Youtube Upload, increase quality/control (HQ hack obsolete)

[bayme]

it appears that beginning on May 20 youtube is re-encoding all uploads. My flv uploads that used to stay unencoded, are now being reencoded to LQ. However, this person on YT has managed to upload HQ STEREO even after May 20. Take a look at their recent posts (after May 20). What is the trick?:

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=miraclemilktea

look at the three recent uploads- they are flv, but why did they remain in hq?

Well clearly he's using some type of time hex-editing.

[SpongeFreak52]

Can anybody confirm this? It doesn't "stop" the video, it just freezes...

[Zfree]

Well clearly he's using the time hex-edit again.
( See https://forum.videohelp.com/topic336882.html )

It's funny how the old tricks work again after they've changed things

Did anyone test the hex-edit trick yet?

If it works that confuses me...how is YouTube checking the files? Since the non-hex-edited videos are already <350Kbps.

[mikejf]

I'm also hoping someone can test the hex edit method again and let us know if it's working. But I downloaded one of his vids with clipnabber, reuploaded to TY, and it lost stereo. Why? I thought clipnabber downloads the exact file. I uploaded that exact file, which must have the hex edit, and TY plays it back in mono (which is lq right?)

[lugiadoom]

Hi everyone I'm new to this forum. Please forgive me for my bad English as I am not native speaker.
I'm quite interested in this topic so I tried to upload a video today.

When the video was just available (less than 2 minutes after upload success), it was in original quality (strangely successful in uploading that FLV, it's 372kbps in total and I didn't use the hex trick). But few minutes later when I view that page again it got reprocessed...OMG

I would like to report my success at first, but it's useless now...anyway here it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4TLzXYvKT8

* EDIT: Hex trick is useless now. I uploaded the same video, this time using hex trick, but the duration did not change. So it got reprocessed again..

This is a record. http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/5946/sshot20080525140517de2.png

[deadnendo]

miraclemilktea blogged that now he can't get videos without re-encode in YouTube too.
http://www.stardustdust.jp/my_flyff/2008/05/youtube_8f01.html
# This blog is in Japanese.

[mikejf]

miraclemilktea blogged that now he can't get videos without re-encode in YouTube too.
http://www.stardustdust.jp/my_flyff/2008/05/youtube_8f01.html
# This blog is in Japanese.

yes, it seems YT servers in japan started re-encoding on May 24, rather than May 20 for USA. His latest uploads are re-encoded, the video is not bad, but audio is mono.

[lugiadoom]

I see, so we can give up YouTube now. The quality already sucks, but now even worse.

[mikejf]

yep I give up, what's the next best video hosting site? dailymotion looks good, and now plays HD!

[babymammoth]

I see, so we can give up YouTube now

yep I give up, what's the next best video hosting site?

Guys i don`t like this attitude.
Better think and work hard.

The good news is that bypass re-encoding is still possible.
I give U a clue ..., make such video that YouTube Meta Injector (or "radar as u call it) accepted video
and YouTube encoder will crush on encoding.

As well as FLV container try MP4, i`v managed to send straight MP4 encoded with h.264 and
get video untouched ! (but audio became mono, - strange!?)

sorry for bad English, greetings from Poland.

[frifox]

yeah, i though of that and tried messing with metadata, changed pretty much all i could but still LQ.... anybody else wanna give it a try?

btw, i used FLVTool2 to do the above

[babymammoth]

actually hex editing is not even necessary, the main trick work itself.
but hex editing helps to achieve better results, (i used PSPad http://www.pspad.com/en/ it`s free)

the FLV1 files stay with unchanged video and stereo sound,
it`s 2 days passed, YouTube encoder can`t work and Meta Injector is blind.

I will publish my method after next video,
my YT channel exist for political purposes.

All successful videos i`m keeping as private for some time.

over ...

[frifox]

maybe you can share which part of the metadata the encoder trips on?

[babymammoth]

I discovered that on wierd aspect ratio injected into meta data YT encoder didn't touch video.

I`v posted a new movie, so now i can give some links.

new one is about special agent "Bolek" aka Lech Walensa

http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=43SjYfznGVQ

this one is below 350 kbps (341) and normal duration.

earlier tests, from 27 May:

HQ (uploaded 27 V 2008 19:27:04 PDT)
http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=ZflQduE_kho - extended duration (black frames, high bitrate)

HQ (uploaded 27 V 2008, 17:28:06)
http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=viDuWIJVhYM

But there is problem to generate thumbnails for videos, i hope to find a fix.

[frifox]

wow, thats interesting, worth taking a look at... but i took another approach

i uploaded 2 files at the same time. first one is normal <350Kbps FLV. the second one is the same file but i hex edited it and set DataSize (the 24bits after 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 part) for first video tag to zero. i left metadata untouched.

interestingly enough after uploading, the normal one got converted to LQ after 10 mins, but the second hex'ed one is still HQ after 3hours. i'll double check tomorrow

HQ Vid (uploaded May 28, 2008, 08:50 PM Pacific):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L0pbhXHvvQ

[babymammoth]

Great! clever way.

There seems to be many ways for bypass. YT checking algorithm is leaky

My discover was that width <= 16 stops encoding (and of course <350)

16x576 - 80080120112622222223FFFF31110111

this one - http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=43SjYfznGVQ
dimensions actually are 2x64
probably thats why thumbnails are messed up.

[frifox]

aww, it still went LQ after about 7 to 8 hours..... but those 8 hours definitely tell me that youtube was a bit glitched by the hack lol

maybe a more carefully modified FLV will last longer than that

[Golgota]

frifox, when i upload my jackie chan review using the same VMuTube, it's still in HQ but only if u add &fmt=18.

it's me: http://www.youtube.com/user/TESSIOviral

can u add me as ur friend, i want to watch ur private vid.

[frifox]

thats because by adding "&fmt=18" you are watching youtube's MP4 version of the video... which is 480x360 with stereo audio.

[Golgota]

thats because by adding "&fmt=18" you are watching youtube's MP4 version of the video... which is 480x360 with stereo audio.

hmm... seem that i need to use new method (hacking using hex editor) this one not my talent, but i wish i could try.. so how does the new method? should i hack the file like
u did? thnx again fri..

[astin]

Great! clever way.

There seems to be many ways for bypass. YT checking algorithm is leaky

My discover was that width <= 16 stops encoding (and of course <350)

16x576 - 80080120112622222223FFFF31110111

this one - http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=43SjYfznGVQ
dimensions actually are 2x64
probably thats why thumbnails are messed up.

i used PSPad and changed width, but still re-encoded after 10 minutes

[babymammoth]

maybe a more carefully modified FLV will last longer than that

Yes don`t give up. keep testing and looking for new way.

i`m still working on my "w16" (width=16) method.
I created a new account for HQ experiments - http://youtube.com/ZorgPoland
don`t want to mess this with politics.

Recent HQ stereo uploads: (real dimensions 480x360, injected 16x576)

http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=bMDIsvMs6z0 - Global Warming Swindle
http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=1M5E3Y2LYPs - Star Wars trailer
http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=bCRFiLW40Qo - Pictures and stereo sound

Generating thumbnails is still big issue, guys any idea how to resolve this problem?

[mikejf]

maybe a more carefully modified FLV will last longer than that

Yes don`t give up. keep testing and looking for new way.

i`m still working on my "w16" (width=16) method.
I created a new account for HQ experiments - http://youtube.com/ZorgPoland
don`t want to mess this with politics.

Recent HQ stereo uploads: (real dimensions 480x360, injected 16x576)

http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=bMDIsvMs6z0 - Global Warming Swindle
http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=1M5E3Y2LYPs - Star Wars trailer
http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=bCRFiLW40Qo - Pictures and stereo sound

Generating thumbnails is still big issue, guys any idea how to resolve this problem?

all three playing good for me, with HQ video quality and stereo audio- nicely done! I see you got up to 3 minutes with the Global Warming video, have you tested 4-5 minutes yet? FYI, when play ends, and I click PLAY to play again, the video distorts to the actual 16x576, with nothing but a thin strip in the center! However, if I toggle the full screen button, it's back to normal. When it first plays it's ok, so that's good.

Have your tests found out that YT encoder is completely skipped? or do the they eventually get re-encoded?

[frifox]

ok, i'm here to report my findings... during the experiments i think i found the way youtube *checks* for duration.


1. i've uploaded 11sec vid and had youtube recognize it as 1hr vid (extend duration), which of course got rejected cuz it was too long.
2. i also faked 11sec into 13sec movie (extended by 2seconds), plays just fine.
3. lastly, i uploaded 11sec vid and had youtube recognize it as 9sec video (shortened duration by 2sec). also plays just fine


finally, both 2nd and 3rd vid are still up in HQ after 9hours, with correct and not-distorted thumbnail... apparently youtube's metadata injector passed them through, but their encoder choked on them

PS: i didnt touch the metadata, its all real and valid


shortened duration (uploaded May 29, 2008, 11:12 PM Pacific):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_JQ5b9Uygo

extended duration (uploaded May 29, 2008, 11:39 PM Pacific):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0pG6KpSnAY

[mikejf]

thanks frifox, I'm testing your new method now, will report back...

[mikejf]

firfox, what are the hex characters are just before the duration? I'm testing a 4 min video (flv made with VMTube) and can't find similar hex codes from your test vids

[frifox]

it depends... its a bit different for every vid

but to point you in the right direction, i highly suggest you read the "Video File Format Specification Version 9" document from Adobe, especially the "The FLV File Format" section . well, i've studied it and thats how i came up with the method lol

LINK: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flv/pdf/video_file_format_spec_v9.pdf

[Golgota]

it depends... its a bit different for every vid

but to point you in the right direction, i highly suggest you read the "Video File Format Specification Version 9" document from Adobe, especially the "The FLV File Format" section . well, i've studied it and thats how i came up with the method lol

LINK: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flv/pdf/video_file_format_spec_v9.pdf

how does it work Fri, can u help me, promise not to tell anyone.. thnx in advance.

[frifox]

i'll give it a shot....

for the first video (11sec faked into 9sec), for the last 2 seconds of the video i set a timestamp of 00 00 00 (which is zero) to all video/audio packets...

for the second video (11sec faked into 13sec), i picked a random packet in the middle of the video and set its timestamp to 13sec.


from the experiments i concluded that youtube scans the whole FLV for all video/audio packet timestamps and uses the largest value as the "duration"... and as far as HQ, i can only assume that youtube's encoder cant work with FLV's containing packets with abnormal/invalid timestamps, and therefore simply leaves our FLV file untouched


PS: anybody knows of a tool/script that can modify ALL timestamps, not only the keyframe ones, easily? cuz doing it manually with HEX editor is a pain in the arsch

[SpongeFreak52]

Interesting. Sounds like it's worth a try. And you were sounding so secretive on YouTube. :P