Is there any way at all to get a 960 x 540 video to upload HD on youtube?

[JediRift]

I recorded a couple videos in 960 x 540 before testing them by uploading to youtube, and found that once they were actually uploaded and processed, youtube is only giving the max playback option as 480p, and it looks horrible! However, on my computer the same video looks crystal clear despite the 960 x 540 resolution.

I really want to salvage this video footage and get it on youtube looking clear and clean. I will then move on and run smaller test clips until I get a better workflow.

For now though, how can I convert/upload/etc. this excellent looking 960 x 540 video footage and get it on youtube looking as nice as it does on my PC? Is there a way?

Here is an example of one of the videos, and as you can see it was uploaded over 13 hours ago, so I can only assume it has processed it as much as it will. I was under the assumption it might convert to 1080p as it is qHD, but alas, it has remained at 480p:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeCl-W14J_I

It looks very pixelated and terrible and has a max playback of 480p. Again, this same video when played from my computer looks flawless!

[Zee530]

I think YouTube only supports 144, 240, 360, 480, 720 and 1080p, so I think by uploading a 540p video it was downrezed to 480 ( the nearest supported resolution ), you'll need to upload the video to 1080p in order to get all resolution.... I think.

[JediRift]

But how can I convert it? And won't that just stretch out the video and make it look bad?

[pippas]

Resize the video to 1280 x 720 to force You tube to generate an HD version

[JediRift]

Resize the video to 1280 x 720 to force You tube to generate an HD version

How? Any free programs that will do this effectively and retain the quality?

I tried this program and the video looked poor quality after it was converted, it had tons of artifacts and looked bad:
http://download.cnet.com/Free-MP4-Video-Converter/3000-2194_4-75628166.html

[videobruger]

Try Vidcoder. Use a Constant Quality of 18 on Settings -> Video tab and set Width to 1280 on Picture tab.

[JediRift]

Try Vidcoder. Use a Constant Quality of 18 on Settings -> Video tab and set Width to 1280 on Picture tab.

Thank you, I remembered that I had Sony Vegas 10 on my old computer and transferred the file to a drive and then brought it there. It's rendering now and I think it might work nicely as the preview looks good.

I bookmarked Vidcoder though as I might install it on this PC.

Thanks a bunch!

[Adithya]

Try Vidcoder. Use a Constant Quality of 18 on Settings -> Video tab and set Width to 1280 on Picture tab.

Actually Youtube does'nt bother with width, they look for height so you must set the height to 720 for 720p.

[videobruger]

Actually the source is 16:9 so wether you set width 1280 or height 720 the result is the same, 1280x720.

[Adithya]

Just pointing out....