View Digital Media, LLC

Exporting HD Video from Avid for YouTube HQ

Tuesday, 28 April 2009 03:16

So I searched all around for the best possible settings for exporting HD Video Content out of Avid Media Composer to upload to YouTube.com. One of my clients (SpartX.com) is launching a new product and wants the video to go viral using a high quality medium. I did not find many places with information, so I pieced this together for me to remember and for anyone who is interested.

In this video project for SpartX.com, there were only small portions of the video actually captured using a camera. What was captured was done so by using a Sony HVR-Z1U in 1080i. So the project was edited in 1080i with some animations created in After Effects and exported into Avid Media Composer as an Apple ProRes 422 (HQ).

With this said, I had to get the video our of Avid Media Composer in a file size and quality level appropriate for the new YouTube HQ settings for viewing.

For the highest quality, YouTube now recommends these setting for your video:

* H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 format
* 1280x720 resolution
* 44.1KHz Stereo MP3 or AAC audio
* Frame rate as the original video
* Up to 1GB file size and 10 min. duration

Alright...now it is time to export my Sequence (Avid's way of saying your timeline for upload.

So I exported my sequences out of Avid Media Composer the following way:

1) Video Compression Type: H264 (1280x720)
- Motion
- Frame Rate: 29.97 fps
- Key Frames: Every 24 frames
- Compressor
- Quality: High
- Encoding: Best Quality (Multi-pass)
-Data Rate
- Restricted to 5000 kbits/sec
- Optimized for Download



2) Audio Compression
- Uncompressed
- Sample rate: 32 kHz
- Sample size: 16
- Channels: 2 (Stereo)

3) Width & Height: 1280x720 (16:9)
4) Color Levels: 601/709
5) Field Order: Single Field ****IMPORTANT - Helps with Interlacing ****



6) Display Aspect Ratio: 16:9 square pixel (1280x720)

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