X3 H.264 YouTube Presets

[nzhikozaemon]

I edit video mainly for YouTube and originally purchased Ulead VS11 because of the excellent selection of H.264 based YouTube presets you could choose from, that produced video in higher quality and with smaller filesizes than i could replicate in any custom setting.

Just after the release of X2 (VS12 Plus here in Japan), YouTube added a number of new video formats that made these standard settings largely pointless. They enabled 16:9 widescreen video, in 360p, 480p, 720p and 1080p.

I have found some good custom settings with WMV files that make nice clear vids, but the file sizes are still very large. So I was looking forward to seeing the updated "YouTube" output settings on X3. I feel a bit let down.

We are given the stark choice of either 720p widescreen (which is a nice and logical standard format) or 480p in 4:3 aspect, like the old version. Nothing more. In manual settings, it seems 16:9 aspect is only customizable for 720p or 1080p output settings, lower aspects are forced into 4:3 aspect.

The thing is that 90% of people watch YouTube vids in 360p widescreen, so unless the video calls for a need to show 720p detail, for normal vlogs, a 640x360 output is all I need, and the H.264 codec would save a lot of space in comparison to the WMV files I am making.

Am I missing something? Is there a workaround to enable H.264 encoding in widescreen formats below 720p? Given the wait, and that this is the main reason I chose VS, it is disappointing to not have more comprehensive YouTube friendly settings, or at the very least the ability to be able to create my own custom settings....

[Black Lab]

No matter what you send Youtube they are going to convert it to their own specs. I have found that simply uploading the best quality file (DV-AVI, MPEG2) that fits into YouTube's size requirements results in very good quality.

[mitchell65]

Check out You Tubes recommended settings and I think you will find that VS X3 You Tube choices pretty much matches. I found the HD settings came out very well and not a bad file size.

[nzhikozaemon]

Thanks for the responses.

The H.264 based codec and 5000kbps bitrate is almost YouTube native which means it goes live pretty much unconverted - the 720p YouTube preset is an excellent default setting to have.

What disappoints me is that YouTube allows uploaders to choose from up to 8 sizes of video image: 360p, 480p, 720p and 1080p in 16:9 or 4:3.

Although the aspect ratio is fixed at whatever the video is when it is uploaded, the viewer can now use a selector at the bottom of the YouTube player to select which of the four available resolutions they want to view in. The higher the uploaded resolution, the more choices appear. That is to say, if you upload a 1080p file, you get to choose to watch in 360p, 480p, 720p or 1080p, whereas if you upload a 360p file, you cannot select a higher resolution to view - which is to say YouTube only downsizes videos, it doesn't upsize them.

The problem with viewing 720p and 1080p video at full resolution is that even here in Japan, these often can't be viewed without pausing the video and leaving a long time for it to buffer. This is why YouTube always sets the viewer default to the LOWEST resolution and allows users to select higher resolutions themselves if their bandwidth is up to it.

Most videos uploaded onto YouTube nowadays are uploaded in 16:9 aspect, and most of those videos are watched in 360p mode, even if higher resolutions are available (480p tends to be the best compromise of streamability and file size). For a nature documentary, or screen captures, it makes sense to buffer and try to watch the vid in a higher resolution, but for video blogs, resolution isn't really an issue - I can upload in 720p but very few people will be interested enough in checking my skin quality to select that. This is why I upload most of my vlogs in 640x360 format encoded using WMV.

While the YouTube preset 720p produces smaller files than my 360p WMV files, which I love, it also reminds me of the fact that where I am making a 150MB file in MP4, If I could select 640x360, I could probably render the vid and upload it much more quickly, and only have a 30-40MB file to deal with.

X3 offers only two of the available 8 video resolutions for YouTube. And while the 720p option is very nice, it is disappointing that they don't provide for the two most popular viewing resolutions which are 360p and 480p widescreen. This is all most people actually need and it would save a lot of hard disk space to have them as options. At the very least, I was expecting that I could make such settings myself in custom settings.

Is it something to do with Corel not having the necessary codec licenses to allow 16:9 encoding in SD formats, or them just not understanding how YouTube's video formats work very well? (apologies for the long post)

[Black Lab]

And I reiterate, don't use the YouTube presets. Render the video to the highest quality video you can, in the aspect ratio and resolution that you want, and let YouTube do the conversion.

[nzhikozaemon]

I understand you, and that would be a great idea if I had unlimited hard disk space and time. Why force us to make a 150MB HD file when all I need is a 40MB SD file?

Corel could just make everyone happy by offering a more useful range of customizable H.264 output options. 720p in H.264 is still a smaller file than the 360p in WMV that I am used to, so I will use it, but it is frustrating that Corel will not allow users to make smaller files using this excellent codec.

[metmot]

And I reiterate, don't use the YouTube presets. Render the video to the highest quality video you can, in the aspect ratio and resolution that you want, and let YouTube do the conversion.

I second (or is it third?) the motion.

I just bought a 1tb hard drive for well under $100 US.

By the time I fill that baby up they'll probably be less than $50.

Let's see, that's about 4000 of those 150 meg files. Although I can sympothize with the upload times if you're doing a ton of the.

Ain't this a grand time to have a hobby like this? Don't worry be happy!!

Can you link us to some of your videos to check out on youtube nzhikozaemon ?

[Ron P.]

And I reiterate, don't use the YouTube presets. Render the video to the highest quality video you can, in the aspect ratio and resolution that you want, and let YouTube do the conversion.

I second (or is it third?) the motion.

I just bought a 1tb hard drive for well under $100 US.

By the time I fill that baby up they'll probably be less than $50.

Let's see, that's about 4000 of those 150 meg files. Although I can sympothize with the upload times if you're doing a ton of the.

Ain't this a grand time to have a hobby like this? Don't worry be happy!!

Can you link us to some of your videos to check out on youtube nzhikozaemon ?

I also picked one up, which including my 2 internal HDDs gives me a total of 2tb space. (1-external 500Gig, 1-external 1-tb, 2-internal 250Gig).

[nzhikozaemon]

Thanks Metmot - I too am on a 1TB HDD, and yes, they are cheap but I still try to avoid wasting space if I can

I think the moderator is implying I should upload hi-res vids and delete them from my HDD. Problem is that YouTube can be a playground for bored hackers and I've spent a lot of time and effort building up my channel so I like to keep backups of my vids - I've seen what can happen. To that end, file size matters to me, as I think it should anyone who does video for the web.

I messaged you my channel - feel free to check it out

Like I said the 720p setting is great, but it is just frustrating as hell knowing that with the same codec, I should be able to get what I want with a file the quarter the size, and no one has yet been able to explain any good reason why Corel limits our ability to customize in this codec.

[Ron P.]

Nobody will be able to explain why. Corel does things, several that make no sense, and doesn't feel the need to explain why. I've posed several "why" questions to them, and to date, remain unanswered.

[Black Lab]

I think the moderator is implying I should upload hi-res vids and delete them from my HDD.

And you are referring to me? Where on earth did you get the impression that I said to delete the files after uploading? And, FWIW, I keep all my videos that I upload, and I don't have a TB worth of HD space.

[nzhikozaemon]

Black Lab - yes, and I'm not criticizing or anything, I am just trying to understand your suggestion that I shouldn't try to upload small files but instead upload large files and let YouTube reencode the smaller resolution file for me (YouTube only scales down vids, not up). All I want is a low resolution vid in most cases, so sending YouTube huge files to make small in their own encoding process seems wasteful.

Take an example - I rendered a 6:42 video in Corel's 720p mode just last night. It came out beautiful, but 220MB. I post vids weekly, so at 220MB a week and 400gb left, and given other uses for my PC, I can't go on like this for a year without either adding an HDD or deleting my files. I was presuming that not many people let their computers fill up with 200MB+ backup files. Sorry to misread your intent.

I think the best way is probably to capture the vid from YT to save as a backup - it won't look as good as the original, but there are chrome plugins that allow me to capture a 360p mp4 file from YouTube. It won't look as good as it could if I could encode in that resolution myself, but it gives me a backup and saves disk space. It's a pain, and feels like an unnecessary additional step, but it will probably extend the life of my HDD a lot more.

[Doug2006]

I have been putting videos up on You tube for a couple of years now. I started out with an analog camera and then to digital, and last week I ordered a Cannon Hv30. I have found that for music videos filmed live, a lot of the quality came from getting good sound, using a good tripod with fluid head, and a decent camera position in the audience!

As for presets in VS x3 I just use the mp4 h264 one. This reduces the size of the dv from the camera to around 30 to 40 megs for a 3 minute song. I find that on the computer monitors we have there seems to be no difference between the 500 meg avi file and the 40 meg finished file. And mentioning computer monitors, I have discovered that some of them make the picture look great and others ruin it. So a good monitor is important for the overall viewing experience. I wonder how many people are watching these you tube videos with monitors that are just plain bad.

Here are two that I recently put up with the mp4 h264 file.
http://www.youtube.com/user/unique3phas ... TcV6O_a3c8
http://www.youtube.com/user/unique3phas ... M1M2Qop_AQ

[mitchell65]

Hi Doug2006
Much enjoyed you two videos. Although in the UK this is very much my kind of music. Thanks for the links

[mrtsherman]

Hey, great post. I totally agree with what your request. I couldn't help registering and posting a reply because I absolutely hate it when I post a problem, have legitimately explained my problem and people come back with stupid replies like "just don't do that." Congratulations on being patient.

I also want to generate lower resolution h264 encoded widescreen videos for both youtube and for internal videos for my work. The videos we produce are multi-hour seminars and converting, storing and sharing extremely large files is a pain. It seems our only choices are 4:3 video, mpeg2 or high resolution h264. To answer your question, I do not think it is possible to generate a custom resolution h264 encoded video. The ability to do so would be great.

Here is a thought on a workaround though. There is an option to use Same As First Clip. Maybe if we found a section of black video in 16:9 low resolution h264 we could choose that option and trick Corel into rendering what we want. I am going to go try finding one.