PAL DV to YouTube

[tonewheels]

I've followed lots of links to forums about encoding video for YouTube, but frankly, It gets more confusing as each thread goes on. Perhaps there is someone who has the same source format as I do who will read this and can help. My source video is PAL DV. I believe that's 720 x 576 pixels. It's recorded in non-widescreen which I believe is a 4:3 ratio. My aim is to upload the video in as high a quality as I can get from this source, and I don't want the image to become quashed or stretched. I understand I will need to de interlace the video, resize it and re-encode it. I'm using Virtualdub. I have no desire/will to add fades or titles it will just be cropped and that's it. Thanks for any help you are able to give.

[hech54]

Just use H264 as an output from Virtualdub. No real need to resize for YouTube clips anymore either.
Also...make short little 1 minute or shorter test clips and upload them as PRIVATE videos to check the quality.

[tonewheels]

Thank you hech54. First problem, I don't have anything like H264 showing in the virtualdub compression list. I'll go and google it.

[hech54]

I use this:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/x264vfw/

[tonewheels]

Thanks a lot hech54, open source too.

Now, I have de-interlaced and encoded a short video of just over a minute but the file size is 71MB which is a large file to upload. I used the default settings of the codec though I checked the "VirtualDub Hack" checkbox seeing as that's what I'm using.

Perhaps I should reduce the size of the video after all. I don't mind it being smaller. As I say, It's not HD or widescreen. As it's PAL, should I crop it in some way to ensure the image is not going to get squashed or stretched once uploaded?

[hech54]

Did you choose an audio codec as well?

[tonewheels]

Good point, it was left on uncompressed. Audio is not needed in these particular clips anyway so I selected "no audio" in Virtualdub. Don't know if YouTube's encoder will have a problem with that.

It's now about 30MB. Thank's for all your help.


As Columbo would say: One more thing; Should I crop the video to stop it being squashed or stretched seeing as it's PAL?

[manono]

Me, I crop 8 from each side and then resize to 640x480 (if 4:3 originally) for upload to YouTube. While it's true you can add a tag after the upload to have its player resize it for you, I prefer to do the job myself.

[yoda313]

@manono - shouldn't it be 640x576 for pal video?

[hech54]

The resize tool in VDub is pretty good as I recall. You can just take it down (with the slider) in size and it will keep the aspect ratio. Just make sure you tick the box where it says "codec friendly" ....or something along those lines.

[manono]

@manono - shouldn't it be 640x576 for pal video?

No, not if it's a 1.33:1 ratio. If you want a 576 height then it would be 768x576. In my opinion there's not much point in doing that, though, because YouTube has nothing between 480p and 720p and 768x576 will be scaled down to and reencoded at 640x480 anyway.

[hech54]

Don't know if YouTube's encoder will have a problem with that.

I've read where some people always upload with audio even though there is none because of YouTube's goofy ways....they just make it a ridiculously low bitrate.

[tonewheels]

Thank chaps. This is where it always gets confusing for me when reading similar forum posts.

Isn't the PAL aspect ration different form Youtube's? I mean, the old recommend YouTube size before all this HD stuff came along was 320x240. Now, going by this, if you try and resize a pal video, the nearest you get is 320x256. Cropping 8px off of each end as manono mentioned would make it 320x240. So, doubling that would give 640x480 which is the size just recommend.

just as I think I've got it though, the question of square/non-square pixels comes up and I usually give up at that point. I'll give this a go though and see what happens.

Thanks a lot chaps.

[hech54]

When I "make" videos from scratch to upload to YouTube....it's always 640x480 that I upload.

[budwzr]

640X480 and PAL are similar AR's, and Manono made the point that YouTube has nothing else to offer. YT jumps from 480p to 720p so it's a moot point.


ToneWheels: "Isn't the PAL aspect ration different form Youtube's? "