Weird YouTube encoding with HQ/HD

[greg400]

Alright, i'm getting incredibly irritated with YouTube at this point. Their methods make no sense whatsoever. Whenever I upload a 1280x720 video with the EXACT same bitrate and codec used, the &fmt=35 version on the HD video always looks better than the video I uploaded at 854x480(480p, YouTube's large player size) with the &fmt=35 tag. No matter what I change, this is ALWAYS the case. I'm encoding in iMovie 09 with the H.264 codec at 10 mb/s.

It's almost as if YouTube is removing an entire field of video from the 854x480 video. It's as if they think they need to deinterlace it by removing either an odd or even field even though it's captured in progressive scan.

This is just ridiculous and frustrating. Someone please explain to me why the HD high(meaning putting &fmt=35 after the video url) quality looks so much better than the high quality 854x480 video.

EDIT: For people who come across this thread with the same problem as mine, instead of uploading in the 854x480 resolution, upload with 960x540. For whatever reason this does not happen with videos you upload at 960x540 despite YouTube's player size being 854x480(So if your video is 640x480 upscale it to 720x540 for better video quality). Go figure.[/u]

[MOVIEGEEK]

Someone please explain to me why the HD high quality looks so much better than the high quality 854x480 video

Because it's higher resolution?

[greg400]

Someone please explain to me why the HD high quality looks so much better than the high quality 854x480 video

Because it's higher resolution?

No. They are both viewed as 854x480. I thought it was pretty clear that they are both playing in the &fmt=35 mode which is the SAME resolution. The issue isn't resolution here. It REALLY irks me when people don't even read the thread and just assume they know what they are talking about. If that was the answer do you honestly think I would post a thread on this?

[Lassar]

I think a lot of times they deinterlace it when they should not.

I have been trying to upload in 640x480 avi or mp4 format; progressive videos.

In YouTube, they play at 640x480 and looks terrible. I have reproduced the effect using deinterlacing.

How do you upload these properly ?

[poisondeathray]

you use another website like vimeo , blip.tv

[greg400]

I think a lot of times they deinterlace it when they should not.

I have been trying to upload in 640x480 avi or mp4 format; progressive videos.

In YouTube, they play at 640x480 and looks terrible. I have reproduced the effect using deinterlacing.

How do you upload these properly ?

You have to upscale those 640x480 videos to 720x540(845x480 should be upscaled to 960x540, etc.)before you upload them to YouTube. If you do that, they shouldn't have that deinterlaced appearance. They still haven't fixed the problem and that's the only fix I found.

[Lassar]

The funny thing is when I convert the movies in Microsoft Movie Maker it works good.

Otherwise it looks terrible.

What gives ?

[greg400]

The funny thing is when I convert the movies in Microsoft Movie Maker it works good.

Otherwise it looks terrible.

What gives ?

Most likely a problem with YouTube and the H.264 codec.

[Lassar]

When I upload to YouTube the video created with Movie Maker using custom profile it looks very good.(640x480 Wmv format)

Link to the video.

Why does it not work with AVI, or Mpeg4 for me ?

[greg400]

It's because of the way YouTube encodes their 480p videos. Their 360p, 720p and 1080p videos are all encoded in H.264. The 480p and videos uploaded in 640x360 are the lone exceptions and are encoded in flv. It probably just re-encodes the WMV file better because it's closer to flv, although I stay clear from that god awful codec at all costs so i'd say just upscale them like I previously mentioned.