Best youtube/vimeo export settings findings

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

So I have been testing every single codec out there trying to find the best format I would use to upload to Youtube or the web in general. 

Let me give you a background first, Internet connections speed is atrociously slow where I work in Egypt and especially in places away from the capital, Cairo. So the best format here was for me the one that generated the SMALLEST file size while still maintaining acceptable HD quality for web applications, and acceptable here is not feature-film league, just one that looks normal and invisible to distinguish from higher end codecs for the normal viewer (who mostly watch on phones, Ipads, in 360p, 720p max). 

So each megabite is a concern to me, it's a hell of a lot more time, much more to upload a 200mb clip vs a 500mb one, like 6 hours more! So that's the background. 

 

After testing every single codec out there I found H.264 under MP4 format at normalish bitrate is good and generates small sizes compared to ProRes or Avid DNxHD or Any other format. So I stuck with that for a while, it looks good, small, plays on any device. 

That was until I saw the little container option in Vegas Pro render formats called "RM" (Real Media). I remember real player and RM/RMVB from the ancient days of Windows mellinium and 98. It was a very popular format for video sharing. So I though I'd give it a go and see what it does. to my surprise, the file size is 1/5s of that of the normal H.264 and the quality looks exactly similar especially once uploaded to the Web. The file sizes are just completely mind blowing for the quality I can get, suddenly all my 1GB clips have been cut off to 200-300mbs files that look just as good especially after uploading to youtube. The files are very goo looking, clean HD images with very minimal artefacts, in fact as clean as H.264 and ProRes smaller flavours. This rm. format has saved me hundreds of uploading time here in a limited country on connection speeds. 

I though I would give you the tip but also ask why is this happening? 

What exactly is rm.? 

What codec does it use? H.264? H.263? a proprietry codec for real media? or is something else? 

If someone would have any information on this I would be very grateful. 

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

From a Canon DSLR, the H.264 file is 2 megabytes size. 

-Rendered in ProRes HQ it's 16mbs 

-Rendered in H.265 35mbps it's 1.6mbs 

-Rendered in RM. it's 560 Kilobytes

Three files look exactly the same. There is absolutely no increase in quality going to ProRes and no loss going to RM, they just look the same down to pixel peeping level. Weird but I love it. 

[richg101]

give vimeo a 2.5k file (even if it's just uprez'd from a 1080p aquire, and the 720/1080 streaming from vimeo always looks better than if you simply upload a 1080p file.  this is what i have found anyway.

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

Do you think it's because Vimeo/Youtube has higher bitrate and better compressions for 2.5/4K than HD so tricking them into seeing the HD file as 4K is a way to get a better HD image? 

It s an interesting approach to upscale 1080p to 4K before uploading.

[jagnje]

Well, there is not much of a direfence in shots that there isn't alot of movement.

I shoot alot of downhill skateboarding, with a camera straped to the hood of the car and YT compression turns the footage to a bunch of blocks...prores, dnxhd, h264, whatever. One thing that saved my footage was when I upscaled it to 4K, just for fun. It made a 100% diference to my eyes! Even 2.5k is leaps better. I guess the youtube high resolution coded is just better. You can clearly see it in this clip below.

 

Edit: beat me to it :)

 

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

Someone should invent an ALL-I internet codec!

[Vesku]

Someone should invent an ALL-I internet codec!

​Do you want pixelation all the time, not only in movement?

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

Well uploading in 4K sure is a way to get better quality. But actually I started this topic wanting to get information on the best HIGHEST compressed codecs because for my situation Image quality is FAR less critical than uploading time. 

What do you guta think is the best way to get the smallest possible files while maintaing acceptable IQ, and by acceptable I mean just fine for phones and low end vieweing, just something that doesn't have a horrible marked quality. 

Of course I agree when I am uploading for a demanding project, I upload my 1080p projects at 4K (upscaled) ProRes HQ files. Thia way you get virtually no loss in IQ on Youtube and Vimeo. 

[jagnje]

Use handbrake. It`s a free software, I`ve used it many times before with good results. Export your video on high settings then feed it to handbrake, set the desired compression and away you go. 30% file sizes of the original with very little, to no visible loss in quality.

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

I ll try it. So I can get 30% of the size with not too markedly bad hit in IQ? That would be huge. I'll try it and report back tonight. 

Just to be sure, is there a certain codec that I choose to get that good looking 30%? or is handbrake just one codec and that simple?

[jagnje]

Choose h.264. It will just further compress it. I migh even have a preset of my own writen somewhere...I'll try to find it. But it does take a while to compress.

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

​Do you want pixelation all the time, not only in movement?

​A working All-I codec! ;-)