If you’ve got an interlaced HDV timeline, for example, you don’t want to just export a movie and upload it. But even if time isn’t an issue, there are a few conversion details you have to watch out for. For one thing, it will take a lot longer to upload your file. Now, just because you can upload uncompressed HD doesn’t mean you should. You may be surprised to find out that YouTube will even accept high quality video formats like ProRes, DNxHD and uncompressed 10-bit HD video. YouTube’s list of supported video formats includes MOV, MP4, AVI, WMV and many others. You can upload just about any kind of video to YouTube, from the video you just shot with your mobile phone to your latest 4K video production. Some codecs are still in use for compatibility with older cellphones, and newer codecs such as VP9, are used to deliver 4K content.

H.264 is the codec used by most of YouTubeâs video streams right now, but there are also other codecs in use such as VP8. For starters, YouTube uses more than just one codec, and each codec is encoded to multiple resolutions and bit rates. Well, thatâs a good idea, but it doesn’t exactly work that way. So what video format does YouTube transcode your video to? Maybe you can match its settings and keep it in the same format so your video doesnât need to be transcoded. Instead, you always want to upload a high quality video to YouTube. You don’t want to upload a highly compressed, low bit rate video. The important thing to remember is that anything you upload to YouTube will be transcoded. The individual video streams range in resolution and video quality from tiny postage stamp sized videos, all the way up to 1080p and 4K.

This allows your video to playback smoothly on everything from mobile phones to desktop computers. When you upload your video to YouTube, its video servers kick into action and start transcoding your file into a set of optimized video streams. When you know what’s going on behind the scenes, you’ll understand the best settings to use and why you should use them. To answer these questions, it helps to know how YouTube processes your video once itâs been uploaded to its video servers.

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