Why is my YouTube video bad quality?

[vid83]

This is a common question and the most common answer that I've came across is "increase the bitrate".

I've tried bitrates up to 10,000 kbps and all the videos uploaded looks the same. I've tried converting to wmv, mov, avi, mpeg-4, xvid, H264 avi, H264 quicktime and I still get bad YouTube quality.

I am frustrated because some people on YouTube have good YouTube quality without having to click on the "watch in high quality" button.

The video looks great on my end but bad after uploading to YouTube.

What should I do other than increasing the bitrate? I want people to be able to watch my videos without having to click on the "watch in high quality" button.

My source is standard definition miniDV NTSC 720 x 480 widescreen mode.
When I encode, I use a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio and 640 x 360 size.

[aedipuss]

one way to get a better looking video on youtube is to shoot with the cam on a tripod, minimize panning and zooming, and shoot stationary subjects. the standard converted flv on youtube doesn't have a high enough bitrate to support anything else.

[SatStorm]

What they say to you, is wrong.

Filter hard your source before. Blur it, smooth it, etc. Yeah, it won't look great on your PC - But on youtube it gonna look ok.

encode to x264 or xvid for better results.

[Stunner]

I use best quality mpeg2 format on my software and it works fine.

[vid83]

What software are you guys using?

I've tried Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 (adobe media encoder), winnff, virtualdub, and Magic Video Converter and all gives me the same quality. I've spent all day Wednesday trying various settings with no acceptable results. People say get a good quality camcorder but my camcorder is good qualty (Canon optura). When I view it on TV and on the computer, it looks very crystal clear.

Here is a sample video of mine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl0AYR3_1lw
This was exported by Premiere Pro 1.5 uncompressed and converted by Magic Video Converter to xvid, 1200kbps, file size is 5.7MB.
This is the same video xvid, over 2400kbps (file size is 11 MB): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5PBoVT1Xww
This is the best I can get.

[Starkian]

youtube is not about quality , it's about quantity ! For youtube your videos look ok (high quality version). People can say a lot about getting a good camcorder or videos but if the video look clear before sending it , it's this video that matters.

As getting quality on youtube's normal quality is asking too much as youtube's high quality is just low level quality.I've seen music videos from official source (Universalmusicgroup,polydor) that looks crappy

[jagabo]

All high compression codecs get a large part of their compression by not including portions of the picture that don't change from frame to frame. That is, there will be an occasional keyframe which encodes the entire picture like a JPG image, followed by many frames that only encode the differences from frame to frame.

Your video has most of the problems that defy that type of compression. Lots of camera motion (shake, rotation, panning, zoom), wind blowing the grass and trees, and your video was probably noisy to start with.

[Soopafresh]

Upload your video to Vimeo.com and be done with it:

http://www.vimeo.com/videos/search:Canon%20optura

Edit: I just watched the Youtube video in High Quality. It's not that bad, considering what it is. I've seen a lot worse. As Jagabo mentioned, the flat grass and helicopter blade movement is always going to look bad on low bitrate youtube.

[vid83]

I have another question rather than starting a new post.

I usually upload wmv files to YouTube but I was told on here that wmv is a highly compressed file and it will get compressed further on YouTube. I've also read or been told to use H264, MPEG4, or xvid. In my experience, wmv gets me the same or better quality than H264, MPEG4, and xvid.

Why should I use H264, MPEG4, or xvid over wmv? Is it less compressed than wmv?

Also, if I use H264 or MPEG4, what kind should I use: .avi or quicktime?

[aedipuss]

youtube takes about anything for source material now. you can upload DVavi or HDV straight from your cam if you wish.

to make HD yt vids you need to have 1280x720p at a bitrate over 5mbps so a high compression codec is needed to keep the file size down and at this time youtube recommends using h264 with aac audio. so that's the way i've been uploading them.

[Soopafresh]

The HD Youtube quality is pretty impressive.

Compare the standard def with the HD version. It's all about the bitrate that Youtube uses to transcode your video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NAMAQxKspo#

[zoobie]

has anyone uploaded m2t to youtoob?
I guess it'd have to be pretty short...

[minidv2dvd]

yeah, i did. i upped some footage straight from a cam 1440x1080. the tube only made the HQ vid not the HD vid i was looking for out of it and the aspect ratio wasn't quite right. converting it to 1920x1080 mp4 worked out better.

[jagabo]

You'd think Youtube could afford to higher some programmers who know something about video. It's lame that they can't handle something as simple as aspect ratio flags.

[stansvid]

i have posted the identical video (a 100 MB mp4) to both vimeo (vimeo.com/19277862) and youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jImNs6dw6o) and the youtube looks awful. what can i do, if anything, to improve the youtube?

[vid83]

stansvid,

Maybe render your video at higher bitrate?

I've noticed that since my original post in 2008, the quality on YouTube for regular YouTubers (non-Partners) have improved significantly.