MP4 vs M4V (for Apple/YouTube)

[Alain2007]

I am rendering some files to post to YouTube and have tried 2 methods so that they are Apple ready.

1. Convert AVI to M4V using QuickTime Pro.
2. Rendering as MP4 my Vegas project (using iPod setting).

The result (in sound and image) is quite comparable but the M4V file is half the size. Thus I am tempted to go with the M4V files.

Has anyone else experimented with this?

[Ai Haibara]

Actually - just as a side note - .m4v files are also .mp4, so both of the methods are really just converting to MP4, but with different settings. (Apple primarily seems to use a handful of different extensions to help its software (and hardware like the iPod) differentiate between types of MP4 files a little easier. (Such as .m4v=video, .m4a=audiobook, .m4p=protected iTMS track, etc.) It should still work if you rename the extension to .mp4, though. )

I'm probably wrong, especially now with YouTube's recent changes, but doesn't YouTube often tend to re-encode everything submitted, anyway? In that case, a smaller file size might not make as much of a difference, unless you're trying not to exceed their filesize limits.