Making videos questions.

[Puke]

I have Adobe Premier Elements 2.0 and am trying to find the best format to export.
I guess the best is the MPEG2 format which seems to have the best audio and picture.

I don't know, it just has too many options. I need a button that just says [Youtube].

[FTL_Ian]

Mpeg2 is what you need if you are submitting to Cheshire TV.

[Puke]

Mpeg2 is what you need if you are submitting to Cheshire TV.

I found the info on Youtube that said MPEG 2 or 4 is best for them. So I guess that's what I'll use.

[Tom Sawyer]

YouTube will stomp on it and make it look like crap... jeez I hate that it has come to be the defacto distribution format. Black becomes gray, compress artifacts, can't handle fine detail and fast motion... urgh, ugly.... don't get me started.

[Puke]

As the video guy, what format and resolution do you use?

Youtube just happens to be the best way to distribute the stuff.
If America ever gets a fiber network then maybe the video sizes and quality will increase.

[Tom Sawyer]

My problem is that I think even full resolution NTSC video is pretty weak. Haven't gotten a chance to do much in HDTV, but anyway.

I output using Quicktimes latest codec, H.264 it is great quality and pretty small file size. 480 pixels wide.

But, the point I was making that by the time YouTube is done running it through a blender it is pretty tore up. I used to hate doing high quality work and then distribute it on crappy VHS. Now it is worse, thinks should get better as tech. progresses not worse.

The secret to decent looking web video is to minimize small details, steady camera work, no fast motion... all these things are hard to compress.

The problem is when the hosting is free, they want a small file size to keep cost down. In my view free sucks, I'd rather pay and get quality. The large audience of YouTube is appealing, and the universal format of Flash is compatible with most everyone, but it sucks.

See, I told you to not get me started.

[Puke]

Well shit!
It is true that digital stuff looks and sounds like crap.

Those vids I took in Afghanistan on a $100 (In '03, mind you.) piece of shit toy camera sound horrible in the first place.

If I export from Premier Elements using Quicktime it sounds like I was dragging my camera through mud with a belt sander.

NTSC. That's what US TV's use right? And Europe is PAL?
I could just google that I guess.

[Tom Sawyer]

Yeah NTSC is the US TV standard that comes from the freakin' 50s. It is disconcerting to find out, hey I want a strong red color, nope can't have it, outside the "color gamit", gee I'd like to be able to see all the color range I see in photoshop, nope those colors are "illegal". Can't have good rich blacks, below 7.5% luminance "illegal".

Like I said, "Don't get me started.'

[Ron Helwig]

You might look into http://blip.tv/ - I know some web guys that like it for screencasts because they can have an 800x600 video that lasts 30 minutes or more, unlike youtubes 10 minute limit with crappy resolution.

Ah, limit of 1GB:

23. Is there a limit on the size of the video I can upload?

You can upload videos up to 1GB in size, but we recommend that you keep uploaded videos to 100 MB or less for a number of reasons. Check out Freevlog and the blip.tv learning center for help with making your videos smaller without sacrificing quality. We can't guarantee that videos over 100 MB will work well for everybody, and very large videos may not transcode to Flash successfully.

Other ones that I am aware of, but don't necessarily recommend include:

• http://www.brightcove.tv/
• http://www.dailymotion.com/
• http://video.google.com/
• http://www.guba.com/
• http://www.imeem.com/
• http://jumpcut.com/
• http://www.lastfm.com/
• http://www.livevideo.com/
• http://www.metacafe.com/
• http://one.revver.com/revver
• http://www.sevenload.com/
• http://www.spike.com/
• http://www.tudou.com/
• http://www.veoh.com/
• http://www.vimeo.com/

(That's basically the list that Drupal sites, like http://ridleyreport.com, can easily embed.)

So no, you don't have to use YouTube 

[Tom Sawyer]

Thanks Ron.

[Puke]

Yeah NTSC is the US TV standard that comes from the freakin' 50s. It is disconcerting to find out, hey I want a strong red color, nope can't have it, outside the "color gamit", gee I'd like to be able to see all the color range I see in photoshop, nope those colors are "illegal". Can't have good rich blacks, below 7.5% luminance "illegal".

Like I said, "Don't get me started.'

No kidding? That goes along with an article I read on KenRockwell.com about aspect ratios and such.
When standards go wrong I guess.

And thanks for the info Ron.

[KBCraig]

You might try smugmug.com, too.

[FTL_Ian]

To YouTube's credit, there is now a "high quality" option which is far preferable to the original quality, and recently they have enabled an HD option.  I'm shocked it is this soon, but competition must have kicked their butt in gear.

Ahh, and now I know Roger is a *real* videophile!