Sunday, May 20, 2007

how to upload a video to YouTube

I'm sure this is ground well covered by many already, but I thought I'd frame this discussion of how to upload a video to YouTube with a couple notes for Cinelerra users. I finally got around to uploading a test video on YouTube, and the process is pretty simple:
1) create an account on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/signup)
2) confirm your account by clicking on the link that will be sent to the email address you specify
3) title, describe, tag and categorize your video to be uploaded


4) choose the file and make it public or private


5) click Upload


The list of file types YouTube accepts are .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .MPG. Though they do specify that the recommended, least problematic file type and specification is:
- MPEG container format
- MPEG 1 or 2 video compression
- 320x240 resolution
- MP3 audio

This first video I uploaded did not conform to the above MPEG specifications. The video I uploaded had the following format:
- QT for Linux (MOV) container format
- 720x480
- MPEG4 video compression
- MPEG4 audio

So it looks like YouTube uploader is pretty forgiving on file types. That will make us Cinelerra users MUCH happier, because we already have enough file format and playability difficulties to worry about! In fact, the second time I uploaded this test video, I had chosen a project format of 1280x720 resolution, rendered that size video and the upload STILL worked. Nice!

The largest video you can upload is 100MB and it cannot be longer than 10 minutes. After you've uploaded the video, it will take a bit of time to be show up and be displayed in your account. This Sunday, it took about 15 minutes for my 59 second, 6.6MB video to be available for viewing. Not bad!

So here's my test video in all its ragged glory: