Camtasia > YouTube

[NMP]

Hi

What format and what settings do you use in camtasia to
have a trouble free upload to YouTube. I managed to get
one up but after that it just refuse to work. I use .rm as
file (doubt it matter).

Daniel

[Frank Bruno]

You need to render your video files using Camtasia in file formats such as .wmv or .avi

Frank Bruno

[Josh Anderson]

It certainly does matter.

For best results upload the highest quality least compressed file you possible can. Many times the easiest thing to do is to save as a high quality avi from camtasia and upload that. Also if you want clearest resolution capture at 1:1 ratio to the dimensions it will be displayed at.

[Marty S]

Originally Posted by Frank Bruno

You need to render your video files using Camtasia in file formats such as .wmv or .avi

Oh. I have always used FLV. Are these better?

[Frank Bruno]

Originally Posted by Marty S

Oh. I have always used FLV. Are these better?

Yea YouTube and other video sharing sites except .flv files as well.

Frank Bruno

[Josh Anderson]

Oh. I have always used FLV. Are these better?

The key is uploading the highest quality least compressed master file you can under 1gb to youtube. Generally that means an uncompressed avi file.

If you upload an flv you are uploading a highly compressed video and youtube is compressing it a second time.

The result is poorer quality. Never upload an flv if you can avoid it if your goal is better quality video.

Ignore any suggestion to use WMV... that comes from common suggestions that have been passed around the net from way back when YT only allowed 100mb file size limit and videos had to be compressed to get any decent time length up on YT.

wmv will always give you poorer quality results. There is never a good reason to upload anything to youtube as a wmv unless that is all you have.

Just stick with formats like avi, m2t (hd) and h.264 encoded mp4... but if you use any compression at all (like with h.264) make sure you use high high bit rate settings and upload the highest quality video possible.

It is uploading the highest quality uncompressed video you can under the 1gb file size limit that gives you the best results.

[Dexx]

Does using FLV matter if you aren't showing a detailed imaged video?

i.e. a powerpoint presentation etc?

I would think the quality would only come in to affect when having to read say a program's text in a video tutorial or a live-motion video...

Thought I could be wrong

[NMP]

Very Helpful!

Thanks,

Daniel

[Josh Anderson]

Thought I could be wrong

If quality does not matter to you then it does not matter.

Also note that its not the format that has the most impact but the bit rate of the master file you upload. Lower bit rate means lower quality. Generally flv files are highly compressed... thus poorer quality end result when you upload because they are being compressed twice.

Think of it like this...

You take a picture that is blurry. Then you take blurry picture of that picture.

Does it matter?

You get to decide that.

[sclarke]

Josh,

Your info is always interesting and very helpful. When are you going to finish that Optimize your video course? I think there's a whole lot of loot to be made with that course.

Thanks
Steven

[edlewis]

YouTube says the ideal format to upload is - "MPEG4 format at 640x480 resolution with MP3 audio."

Learn More : Video processing time - YouTube Help

The problem in Camtasia is, at least the version I have, is that if you choose the iPod or MP4 setting it only will make the MP4 in 320x240.

So you have to chose "Custom Production Settings", then choose .Mov/Quicktime, then below make sure the box that says "Create iPod File" is checked.

That should give you a .MOV file and an MP4 at 640x480. You should be able to upload that to YouTube and maintain quality, and it should trigger the "HQ"/High Quality button on the video eventually from YouTube....I'm pretty certain of that.

A 640x480 .wmv (.avi too)will also trigger the HQ button, which will allow users to click to watch in High Quality or if they have HQ as a preset in their account it will automatically show them the HQ version.

http://www.google.com/support/youtub...50&ctx=sibling

[Maria Gudelis]

Originally Posted by Josh Anderson

The key is uploading the highest quality least compressed master file you can under 1gb to youtube. Generally that means an uncompressed avi file.

If you upload an flv you are uploading a highly compressed video and youtube is compressing it a second time.

The result is poorer quality. Never upload an flv if you can avoid it if your goal is better quality video.

Ignore any suggestion to use WMV... that comes from common suggestions that have been passed around the net from way back when YT only allowed 100mb file size limit and videos had to be compressed to get any decent time length up on YT.

wmv will always give you poorer quality results. There is never a good reason to upload anything to youtube as a wmv unless that is all you have.

Just stick with formats like avi, m2t (hd) and h.264 encoded mp4... but if you use any compression at all (like with h.264) make sure you use high high bit rate settings and upload the highest quality video possible.

It is uploading the highest quality uncompressed video you can under the 1gb file size limit that gives you the best results.

Josh is right - I just uploaded a camtasia capture (640x480) recording via a mp4 created from 'produce video as' function in camtasia.

Uploaded the vid to youtube - and it is 'crap ' not clear at all.

So re-rendering it now as avi so it comes in much clearer.

Josh -

1. I selected custom and .avi
2. on next screen - I've got High color 16 bit selected, 10 frame rate,

and rendering - any other suggestions on the audio - stuck with the default of 63 kb/sec mono -

cheers, m

[Josh Anderson]

Don't worry so much about the audio... by default the standard on YT will be mono.

YouTube says the ideal format to upload is - "MPEG4 format at 640x480 resolution with MP3 audio."

The funny thing is that you should NEVER follow any advice that youtube has posted on their site.

I don't have time to explain it all but in short DON'T do what you just posted.

Do what I posted.

Ignore their "640x480 suggestion unless you captured the video at 640x480 and it is going to be displayed at 640x480. YT will shrink it to 320x240 anyway and then display it larger which is why its blurry on their site most of the time.

If its live motion upload full resolution uncompressed avi or m2t hd video.

If its screen capture completely ignore the YT suggestions and instead capture your video at 1:1 to the dimensions it will be displayed at and upload in as uncompressed format as possible.

YT has always given the wrong advice on how to use their system... heck just look at the stupid embedding dimentions in their code and you will see how off they are... They give you embedding dimensions that are larger than the actual size of their 320x240 or 320x180 standard video.

What youtube does to degrade your video quality is also to encode your video at small dimensions and then display it at larger dimensions..

This is one reason your YT videos can look blurry... the other is if you ignore my advice to upload high quality masters and upload compressed wmv and flv format instead.

If you take a standard YT video and embed it at 320x268 for 4:3 or 320x208 for 16:9 instead of the dimensions they supply you in the copy and paste code you will see exactly what I am talking about... the video will look much better.

That is because those are the actual dimensions of stadard YT video + the added height to account for the player.

Anyone who is paying attention here just got one of the best tips they can possibly get on YT optimization ;-)

[Nathan Hangen]

This is a great thread and now I realize why many of my videos turn out crappy! Thanks Josh

[Maria Gudelis]

Originally Posted by Nathan Hangen

This is a great thread and now I realize why many of my videos turn out crappy! Thanks Josh

Josh totally rocks Nathan! I bought his transparent player last week and wow - love it...still getting used to the power of it but it helps alot!

the camtasia video I re - rendered in avi came out so much better than the mp4 one I rendered and uploaded to youtube...

[MeTellYou]

As far as I can tell, Camtasia has a preset for youtube. just click that and you're good to go

[magentawave]

The problem I'm having is that after rendering my videos in Camtasia, they are still too large (7.58 MB) to upload to Youtube regardless of whether I click the "Web" or the "Youtube" setting. How can I shrink them down to what Youtube wants which is only 1 MB?

Thanks
Steve

[Josh Anderson]

Steve...

The Youtube limit is 1 gigabyte... is that what you meant instead of MB?

If your screen capture is only 10 minutes or less (youtube's limit) it should not be 7gb.

However, if it is.... there are lots of tricks to reduce file size on the master:

1. Don't capture the entire screen. instead capture just the area you will be working with.
2. don't capture your audio in stereo. Capture it mono and reduce the bit rate.
3. Decrease the capture frame rate.

Something would be unusual if your screen capture video is really in the GB range and under 10 minnutes...

A full uncompressed HDV m2t live motion video (full HD) at just over 4 minutes rendered from my Sony editor is still under a gig for me.

You can also compress your video some. It is fine to encode and compress it a bit just keep the master that you upload as high a bit rate as possible so as to retain the quality of the image. For example you might encode a video at 2000kbps using h.264 codec before uploading it. The results should be fairly good if you use quality encoding software.

[magentawave]

Originally Posted by Josh Anderson

Steve...

The Youtube limit is 1 gigabyte... is that what you meant instead of MB?

If your screen capture is only 10 minutes or less (youtube's limit) it should not be 7gb.

However, if it is.... there are lots of tricks to reduce file size on the master:

1. Don't capture the entire screen. instead capture just the area you will be working with.
2. don't capture your audio in stereo. Capture it mono and reduce the bit rate.
3. Decrease the capture frame rate.

Something would be unusual if your screen capture video is really in the GB range and under 10 minnutes...

A full uncompressed HDV m2t live motion video (full HD) at just over 4 minutes rendered from my Sony editor is still under a gig for me.

You can also compress your video some. It is fine to encode and compress it a bit just keep the master that you upload as high a bit rate as possible so as to retain the quality of the image. For example you might encode a video at 2000kbps using h.264 codec before uploading it. The results should be fairly good if you use quality encoding software.

You're right Josh! I'm an idiot! It IS 1 gig! Ooops! I will use your recommendations for making my videos smaller. I guess I got thrown off when it was taking forever and ever to finish the uploading of my videos...and I have a super fast internet connection too.

Thank you.

Steve