Optimize Media for YouTube, Download, Streaming or USB Drives

[Updated Aug. 4, 2024, to add ProRes.]

Peter asked me recently to write an article on how to optimize files for posting to YouTube, download or streaming. As Internet speeds continue to improve, and YouTube adjusts its rules, now is a good time for an update on my recommendations.

I also added two sections, one on ProRes and the other on USB drives, which are increasingly used for distributing large media files to small numbers of consumers.

PRORES MEDIA

ProRes 422, 422 HQ and 4444, will always look better than any compressed version. However, ProRes files are huge! ProRes was designed for image capture and editing, not distribution.

However, if you have a short project (less than 256 GB), you can upload the finished ProRes master file directly to social media. Since YouTube and the rest always recompress all uploaded videos, (yes, always, and there’s no alternative), uploading ProRes and letting them recompress it may yield the highest image quality.

But the file upload will take a looonnggg time.

YOUTUBE (SOCIAL MEDIA)

YouTube keeps changing its rules, here are the latest.

By default, you can upload videos up to 15 minutes in length. If you have a verified account, detailed in the link above, you can upload files up to 12 hours in length or 256 GB, whichever is less.

NOTE: A 12-hour video, as Google notes, is most likely from a live stream.

You can upload HDR movies, but they must have HDR metadata in the codec or container to be played properly on YouTube. If you’re grading your video, grade in Rec. 2020 using either PQ or HLG settings. Supported HDR apps include: DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects and Apple Final Cut Pro.

NOTE: Here’s a link with more specifics on HDR and YouTube.

Accepted video formats are: .mov, .mpeg, .avi, .wmv, .mpegps, .flv, .webM, .3GPP.

NOTE: If you are new to YouTube, this link provides a variety of basic information.

Larry Recommends: Because YouTube – and all social media – ALWAYS recompress uploaded video, don’t worry about getting the smallest file size. Instead, compress your file using the default YouTube setting in Adobe Media Encoder, Apple Compressor or Handbrake (or the compression software of your choice). This compresses your file with lots of extra data that allows YouTube to recompress it without damaging image quality.

Video: I compress all YouTube/social media in MPEG-4 format using H.264. I use 20,000 kbps (20 mbps) for bit rate.

Audio: I use these compression settings for all audio, regardless of destination:

Mono files

• MPEG-4 AAC codec
• Sample rate: 48k
• Bit rate: 128 kbps

Stereo files

• MPEG-4 AAC codec
• Sample rate: 48k
• Bit rate: 256 kbps

A QUICK NOTE ON VIMEO

As you’ll read in the notes below, many media creators prefer posting videos to Vimeo, which provides generally higher quality than YouTube without the ads. The downside is that Vimeo does not have a fraction of YouTube’s audience.

For more details, visit Vimeo.com.

DOWNLOAD FILES

For files that viewers download directly, you have two basic options:

• QuickTime
• MPEG-4

Both of these are “container” formats, which means they hold a variety of files. Both support audio, video, timecode and closed captions. However, iPhones don’t support QuickTime, while they do support MPEG-4. Also, I find that MPEG-4 is more robust.

Because you don’t want your viewers waiting forever to download a very large file, you need to pay more attention to bit rates. While bit rate determines compressed file size,  image quality is determined by five factors:

• Codec of the compressed file
• Frame size of the compressed file
• Frame rate of the compressed file
• The amount of movement between frames
• Bit rate

NOTE: It seems counter-intuitive, but the codec, frame size, frame rate, even the duration of the source file have no impact on the image quality of the compressed file. Well… if the source file looks awful, the compressed file will too. But aside from that, the source file settings are not important.

For codecs, I recommend MPEG-4 using H.264 as the codec. You can use HEVC, but it will take longer to compress and not all systems can play it. HEVC was designed more for distributors and cell networks than media creators.

NOTE: There are three exceptions where you should use HEVC instead of H.264: 1. When frame sizes are larger than 4K, 2. When you are compressing media for HDR, and 3. When you need 10-bit media in the compressed file.

Bit rates, however, depend upon the frame size and frame rate of the compressed file. In the past, when everyone had very slow Internet connections, small files and low bit rates were critically important. Now, those are less important.

Here are my SUGGESTIONS, but you should experiment to see what works best for you.

• 720p frame size: 2,500 kbps (2.5 mbps)
• 1080p frame size: 3,500 kpbs (3.5 mbps)
• UHD/4K frame size: 12,000 kbps (12 mbps)

Obviously, 4K files are going to be really big. Personally, I’d stay with 1080p files, or smaller, for most direct downloads.

NOTE: I record all my webinars using a 1600 x 900 frame size simply to keep files sizes smaller. A 50-minute webinar is about 1.2 GB in size compressed using these specs.

STREAMING

Streaming files are very similar to downloads in terms of specs. However, if you stream directly from your website, as I do, you’ll also need to create HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) files. These are optimized for cell networks and divide your movie into tiny chunks so that if a viewer stops playing a video, it doesn’t clog the network. As well, HLS files automatically compensate for connection quality by varying image size during playback.

NOTE: Here are two articles that describe how to use Apple Compressor to create HLS files. And, yes, I do this every week for my webinars.

• An older article on HTTP Live Streaming
• A newer article that covers all the steps in how I produce my weekly webinar.

USB DRIVES

Small USB drives, often called “thumb drives” because they are the size of your thumb, are another great way to distribute media. However, they are most often formatted as FAT32. This is a very old format, with a 4 GB file limit and restricted file naming conventions.

These should be reformatted as ExFAT.  The benefit to formatting using ExFAT is that drives can hold well over 100 GB of data, depending upon how much physical storage in contained in the unit. This translates into easily holding a 3-hour, 4K movie with stereo sound compressed using H.264 at a very high data rate. (In fact, 128 GB can probably hold two of those movies.)

The important point, though, is that these drives need to be re-formatted using ExFAT, which is a format supported natively by both Mac and Windows systems. You can use Disk Utility to format a USB drive as ExFAT. Most ship formatted as FAT32, which is too limited for media distribution.

NOTE: Here’s a quick tutorial on how to create/format an ExFAT drive.

When it’s time to compress a file for a thumb drive, again, use MPEG-4, not Quicktime, for greater compatibility. Then, compress it using YouTube H.264 presets. This high data rate provides extremely high quality, with greater compatibility across TVs and computers.

For myself, if I’m going to play a video off a computer into a projector or large monitor, I’ll use a QuickTime file with ProRes 422 as the codec. If I’m sending the file to anyone else, I’ll use MPEG-4, with an H.264 codec.

SUMMARY

As Internet speeds improve, and social media takes over most video playback, we generally spend less time optimizing files than in the past. Still, these tips can help assure that your media looks as good as it can, regardless of where it plays back.

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