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When I wrote my first YouTube post 4 months ago entitled “How to Encode Your Videos for YouTube’s New High Quality Option” , I would never have thought YouTube would make the move to HD resolution so quickly. They went from a maximum resolution of 480×270 directly to 1280×720! I’m sure this change has caught many off guard and everyone is now scrambling to get their videos converted to HD to take advantage of the awesome new quality settings being offered. Many users that are new to HD or encoding for YouTube are probably wondering where to begin. This guide will attempt to explain the new changes in detail and show you how to encode your videos for YouTube HD.
YouTube HD Specs
I downloaded a few YouTube HD videos (Using the Firefox extension DownloadHelper) and used MediaInfo to peek under the hood to find out all the juicy technical details. I have seen many sites speculate on the data rates and resolution of the new format but few are reporting accurate information.
Video
- 1280×720 at 29.97 progressive (other framereates like 24, 25, 30 should work as well)
- H.264 codec in MP4 wrapper
- Variable bit rate averaging 2mpbs
Audio
- AAC
- 44.1 kHz Stereo
- Variable bit rate from averaging 100kbps – 256kbps
So yes, for everyone wondering, YouTube is really in HD. Next I will show you how to encode your files…
Recommended Settings for Your Videos
If you haven’t read my previous post, please do so now. This new guide will give you the settings to use, but will not go into the same level as detail as the previous guide. Most of the basics about preparing your videos are the same and there is no need to repeat it here. These instructions are only for 16:9 HD resolution videos. If your videos are 4:3 Standard definition, the settings in the first guide still apply. I do not recommend upscaling 480i/p videos to 720p.
Depending on the encoding software you use, certain settings may not be available. If you are unsure of what to do, please post your question in the comments of this thread. If you would like me to encode your file(s) or give you custom settings for your workflow, please contact me at webvideotechniques@gmail.com
Now open your favorite encoding software, import your source file and enter the following settings.
Video
- 1280×720
- 29.97 FPS Progressive (Note: use whatever frame rate your source file is set to. As long as it is progressive it should be ok.)
- H.264 codec in MP4 wrapper (I recommend the Main Concept encoder if you have access to it, otherwise x264 will be fine)
- Set your data rate from 4000kbps to 8000kbps (Higher data rates in the source video will give the YouTube encoder more data to work with)
- Enable 2 pass VBR encoding if it is available
Audio
- AAC (Use MP3 if AAC is not available)
- 44.1kHz Stereo
- 256kbps data rate
I have tested these settings using SUPER, Handbrake, Sorenson Squeeze and encoding directly from Sony Vegas. I set all of the settings as close as possible and was able to get acceptable results from all of them (although there was some slight issues with each application which I will discuss in a later post). My source file was a AVCHD 18mbps 1920×1080 30p file which I converted to a JPG 99% QuickTime video prior to encoding since AVCHD was not supported across the encoders.
These settings should produce a 10 minute file well under the 1GB upload limit. The file I encoded was 43 seconds and the encoded filesize was anywhere from 39 – 43MB depending on which software I used.
I have attempted to embed the HD version of the video below. If it does not show you the HD version, go to the following URL and make sure you click the “Watch in HD” link at the bottom right under the video player.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf_PtJeTbuI&fmt=22
Were you able to obtain great results with this guide? Have a question about encoding or other video topic? Please be sure to post your feedback in the comments.
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69 Comments
Wow that video looks amazing in fullscreen. I’m so happy YouTube has offered us this amazing new feature, and just in time for me as I get (Back) into encoding videos (Encoded TV shows in the past, basic deinterlacing and cleaning up and now getting back into it for recording Xbox).
Thanks for the information!
What about the file size? Youtube has a 1GB
limit and I create music videos etc. So using this process makes the file size larger than Youtube allows. Is there a way to compress for lower file size and get a High quality
widescreen video?
@Philip
What length files are you uploading? You should easily be able to keep your file size under the 1GB limit encoding to 4-8Mbps. What encoder are you using? What size are your files coming out at?
@VideoPro
Well I use Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0
I use Quick time Encoder and the files I encode
are usually from 4 to 6 minutes long.
I recently encoded a file in QT widescreen
and the file size was 1.10 GB. Im trying to upload that video to Youtube but it has been in the uploading process for over 24hrs now.
P.S.
Thanks for responding!
What settings are you using? I have a copy of Kelly Clarkson’s Because of You in 1080i and it’s bitrate is averaging around 16 Mbps. It’s only 405 MB and looks fantastic.
@Philip
I’m happy to help! Please post or email me the exact settings you are using to encode in QuickTime and I will make some recommendations.
Depending on your DSL/Cable upload speed, 24 hours+ may be what it takes to upload 1gb to Youtube. There’s nothing you can do about that other than upgrading to a faster internet service plan or provider.
Now as for your file’s size, 1.1gb is too big for YT and it will reject the video. I recommend setting a slight lower bitrate until you can get the file size down around 1Gb, 900Mb would be much better (but would still take FOREVER to upload, probably). If you really, really want the quality bad enough, you’ll just take the upload time like a man.
If you DON’T care about the quality all that much, you just want the HD and widescreen, then encode at a much lower bitrate (like 7500 max, 5000 avg, or less). You’ll probably get the filesize way down, to like 500Mb or less (depending on the video itself and the bitrates you choose). This would take considerably less time to upload and would probably look pretty good.
It’s your call, Phillip.
@Mark, thanks for your feedback. It ended up that Philip was using Apple Lossless for his audio codec. Changing to AAC should lower his file size drastically.
You are correct that lowering the bit rate is the proper way to reduce the file size. That would be a good thing to mention in the post.
Sounds pretty good to me. I think that if you use Adobe Premiere Elements 7, there’s no way to make a 1280×720 H.264 video in an MPEG container. You can do a 1920×1080 or a 1440×1080 H.264 video in an MPEG encoder, but not 1280×720.
Using Premiere Elements 7, you can put a 1280×720 H.264 video in a Quicktime container. I assume YouTube can handle that.
John, QuickTime H.264 would work just fine. Also, I have found that YouTube will take 1920×1080 files and scale them down to 1280×720, so as a last resort you could export full 1080p.
What about all of us in PAL land? There seems to be a problem at Google’s end when it comes to 25fps encoding. If you upload a 00:03:02:84 25fps clip, it plays fine when viewed “normally” (the duration reads 03:03 in YouTube), but when you view it in “HD”, the duration now reads 02:45, and the audio is understandably completely out of sync. Is there any good work around for this that you know of?
Thanks for the response. Do you think using H.264 encoding vs. standard MPEG video stream encoding would really make much of a difference? The advantage of standard MPEG video stream encoding for me as a premiere elements user is that I can specify a variable bitrate. With the quicktime container, I can use H.264 encoding but I only get to pick a somewhat vague quality setting that seems to translate to different CBR’s. I can pick a CBR, but who knows how that interacts with the quality setting. It’s definitely a little confusing.
I guess file sizes could be pretty different, but at 1280×720 it doesn’t seem like we’re talking about huge file sizes.
OK, I kind of take my last comment back. I did 1280×720 on an MPEG container with just MPEG coding and 2 pass VBR targeted at 8Mb/s. Ninety seconds of video was 208MB.
Then I did a 1280×720 on a QT .mov container with a CBR of 8Mb/s and a quality of 50 (whatever that means in Premiere elements) and got a file that was half the size.
This stuff sure is confusing.
Hi there VideoPro
I currently have a project that I’m working on, and the stock footage / game footage was recorded at 60 FPS, using fraps and at a standard 4:3 1024 x 768 resolution.
With such resolution, I tried to render in sony vegas, using .wmv, CBR – 5 M bitrate, with quality slider sharpness boosted to 100%, and I get an abnormally huge file size after it has renderred – at most, it takes 4 hours to render a 4:00 video that I have produced & edited.
Is there a way to maintain a small file size and still get high definition quality for youtube?
@Chris, I haven’t done any testing with 25fps source but as a general rule, I would recommend only uploading 29.97 or 30fps source for best results.
@Eric, in order for your video to be eligible for YouTube’s HD version, you must upload a 16:9 (1920×1080 or 1280×720) source video. Since your video is 4:3, I would recommend that you set your project at 1280×720 and insert your footage. You will end up with black bars on each side, but at least it will get the HD treatment. Also, I would recommend dropping the framerate to 30fps progressive and encoding to 1280×720 MP4 H.264 with AAC audio using the settings I have provided in the guide. This will give you a high quality source file at a reasonable filesize.
have you seen if you can upload a video pre-encoded at youtubes settings will bypass their encoder?
@Tim, there was one site I found that claimed they could upload without their video being re-encoded, but I was unable to repeat their method and could not confirm their results. I have been looking online for any new methods, but so far no luck. With the new 2mbps HD encoding the quality is pretty good and if you follow my recommendations, you should get good results. BTW, cool website! I just subscribed to your podcast.
Hello!
Heres is the video I was working on.
You/your site has been a great help with me achieving my desired widesceen dimensions.
Here is the URL to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5S92isV79k
“My Baby- Ajalon” (Music Video) HD
Thanks for everything!
Keep doing what your doing!
I uploaded a video according to your specs with Sony Vegas but time and time again Youtube sees the clip as being “high quality” rather than HD. I can’t figure out what’s wrong.
I’m using Sony Vegas 8.1 with the following specs:
MainConcept AVC/AAC (mp4)
Rendering Quality: Good
Custom Frame Size
Width: 1280 Height: 720
Profile: Main
Frame Rate: 25 (PAL)
Field Order: None (Progressive Scan)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1,0000
Number of reference frames: 2 (use deblocking filter)
Variable bit rate: Two pass
Maximum (bps): 8.000.000
Average (bps): 2.000.000
Include Audio: Sample Rate 44.100 and 192kbps
@Martjin – can you please post or email a link to the video on YouTube. I have not done much testing on frame rates other than 29.97/30 but I dont think that should be the problem. Sometimes the HD version takes a while to encode before it shows up.
@Tim — AFAIK one used to be able to upload videos in native FLV format using the older Sorenson H.263 codec to obtain stereo audio at the loss of video quality.. if you just did the math one used to be able to get the necessary bitrate from the maximum filesize and video length (which used to be 100MB and (10min == 600 seconds) and then with that value (60000) you could divide the number of seconds in length of your video and get the maximum bit rate per second in order to bypass YT encoders uploading in Flash H.263. So say your video was 4 minutes == 240 seconds, you could just divide 60000 / 240 and get a maximum (ceiling) bitrate of 250kbps for both video and audio. I used to do this and set my audio at 128-160k and video to come just below the threshold and could successfully bypass the YT encoders. I don’t think this is a viable option anymore as YT will now compress FLV files no matter what… but the math is the same… there could be a way in the future =)
@JD Justice – Thanks for your detailed explanation of the old FLV work around. Too bad we can’t pull it off with HD clips AFAIK.
oh and the only thing i would suggest editing about this excellent tutorial is to mention not to alter the source video’s frame rate, say if the video were 24fps to leave it there and not compress to 29.97fps. would you disagree?
thanks again
@JD Justice – Thanks for the kind words. I agree with you on keeping the source frame rate the same. I have not done extensive testing with other frame rates, but from what I have seen on the YouTube help pages it should support at least 24, 25, 29.97, and 30. I am not sure about 50p/60p. I am planning a follow up post with lots of juicy test results on different uploads and other tips for YouTube.
Will YouTube make a better video with 1920×1080 source upload file? In other words, will I see better quality on YouTube if I upload a 1920×1080 file as opposed to a 1280×720? Thanks for the great article and resource!
@Conor – The video quality will be the same or possibly less if you upload 1920×1080. If you upload at 1920×1080 YouTube’s encoder will scale your video to 1280×720. Any time you scale video, you risk quality loss and scaling algorithms are not created equal. If you scale in a professional editing application the quality of the output is likely to be better that YouTube’s version. Also, uploading 1280×720 will be much faster since the filesize will be much smaller.
The only reason to upload full 1920×1080 at this point would be to future-proof your uploads in case YouTube begins offering videos at 1920×1080. Since 1280×720 @ 2Mbps was a big leap from even the high quality formats, I do not recommend uploading any higher resolutions at this time.
Glad you like the podcast! We do what we can
.
hi
I have some questions. I want to make HD foto gallery from a musican to upload in youtube and ad one mp3 file as background music for this gallery, my problem is
I don’t know which program I should use for foto Animation gallery and this program mustn’t reencode this to hold the mp3 quality.
Can you tell me which programs I should use?
I also edit with Sony Vegas and make music videos, but experience different problems. When I upload a file with no effects, youtube shows the video y good quality. But when I make videos using green screen and filters, the quality in youtube is so bad and it looks like pixelated in big squares when you paused the video and see the details in the image.
I find other sites that say there is a bug with Youtube HD encoding in that audio aac at 44.1k will cause jumpiness, and that 48k is recommended until this is fixed.
Your guide shows 44.1k…so do you not think those bug reports are correct?
example:
http://dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=154352
Stuart – I have not noticed any issues with the files I have uploaded at 44.1kHz. If you notice any problems with your uploads, then please post your link and I will check it out and update the guide as needed.
upload with DIVX 9600kbps 1280×720(HD) with mp3 full quality. Did convert with a program called magic video converter but moving on to sony vegas soon. Want to give it a try with H264 AC3. But will my uploaded videos give me HD quality or is that something youtube has to approve later on? Only says high quality only.
And another question. If I have a source on a full lenght show on 40 min wich size is 384mb and 640×352 and I convert it to H264 AC3 9600kbps 1280×720, will it improve the quality? And if yes how? Is it because the source ones were say 1920×1080 ?
Cheers m8.
Anatolij – YouTube will only convert videos that were uploaded at 1280×720 or 1920×1080 to HD. MP4 H.264 with AAC audio is currently the best format to upload. If your source video is 640×352, it will not look good scaled up to 1280×720. There will be a considerable loss in quality. It does not matter how high you set the bit rate.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/kqzjsh is the download link for the .mp4 video I created according to your instructions, and uploaded to YouTube, but the final result http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI-lK_2Nkco is not even close to HD quality I expected. Can you please analyse and tell me what am I doing wrong?
Centarcad – It usually takes a few minutes for YouTube to encode all the versions. Glad you got it working and thanks for posting your link. In my next post I will show you how to embed the HD version in your site.
As luck would have it, as soon as I posted the previous comment, YouTube added “watch in HD” option for my video. Now the question is how to embed HD into my site?
I’m using Vegas to encode my HD video, and I don’t have an option to use AAC format for my audio. When I choose mp3, the highest quality I can get is 56 kBits/s @ 24,000hz.
It sounds terrible, do I have any other options? Or could you tell me how to get AAC encoding as an option?
You should select the MainConcept AVC/AAC (.mp4) option in Vegas.
NEED ASSISTANCE !!
Hi, everytime I select Main Concept MP4 in sony vegas , it doesnt give me the 1280×720 anymore even though my project says 1280×720 is my projects resoultion. I looked for a custom tab or details where you can change the main concepts video settings but
couldn’t find it . any clue ?!
Fuji – You will need to select the drop down for custom frame size. Here is a visual guide that should help: http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/images/mainconcept.png
If you still can’t figure it out, pls post here or email me.
Hey VideoPro,
Thanks for the help , I got it now .. I think I wasn’t selecting the Default Template so the CUSTOM tab was non-selectable but once I picked up Default it’s working now where I can pick my own resolution. thanks again for the quick guide
Hi!
Whats the best settings for rendering a Hauppauge m2ts h.264 file to an .mp4 file in Sony Vegas (720p ofcourse)
@HeXiuM – You want to render it for YouTube or another purpose? For YouTube, you should use the settings in the guide which should be available in Sony Vegas.
I was under the impression that no should you leave your destination framerate unchanged from your source, but you should also leave the resolution unchanged.
The idea being that Youtube is going to re-encode anything you send them anyway so the less changes you make to your footage before sending it to Youtube the better.
If you have 1080p29.97 source footage at 25 Mbps and Youtube converts it to 720p29.97 at 2 Mbps that should look better than you going from 1080p29.97, 25 Mbps to 720p29.97, 2 Mbps to Youtube’s own re-encoded 720p29.97, 2 Mbps.
The drawback would be filesize and upload time though.
Hi Videopro
So ive got a Blackmagic 10 Bit 720 x 576 (1024 x 576) file i want to upload for best quality to youtube.
Is this SD or HD?!
I’m really confused, cos the footage is PAL 16:9, and its neither of the recommendation listed by youtube (1280 x 720 (16×9 HD) and 640 x 480 (4:3 SD).
I exported a 1024×576 file but its taken over 6hours to upload (650mb), so I’m looking for a smaller file size that won’t reduce the quality.
The vid is 4mins5secs long. I’m ok with doing all the other settings like H.264, AAC stereo 44.1kHz, and 25fps (as it was shot).
Just really confused about dimensions, and I guess if you can recommend a bitrate.
Many thanks,
Danielle
Is the file 720×576 or 1024×576? Is it widescreen at 720×576 and you are cropping/scaling up to 1024×576?
At this time YouTube only supports 4:3 SD and HD. The HD supported is either a 1280×720 or 1920×1080 upload only. Your options are to either paste your video into a project that is 1280×720 if you want the HD option or crop & scale it down to 480×270 16:9 widescreen / 480×360 4:3 SD.
Please let me know the exact details of your source video and the settings/application you are using to encode and I will let you know what will work best.
VideoPro – Do you have a how-to using Handbrake like you do for Super? I gave up on Super and its weirdness.
@Robert – Handbrake is pretty easy to use.. you shouldn’t have any problems applying most of the same settings. I will try to post a Handbrake guide as well when I have time. Also, I have been thinking about doing a post for adding video video to your website using open source tools. Encoding for YouTube and for your own website is so different, it would be nice to have both resources available.
I’ve made a stop motion music video in WMV HD format 720p. I uploaded the original WMV file without conversion to YouTube. It was less than 200mb – took a few hours to upload but looks great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l26CNpuZPAk
@Todd – Thanks for sharing.. that video is awesome!
I’ve been uploading 1440×1080 30p 15-18Mps .mp4 videos to YouTube, should I be uploading in 720p instead? (My camcorder records 1440×1080 30i AVCHD).
My thinking was if I give youtube the file as close to the original format as possible then they would automatically upgrade it when they start supporting 1080.
Also in my video link below, Is there any truth in the comment that guy left for me about leaving blank space at the end of your video to increase, video quality?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTVp8VgQTkg&feature=channel_page
@VDUB – If YouTube is giving you the HD option on your 1440×1080 videos, then I would recommend not changing your workflow. If you decide to upload longer clips and run into file size issues, you can reduce the data rate. I have not heard anything about leaving in black space at the end of your videos to improve quality, not sure how that would effect the output files. The HD quality on your video looks fine to me.
What encoding software do others use? I have Xilsoft HD, but there is no provision for VBR or 2-pass. Thanks.
Terence
@Terence – My favorite free encoding tool is Handbrake. For paid options, I like Sorenson Squeeze, Episode Pro, and the latest version of Adobe Media Encoder. You will find advanced options like 2 pass VBR in all of them.
Thanks, VideoPro: Yes, I’m really looking for freeware. Handbrake looks great for DVD sources but I want to convert my *.mts files from a Canon HD camcorder. Xilsoft does this okay but has fairly limited control options.
@Terence – I have a Canon HF 100 (I use Pixela to take the files off the camera which renames them to .m2ts files) and I can import and encode them using Handbrake. If you are not able to read them, then try installing FFDShow first.
VideoPro – Snap! I have the HF 100 too! It wasn’t clear from the Handbrake page what formats it could open, or I probably didn’t look closely enough. If that is the case I should have no problem. Many thanks. Great camcorder!
I have source video shot at: 1920X1080, 30p at 1/60 shutter speed … exporting from Premiere cs4 through Adobe Media encoder …
Here’s my issue … doing the custom settings listed here .. .I get a video that has a choppy look to it … any ideas why?
What should my settings be for best quality on Youtube?
Thank you for your time …
@Paul – The video on YouTube looks choppy or the video plays choppy on your computer? Can you provide a link to the YouTube version?
VideoPro … thanks for the message back … when you wrote back and asked if it was choppy on youtube or my computer … I realized what I was doing wrong … it was choppy on my computer in QT … but your suggested settings are “only” for Youtube (not QT on my computer) …
… and I’m sure you know where this is going …
So, since it looked choppy in QT on my computer … I didn’t bother posting it to youtube … but that was my mistake! …
so, now I just post it straight to youtube … and it looks great!
you are … “The” Video Pro …
I use Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8.0 and I want to place my videos in HQ or even HD but more important in WD and I head over to click on the properties. I try to change it to 1280×720 but for whatever reason it won’t allow me to go past 800×600. /: Why is that? Do I need to download some sort of upgrade?
@sunnyluvs2dream – What is the size of your source video? What option are you selecting from the Template drop down? The properties window you are on is the one you get to from File > Properties on the main menu?
Hi
Now that YouTube will accept both HD and 2 gig uploads, I’m trying to find the best encoding for Adobe Premiere CS4 using H.264. HD.
My videos sometimes approach 10 minutes. I’ve been told adjusting the bitrate will help bring down the file size. YouTube requires the files be under 2 gigs.
Do you have any “preset” you can give me that will work in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. I see lots of settings available, such as VBR 1pass. VBR 2pass, Target bitrate, Maximum bitrate, etc. So I am looking for the best combination tailored to YouTube’s specs.
Thanks
Rowby
Hi all.
I am using adobe premiere elements 4. I have a 12 min video to put on a website for downloading. It was filmed in widescreen and says it is 720×576. I am trying to export as a WMV but there is no 720×576 preset. When i try to use the HD preset of 720p (25fps) the file size is 475.9. (1280 x 720)
I am totally new to this but does that sound too big?
will it take too long to download or is it ok?
should i just use the advanced tab and change the frame width to 576 (just type it in?)
If i change the bitrate to constant the file size is reduced to 60.8MB. Does that sound right?
Any help is greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance. x
Hi
I use iMovie HD 6.0.3 the 2006 edition, I’ve made a HD video, and i can’t upload it on You Tube, I export it in a QuickTimeMovie .mov in full quality, I’ve tried other setting but the visuals become low in resolution, i don’t what to do?
.mov full quality export are settings are:
Kind: QuickTime Movie
Dimension: 1280×720
Codecs: Integer (Little Endian) Apple Intermediate Codec
Total bit rate: 26,840
I just uploaded a project that uses sub-bass frequencies (60-30 Hz kick drum) to YouTube using AAC at 24-bit, 48 kHz. The sub-bass stuff is terribly distorted into a fudzzy sound. Why is that?
What is the solution?
when i submit / upload my short films to the web, they are (to me), great. hours of work looking good. then they come out on the web like crap. i have followed their instructions. any idea’s.
thanks for all your advise, grant
Unfortunately, even the HD versions at YouTube are not very high quality no matter what settings you use. If you follow my advice you should get the best quality that is possible. The goal is to provide YouTube with a high quality version that will reencode well. If you really want to have high quality videos on the web, then you might consider using a different video service like Vimeo or get your own hosting and host your videos yourself.
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