Compressing Large Files for YouTube

Question

Compressing Large Files for YouTube

Hello:

Have a client that needs some 45-55 minutee videos uploaded to Youtube. It doesn't need to look high quality as it's just for members to view the footage and choose clips for the final edit.

I shoot in HDV 1080i. Normally I make a quicktime movie and from there I send to Compressor and create a Youtube file that I can upload. the most recent video I made was 8.3 GB, then I sent to Compressor as I normally do with my movies and made a Youtube movie that was 2.5 GB...although I still had problems uploading that one.

DO I do a Quicktime Conversion to lower the size? If so, what are the ways I should make it to get it in teh 1-2GB range? Any thoughts?

Scott

MacBook Pro, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on Aug 25, 2013 3:31 PM

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Answer 1

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Aug 25, 2013 4:31 PM in response to It's A Wrap Video

You must be using one of the earlier versions of Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Express.

Whichever is the case, export a Quick Time Movie, current settings. Don't use QT Conversion.

Bring that file into Compressor and use the 1080 You Tube preset. It will de-interlace and transcode your movie to an acceptable size. If you want 720 instead of 1080, turn on Frame Controls and set the Resize Filter to Best.

In the Encoder, Video Settings, change from Download to Streaming.

Russ

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Answer 2

Aug 25, 2013 4:57 PM in response to Russ H

Thanks, Russ...that's my normal process. Any ways to shrink it further? Have you ever uploaded 2.5GB size movies to Youtube. I already upgraded my internet to 50 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload. that's the max I can get from my home office, but it's still a chore.

I use FCP7 and Compresser 3.5.3

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Answer 3

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Aug 25, 2013 5:48 PM in response to It's A Wrap Video

It\'s A Wrap Video wrote:

Any ways to shrink it further?

Once you've decided on the codec (nearly always a variant of h.264 if it's going to the Web) then there are really 3 ways to reduce file size: 1) Resolution; 2) bit rate; 3) Frame Rate (which you should seldom do.) Try reducing the bit rate in Encoder>Video>Settings. Mark a short selection in the preview window and do a test encode for quality.

Have you ever uploaded 2.5GB size movies to Youtube.

Yes. I don't recall it being that painful, but if i were under a tight deadline, I might recall differently.There are 2 steps - each which takes time. First, you upload to the YT site; second, YT recompresses according to their proprietary algorithms.

Best of luck with your project.

Russ

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Answer 4

Aug 25, 2013 11:55 PM in response to Russ H

So, I used the normal QT movie and Created a YouTube File for uploading and changed the Compressor Quality to "Low" and the Size to 1280 x 720 and Encoding to "Faster".

The file that WAS 2.5GB is now 1.7 GB. Uploading to YouTube now and think it is should work....Quality didn't look too bad when I watched it, so this should be good.

As for Uploads...is anybody else taking 10+ Hours to upload a 50 minute/2GB file to YouTube? Again, I have the max upload speed I can get at my home (Time Warner 5 mbps). any other suggestions to speed this up? It's killing me! 🙂

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Answer 5

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Aug 26, 2013 9:23 AM in response to It's A Wrap Video

It\'s A Wrap Video wrote:

As for Uploads...is anybody else taking 10+ Hours to upload a 50 minute/2GB file to YouTube? Again, I have the max upload speed I can get at my home (Time Warner 5 mbps). any other suggestions to speed this up? It's killing me! 🙂

That's painful. I have the basic 5 Mbps FIOS upload service and if I uploaded a (720P @ 10 Mbps) 30 minute video I would expect the upload to take about an hour.

First I'd run a speed test. Second, I'd talk to the ISP.

Good luck.

Russ

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Answer 6

Aug 26, 2013 8:04 PM in response to Russ H

I have 50Mbps+ download and 12Mbps+ upload. A 1080p 2GB+ video take about 30 minutes to upload to YouTube.

I have one question... do you have a YouTube account that allows you to upload a 50 minute video? Regular YouTube accounts only allows a 15 minute video to be upload.

(Usually any thing that is under one minute, I send the ProRes version instead of compressing to h.264.)

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