youll have to replace the video ID

[NerdWithNoLife]

Although the video in the web page is playing in a 640x360 window, the downloaded video is a 15 GB 1280x720 h.264/AAC MOV file. I suspect if one uploads a real 720p video (as opposed to an upscaled SD vidso) it would be much sharper when displayed full screen.

Right you are. They really have real HD (not FakeD).

[Starkian]

I uploaded the HD-DVD video sample, it's been 12 hours and for now only the normal and high quality version are available! I'm curious to see how much longer it will take to have the HD version!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJM1W6kSEt0

Original file can be download here : http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/530/HD-DVD_Demo_1080p_VC-1_DDPlus_5.1.html

[aedipuss]

starkian - you only get high quality or HD not both. if they made it hq then no HD is coming.

what were the specs of the upload?

i tried some 1440x1080 HD cam mts file and yt only made hq out of it.

[Starkian]

The specs of the file:

Video:
VC-1 @ ~20mbps (1920 by 1080)

Audio:
Dolby Digital 2.0 @ 640kbps
Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 @ 640kbps

Container:
Matroska (mkv)

File Size:File size: 278.3 MB
Time : 2:04

[aedipuss]

i'd give it a try with one audio stream and out of the mkv container. maybe as a transport stream or HD mpeg2 or 4.

[codechan]

starkian - you only get high quality or HD not both. if they made it hq then no HD is coming.

If by that you mean the button, because you can still watch an HQ flv of a video that has been converted for HD playback.

Here's the source URL to the HQ flv of a video Starkian uploaded with 'watch in HD' option:

http://vp.video.google.com/videodownload?version=0&secureurl=SgAAANjESvamHO4_eOiZZp_bH...D8CF-jXNaK40ug

It is 480X270 778k h.263

Thought I'd point that out to avoid any confusion ;)

[brassplyer]

What kind of file do you need to upload to have a 4:3 video play in stereo by default?

[themaster1]

Well i did my little test today and it seems to work fine

My video is available in HD!

Specs of the video on the youtube 's server currently:

1280x720p / 25fps / H264/ 2000kbps ** AAC 222kbps / 44Khz
Mp4 container
Size: more than 50Mb (i couldn't DL to 100% as we speak it's stopped just before the end)


original file:
1280x720p (720x576 (SD pal) upscaled to HD res.) / 25fps / xvid / 8000kbps *** MP3 192kbps / 44khz
Avi container

Size: 140MB

I think after 3-4 hours the file was ready but not sure i didn't pay much attention but it should be within this range...if not earlier.

Everybody test this out and report !

[webvideopro]

I posted a update to my original YouTube high quality encoding guide that now covers the new 720p HD format. It explains the changes in detail and gives settings you can use to ensure your files are converted to HD.

http://webvideotechniques.com/123/bigger-and-better-encoding-for-youtube-hd

If you notice any errors or have anything to add, please post!