StarBest Formats for Uploading
YouTube can accept almost any video format for upload, but for most users we have found the following settings give the best results.
Video Format: H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 preferred
Aspect Ratio: Native aspect ratio without letterboxing (examples: 4:3, 16:9)
Resolution: 640x360 (16:9) or 480x360 (4:3) recommended
Audio Format: MP3 or AAC preferred
Frames per second: 30
Maximum length: 10 minutes (we recommend 2-3 minutes)
Maximum file size: 1 GB
MPEG
Short for Moving Picture Experts Group, and pronounced
m-peg, is a working group of the ISO. The term also
refers to the family of digital video compression standards
and file formats developed by the group. MPEG generally
produces better-quality video than competing formats, such
as Video for Windows, Indeo and QuickTime. MPEG files
previously on PCs needed hardware decoders (codecs) for
MPEG processing. Today, however, PCs can use software-only
codecs including products from RealNetworks, QuickTime or
Windows Media Player.
MPEG algorithms compress data to form small bits that
can be easily transmitted and then decompressed. MPEG
achieves its high compression rate by storing only the
changes from one frame to another, instead of each entire
frame. The video information is then encoded using a
technique called Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). MPEG
uses a type of lossy compression, since some data is removed.
But the diminishment of data is generally imperceptible to the human eye.
The major MPEG standards include the following;
* MPEG-1: The most common implementations of the MPEG-1 standard provide a video resolution of 352-by-240 at 30 frames per second (fps). This produces video quality slightly below the quality of conventional VCR videos.
* MPEG-2: Offers resolutions of 720x480 and 1280x720 at 60 fps, with full CD-quality audio. This is sufficient for all the major TV standards, including NTSC, and even HDTV. MPEG-2 is used by DVD-ROMs. MPEG-2 can compress a 2 hour video into a few gigabytes. While decompressing an MPEG-2 data stream requires only modest computing power, encoding video in MPEG-2 format requires significantly more processing power.
* MPEG-3: Was designed for HDTV but was abandoned in place of using MPEG-2 for HDTV.
* MPEG-4: A graphics and video compression algorithm standard that is based on MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 and Apple QuickTime technology. Wavelet-based