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76 P a r t I I Producing Your YouTube Videos

Note

Learn more about uploading videos in Chapter 13, “Uploading Your Videos
to YouTube.”

Note

While YouTube currently uses the FLV format for standard playback, it uses
the 3GP format for playback on most mobile devices, and the H.264 for-
mat for playback on Apple’s iPhone and iPad. YouTube is also testing the
WebM format for future playback in the HTML5 world.

That said, some original file formats convert better to the FLV format. If you have a
choice, here are the formats and resolutions to use:

• File format: MPEG-4, MPEG-2, or H.264
• Resolution: 720p or 1080p
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 widescreen
• Length: Up to 15 minutes
• File size: Up to 2GB
• Audio format: MP3
• Frame rate: 30 frames per second (FPS)
Although these are the recommended specs, know that YouTube can accept just
about anything you throw at it, so you’re best to work with the original file format,
resolution, frame rate, and such from start to finish through the process, rather than
converting midstream to MPEG-4 or whatever. That’s because you lose a little
something each time you go through the conversion process; you’ll get worse
results if you reconvert a file in another format to one of these formats.
You should also keep the same resolution and aspect ratio throughout the entire
video production process. That means you shouldn’t change formats when you
move the video from your camcorder to your video-editing program, or anywhere
else in the process. Keep the original file format, the original codec, the original
frame rate, and the original resolution. Every time a conversion is made, some qual-
ity is lost; knowing that YouTube will make the final conversion, don’t add to the
degradation.
You should also work with the highest available quality that your equipment and
software allow. Remember, YouTube will downgrade a higher resolution picture, but