How-to: Compress Video For YouTube / H.264 Explained : Indy News

Griffin reports on The Dark Knight Rises, "A Conversation With My 12 Year Old Self," cheap lighting tips from Dave Knop and Ryan Connolly, and how to successfully export and compress video using H.264 for YouTube.

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[KevTCC]

Finally!! Thanks for giving the details of your compression settings. I've seen dozens of videos about how people export their videos for upload to YouTube. This is the FIRST one that has included the bit rate. Thanks!

[DuramaxLP]

I like the precise and clear way Griffin explains things he reminds me of Data from Star Trek

[indymogul]

That should be expected. Bitrate is directly related to file size, so if you make the frame bigger, but keep the bitrate the same, the encoder will use a lower quality to keep the file size the same too. So your size stays the same, but your quality changes. (A "good" bitrate for 720 video might be "low" quality for 1080.)

[indymogul]

I used Windows Media Encoder for a long time, and it's still useful inside companies that can only play WMV files. (These days, I wouldn't be surprised if WME actually uses H.264 to compress WMVs.)

[indymogul]

Yeah, that's the part that I've wanted to know more about, so I'm glad I finally did a side-by-side test!

[indymogul]

For some reason, the last adapter I bought didn't work well, so I made my own. Very similar to the adapter I made in the iPhone Videography episode, if you can solder, it's easy to make your own adapter from XLR to 3.5mm.

[indymogul]

That's to be expected. Most DSLRs these days shoot in H.264, but many editing programs edit in a larger file size. (It's not necessarily a bad thing. The larger files are easier for the computer to manipulate.)

[indymogul]

That's a good question, that a lot of people are asking. Although I'm glad FCPX can edit H.264 natively, many editing programs can't. It's important to use the the codec that your editing software likes. For Final Cut Pro 7, that's ProRes. (Often when you capture video from your camera, the editing software converts it into the native format.) Some may need to convert to an appropriate format before editing, but for most of us, leave the compression until the video is ready to be published.

[indymogul]

You're right: 2 Mbps means your 60-second file should be 120 megabits, and (divided by 8) is 15 MB (megabytes). The files are always a little bigger because there's audio too, but that seems bigger than it should be.

[indymogul]

Is your footage interlaced, or are you encoding an interlaced file by accident?

[ElEscolta]

Woa, all this time, while rendering my videos I pass over this option. H.264 just make my life simpler... Thank you Griffin,

[KingdomJackFantasy]

Griffin, you're the best thing that has happened to Indy mogul since BFX got cancelled. No wait, you're way better, i've learned so much. Keep up the awesome!

[indymogul]

I rarely misspell graphics in my videos, but I did today! Let me know if you catch it.

[TheDeathbyPurple]

Just changing my bitrate from 6 to 2 saved me a MASSIVE amount of space. thank you.

[indymogul]

No, DVDs have a very specific Mpeg-2 standard. H.264 is designed for HD video, and DVDs are standard definition.

[indymogul]

Sometimes, on the web, you'll see little jagged lines appear in video (like a comb)—especially during fast motion. That's interlaced footage. Standard definition video and 1080i use interlacing as a way to increase the perceived framerate by mixing lines from consecutive frames of video. It's meant for watching on a TV, so interlaced video looks weird online. So if your footage is interlaced, you'll want to deinterlace it before uploading to YouTube. (Many conversion programs have this option.)

[indymogul]

16x9 is an aspect ratio, meaning the video is 16 units wide, compared to 9 units tall. (That simply means it's widescreen, like most high definition video.) Standard definition is a 4x3 aspect ratio, and when uploaded to YouTube, doesn't fill the full 16x9 frame.

[indymogul]

Depends on what software you're using. In Final Cut Pro X, you can encode Proxy versions of your files (lower quality), and in the preferences, switch to Proxy editing mode. When you're done, switch back, and you can export the full-quality end product.

[HeeroXYZ]

This was a great video, this is why I come back every time

[MYCRAZYPRODUCTIONS]

Dang when you said you were going to make an episode you weren't kidding I thought you were gonna mention something for like 30 seconds in like a month but you got right on it. Thanks for that I work in premiere and I found out what I was doing watching this my settings were at 30mb/s for 1080 footage and watching this showed me that all I need is 6.5mb/s. Alright long story short Thanks so much Griffin this is a huge time saver.