Exporting out to YouTube!

A common question I get asked in regards to my YouTube videos is this.. "What settings do you use to compress them when you upload them to YouTube?"

So here is my answer :)

First off, I edit on a mac, with Final Cut Pro. When I am done editing my video, I.....

1. Export it out as an MOV. file.
2. Open it with the computer program "compressor".
3. I then use a custom presetting that I made and apply it to the video. I have this setting saved in my compressor custom setting box so I can always grab and drop it onto the video, then export it out. Here are the settings that I use to export out for youtube, at 1080p.

Export Custom Settings:
Audio Encoder
AAC, Stereo (L R), 44.100 kHz
Video Encoder
Format: QT
Width: 1920
Height: 1080
Pixel aspect ratio: Square
Crop: None
Padding: None
Frame rate: (100% of source)
Selected: 23.976
Frame Controls On:
Retiming: (Fast) Nearest Frame
Resize Filter: Linear Filter
Deinterlace Filter: Better (Motion Adaptive)

Codec Type: H.264
Multi-pass: On, frame reorder: On
Pixel depth: 24
Spatial quality: 75
Min. Spatial quality: 25
Key frame interval: 30
Temporal quality: 50
Min. temporal quality: 25
Average data rate: 5.12 (Mbps)

So there you have it! That's how I export out to YouTube. I even use these settings when I shoot a video at 720p, and what it does is it up scales it to 1080p, so it will look better for those who want to view it at 1080p :)

I've done a bunch of testing and research with these settings and this has worked the best for me, if you have any other tips with exporting out videos, of things that have worked for you, feel free to leave them in the comments below :)

The bottom line is the most important thing to do is shoot the video right in the camera, because exporting it out in a high quality wont save it at all. However if you did shoot it right to begin with, it makes it look all that much better :)