YouTube Woes

[Nekias1]

I've been lurking for the past few days - great forum.

I've been trying to upload videos to YouTube without much success. I have a 1.3MP Webcam. I first tried capturing via the built-in software to a wmv file format - no good. Then I used the built-in software to save to an avi file format and used nchsoftware Prism to encode to an MP4/MPEG/MP3 - no luck on youtube, but just for kicks I uploaded to Photobucket and the video looks fine (apart from poor lighting, poor input quality, and my poor skill levels) Most recently, I tried capturing the video by nchsoftware Debut in MP4 container, MPEG4 video at avg bitrate 768kbps/1024 max in a 640x480, 30.0fps, YUV format - still no success.

In all cases, the video and audio are terribly out of synch and the video is choppy.

The video appears normal and fluid on my computer.

You can check out my lack of success on YouTube here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B0KifDvQbY
And on Photobucket http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a207/MrFixit_eh/?action=view&current=in_christ_alone.flv&newest=1

Thanks for you help,

Steve

[minidv2dvd]

why not just upload the original avi. the more you re-encode the worse the quality becomes. as long as it's under 10 minutes, and 2GB - youtube should accept it.

[Nekias1]

The origininal AVI file 3.2 GB, which is too big for YouTube.

STeve

[minidv2dvd]

then try one of the many free tools listed to convert the avi to x264 .mp4 with aac or mp3 audio. mediacoder, handbrake, etc. use a high bitrate maybe 3-4 mbps to maintain the quality level.

[Nekias1]

I'm not having the best of luck today. Tried Handbrake with the H264/AAC settings and I got a dumpfile instead of a converted video. Their help file indicates that H264 with AAC results in a known problem. The MP4 output allows only a choice between AAC and AC3 codec. Next I tried media coder. The conversion appears to take place, but when I click on the file, I get the message, "Error 2041 - invalid sample description was found in the movie (203153.mp4)."

Who knew it would be so difficult to upload to YouTube.

Steve

[minidv2dvd]

are you sure you have the proper codecs installed? both handbrake and mediacoder allow mp3 audio in an mp4 container with 264 video.

try installing x264 and lame (mp3). reboot. set the video encoder/codec to x264 in the encoder guis.

[MJ Peg]

What's the frame rate of the original AVI from the supplied software?
Try installing Video GSpot to give you the low down on what's in the file.

Did you keep the frame rate the same with the Prism conversion? The FLV played in the browser on Youtube is 6.025fps according to GSpot - and it's not like Youtube to change the framerate if it's one of the standard ones.

The FLV looks like it is 1fps or less when watching it, and VLC says it is 12fps... something very odd is going on!

It wouldn't hurt to install Media Player Classic and VLC player to give you a few more playing options - make sure you have the right codecs etc.

[minidv2dvd]

mediainfo is another good program to identify a video's characteristics.

[MJ Peg]

I just remembered I used to get crummy conversions sometimes from Prism until I ticked an option box for "Use FFMPEG first" in decoder options - press Prism's Options button and look at the bottom of the Conversions tab.
Do try that before you give up!

[Nekias1]

I haven't had much time to play with this - middle of a bathroom reno. I had previously installed Xvid codec and LAME MP3 codec. How can I check to make sure the download was successful? I don't see anything under 'start', 'programs' which would resemble a codec - this is all new to me.

I downloaded GSpot and opened up the original AVI file. It shows the following: Codec=Video YUY2; Name=YUV packed 4:2:2; Status: No Codec Required; Len=4:30:636; Frms=8,091; kbps=98145; Qf10.68; Pic/s=29.896; Frames=29.896; 640x480; sar=1.3333 (4:3); par=1.0(1:1); dar=1.3333 (4:3); Audio=PCM Audio 44100Hz 1411 kb/s tot (2 chnls) No codecs required.

In the version which I recorded with Debut software, GSpot is showing the following: isom: Container=MP4 Base Media v1 [IS0 14496-12:2003] - iso2: MP4 Base Media v2 [ISO 14496-12:2005] - mp41: MP4 v1 [ISO 14496-1:ch13]; Audio Codec= mp4a: MPEG-4 AAC LC; 44100Hz 128 kb/s tot , stereo (2/0) ; Video codec=mp4v; MPEG-4 Video; Lens=4:28.233; Frms=5,328; kbs=643; Qf=0.140; Pics/s=15.000; Fames/s=15.000; 640 x 480.

Steve

[Nekias1]

So I guess the question is 'How do I know if the required codecs installed correctly on my computer?' Where do you go to check?

I don't see anything under 'start', 'programs' which would resemble a codec - this is all new to me.

Steve

[MJ Peg]

The AVI sounds like a better bet than the Debut one which only has 15 frames per second, that's for sure! Although, 29.896 sounds a bit strange as most cams anywhere near that figure are usually either 29.97 or 30.0

Try the Prism convert with the FFMPEG option ticked, and see how that works - if not, what does GSpot have to say about that result?

[Nekias1]

Ok, so I took the original AVI 3.2GB file and converted it again using Prism with FFMPEG encoder option ticked. The file plays nicely on my computer, but once uploaded to YouTube - it sucks like lemons.

GSpot says: 28.1MB file size, Container=isom: MP4 Base Media v1 [IS0 14496-12:2003]
- iso2: MP4 Base Media v2 [ISO 14496-12:2005]
- mp41: MP4 v1 [ISO 14496-1:ch13]
Recommended Display Size: 640 x 480
Audio Codec=mp4a: MPEG-4 AAC LC; info=44100Hz 128 kb/s tot , stereo (2/0)
Video Codec=mp4v, name=MPEG-4 Video
Len=4:31.662; Frames=8,022; kbps=741; Qf=0.081; Pic=640 x 480; Pics/s and Frames/s = 29.89

Growl, growl, and double growl.

Any suggestions besides throwing out YouTube
Steve

[Nekias1]

YouTube Help Files reports this for Out-of-synch Audio after uploading:

Out-of-sync sound is usually the result of using an audio codec that our system doesn't support. We're always adding new ones, but if this happens to your video, you can try re-encoding it with a different audio compression. We recommend MP3 audio for best results.

Using Prism, I select Output format=mp4. Under Encoder Settings, I select MPEG4 for video compressor. Audio compressor has 'AAC' but it's greyed out so it can't be changed to MP3. So what's the deal with that? Does that mean that the MP3 Codec is NOT installed on my computer, even though I thought it was? Or should I be using a different compression software?

STeve

[MJ Peg]

I'm glad Prism made a playable version at last - if you want mp4 video and mp3 audio then try the AVI container option - the MPEG4(Native) selection gives you a choice of audio options, among them mp3 - and I've used that with success on YouTube using 44100 Hz, 320k Stereo.

And I get the same sort of results on Vimeo - http://www.vimeo.com/6872650 was made with VideoPad (from the makers of Prism - NCH) using exactly those settings : AVI / MPEG4(Native) at 9000/9000 / MP3 (44100 Hz, 320k Stereo) - although Vimeo plays a bit choppier than YouTube in the browser for some reason (the downloaded file in the browser cache plays well in VLC or MPC)

[Nekias1]

Yeah, success at last.

I used Prism with the AVI container tab to select MP4(xvid) video and MP3(native) audio. It compressed the file to 74MB, and the file plays quite nicely on YouTube.

Thanks for your help,

Steve

[MJ Peg]

Hooray!
Where are you on YouTube? - can't find you since you deleted the first one