# Video Compression for Youtube?



## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

Hi Friends
I want to upload my video to Youtube, and I'm wondering what compression program ehMac people find useful. 

The features I'd really like would be:
- The ability to convert the audio to MP3.
- The ability to see what the predicted finished file size is going to be, before I encode/convert it.

Are you happy with what you're using?

My video is 4 minutes long and 980 MB. 
The Youtube maximum file size is 100 MB, no matter what the length of the video.

Thank you.


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## Vexel (Jan 30, 2005)

Youtube Formats

Hey Soy, it looks like they pretty much take the most common formats. You should be fine saving your video as an .mpg or .mov.

AFAIK, none of them allow the audio to be .Mp3 when combined with the movie. But, if you just want an .mp3 track made from the video.. that's easy enough. It can be done with quicktime.

As far as I know.. I can't think of a way to estimate what the filesize will be after conversion. But, someone else may have a solution.


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## wtl (Mar 15, 2006)

How did you edit it together? iMovie or FCE/FCP?

In iMovie you have a few export options - YouTube ideally wants the video in 320x240 size @ 30 FPS.

Most of the default settings in iMovie's Share will predict how big the files will be. You can use the Share (Control-Command-S) then Select advanced to pick your encoding, but it won't guess how big it will become.

If you want to turn the audio into MP3, you'll have to extract the audio and then convert it into MP3. I don't know how to do this in iMovie, but in FCP you can just select the audio and export it as aiff. I then use iTunes to turn it into MP3s.


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

I made the video in FCP.

I'm using a very good, free compressor program called "MPEG Streamclip".
http://www.squared5.com/
This program allows me to set many parameters, but the main problem is I can't see the finished file size until the conversion is complete.
I made about ten conversions before I found one close to but less than 100 MB.
This is a pretty time-consuming method of finishing the file for upload. 
So really, the element highest on my wishlist is the ability to see what the finished file size will be, without having to go through the entire conversion process first.

BTW, just for anyone's curiosity, according to Youtube's FAQs, 100 MB will take over 8 hours to upload on a highspeed connection. I guess I should have started my upload at bed time!


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## jonmon (Feb 15, 2002)

i used isquint with success


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

Thanks jonmon, for the iSquint tip!

I just finished a careful comparison of *iSquint* http://www.isquint.org/ and *MPEG Streamclip* http://www.squared5.com/.

My impressions:
*iSquint* is very simple but affords the user several parameter choices under the "Advanced" button. It's straightforward and easier to use than *MPEG Streamclip*, but I found that *iSquint* took longer to create the compressed file than *MPEG Streamclip*

Although its interface is a bit more complicated, I believe that *MPEG Streamclip* gives the user the best quality file after compression. There were more choices provided with *MPEG Streamclip*, and this allowed me (after much time-consuming trial-and-error, unfortunately) to create a file as close to the Youtube 100 MB file size limit as possible.

Neither compression program allows the user to predict what the finished file size will be, without actually producing the compressed file. I find this to be a major drawback to both programs.

My progress so far; 
I have produced and attempted to upload a 97 MB file to Youtube. 
After a ten hour attempt today, there seemed to be no success at uploading the file. :-( 
On the Youtube upload page, the in-process circle icon kept spinning. 
There was no progress bar or any other method on the Youtube upload page to see if the file was actually uploading.

I restarted the upload tonight, and will re-check it in the morning.


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## ice_hackey (Aug 13, 2004)

Try medium compression, and reduced framerate.
10fps is high enough for the web, IMO.


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## Suite Edit (Dec 17, 2003)

What about Apple's Compressor? It shows you the estimated file size and allows you to tweak all the settings for the highest quality encoding possible...


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

Suite Edit said:


> What about Apple's Compressor?...


Do you mean the pro app that came with FCP Suite? 
Unfortunately I found that program to be completely unusable. Not that it might not do what what it's supposed to, but even going through it with a manual, I couldn't figure out how to use it.

Or do you mean another Apple app.?


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## wtl (Mar 15, 2006)

Compressor is a bit tricky, but it does work very nicely. Compressor is included as part of Final Cut Studio (and I think it came in with FCP 4.5, but I'd have to check the box to see).

What I like about it is just how much control you have over how your video is compressed - if you are into that sort of thing. ;-)

I suppose one of these days I'll have to do a demo of FCS at ByMUG (one o fthe user groups here in town). 

Video compression is tricky stuff - which is why when an application estimates how big a compressed file will be, sometimes it is impressively wrong.

For an easy example, consider a video of a white wall, and an equal in length video of a tree. The video of the tree will be freakishly larger, because of the content of the video.


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

wtl said:


> ...I suppose one of these days I'll have to do a demo of FCS at ByMUG...


I'll be there like Mike Duffy at a buffet!

The good news is that on the third attempt, I got the video to load up to Youtube.
The bad news is how compressed it looks  .

But here it is, and if you watch carefully, you will see ( at least ) three members of ehMac in this video.  

Please View Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaNnqIJ1ZiQ


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## wtl (Mar 15, 2006)

SoyMac said:


> I'll be there like Mike Duffy at a buffet!


Hahaha. Okay, fair enough. ;-)

They crunched your 100 MB file down to 10.4 MB (Check Safari's Activity window).

I even subscribed to your channel, so I can keep an eye on what you put up. ;-) One of my videos looks terrible as well, but that is because it is a time-lapse video of Taking a PowerBook apart in 35 seconds.


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

wtl said:


> ...They crunched your 100 MB file down to 10.4 MB (Check Safari's Activity window)....


I'd read on another site that Youtube further compresses our files, but 10.4 MBs from 970 MB original file?! :-( 
Anyway, what do I expect for free, eh?  

I subscribed to yours as well. 
And I see on Youtube, a bunch of other Ottawa producers lurking.  
Maybe I'll try to get some meet-ups going. I always appreciate others' experiences working with FCP, and just video on Apple in general. :heybaby:


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## Suite Edit (Dec 17, 2003)

Hey SoyMac, this is a bit of a diversion... but I seem to remember you were asking about cartoon effect a while back... I JUST stumbled upon this little tutorial from another forum. It's not perfect, but good to keep bookmarked 
http://www.bbalser.com/tutorials/CartoonTutorial.mov


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## Guest (Jan 28, 2007)

Nice find Suite Edit. :clap:


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## wtl (Mar 15, 2006)

I've been considering starting up a FInal Cut Studio user group (like in Toronto or elsewhere). Certainly, the market is smaller, but I still think there are enough FCP users to get it moving.

I'm certainly no FCP expert - but I do use the app to make part of my living.


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## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

wtl said:


> I've been considering starting up a FInal Cut Studio user group (like in Toronto or elsewhere). Certainly, the market is smaller, but I still think there are enough FCP users to get it moving.
> 
> I'm certainly no FCP expert - but I do use the app to make part of my living.



I'm in


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## Guest (Jan 28, 2007)

wtl said:


> I'm certainly no FCP expert - but I do use the app to make part of my living.


I fall into that same category myself


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## mcoltezo (Mar 14, 2005)

Suite Edit said:


> Hey SoyMac, this is a bit of a diversion... but I seem to remember you were asking about cartoon effect a while back... I JUST stumbled upon this little tutorial from another forum. It's not perfect, but good to keep bookmarked
> http://www.bbalser.com/tutorials/CartoonTutorial.mov



Hey Suite Edit and Soy Mac and everyone....

Very interesting reading about getting on Ytube. I'm going to be looking at that in my future as well. Very fun watching your dogs romping and playing. They're so agile! The birds were cool too! 

Thanks for the link to the cartoon tutorial!! VERY COOL! I'm a fairly new FCP user (3 small projects so far) and it's such an amazing program. And, tutorials realllllly help. So, Thanks! 

Good luck with the video compression.
M


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## Suite Edit (Dec 17, 2003)

I'd totally be up for a FCP group in Toronto!

I was re-reading the thread, and it struck me as odd that a 4 minute video should even be CLOSE to 100 mb...

I just finished the rough cut of a promo video and had to deliver it to the company's web developer. Using Apple's Compressor software (FCS) with H.264, 1544 kbits/sec, 29.97 fps, AAC audio, 640 x 480 *progressive* turned out at 55.3 mb! And that's 5 minutes long! The compression is ultra-clean and is perfect for the developer to turn into Flash video. It was just a slight tweaking of a preset.

Perhaps you should look to h.264 instead of mpeg?


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

Suite Edit said:


> ...cartoon effect a while back... I JUST stumbled upon this little tutorial from another forum. It's not perfect, but good to keep bookmarked
> http://www.bbalser.com/tutorials/CartoonTutorial.mov


Wow! That was a fantastic tutorial, very clear and concise, and the effect is exactly what I am looking for!
This tutorial even ansered some _other_ questions I had about FCP. 

Thanks, Suite Edit! :clap:



Suite Edit said:


> ...I was re-reading the thread, and it struck me as odd that a 4 minute video should even be CLOSE to 100 mb......Perhaps you should look to h.264 instead of mpeg?


 I did select h.264 as the compression mode to produce the mpeg 4 file. The reason I outputted mpeg 4 is because that's the file Youtube recommends on their help and suggestions page. 

I used the free program called MPEG Stream: http://www.squared5.com/

I'm not knowledgable about file types, so I might be doing something very very wrong.


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## wtl (Mar 15, 2006)

Suite Edit said:


> I'd totally be up for a FCP group in Toronto!


It already exists - tofcpug.com - Toronto Final Cut Pro User Group


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## ps1 (Jun 24, 2006)

*SoyMac - what camera are you using?*

SoyMac:

Just looked at the video nice work.  

I'm curious as to what camera you used to capture the video. At the moment I've been using our Canon SD800 IS to take videos and have been experimenting with iMovie. I'm still early in the process of learning about making and producing your own videos. I must admit iMovie is so easy that I've been somewhat drawn into the process of creating my own videos. 

At the moment I'm working on the sharing challenge and have been trialing .Mac and like others view the pricing as being out of wack with the value. The only benefit I can see is really the one-click simplicity of being able to quickly post your final product. I've tried YouTube a couple of times and find that the smaller versions and compression don't produce the same video quality as .Mac. Any other suggestions that people are using for video sharing?


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

ps1 said:


> SoyMac:
> 
> Just looked at the video nice work. ...


Thank you!  



ps1 said:


> I'm curious as to what camera you used to capture the video. ...


I used a Canon ZR 500. I've had a few ZRs over the years and I really like them.


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