However I may be late in announcing this here, I wanted some time to hear other reactions of Youtube’s annoucement of HD (720p) movie support. This adds a new file-size limit of 1GB (10 minutes.) and a “Watch in HD” option, if you remember the “Watch In High Quality” option, this is big. I found a great site exaplining this, Squidoo.com, link here, and basically they outline the stats for HD.
From reading this site, I can definitely tell you that the best possible upload method is H.264 video, 720p (1280×720) with good audio. H.264 converts much more fluidly into modern Flash tahan most other formats. They say Youtube’s native HD resolution is:
…1280×720 (720p), H.264 video @ 1024Kbps; audio @ 44.1KHz 232Kbps Stereo…
Looking on Youtube, there is some great HD content, this much higher quality most important for screencasts, shots with a lot of motion, and just about anything else that wasn’t shot on a digital camera or camera phone. Canon has release the new EOS 5 D Mark II, a 21 Megapixel camera with remarkable video quality, there is a large gallery on Youtube of 5 D Mark II footage, some of which I have included in this post. I have uploaded a screen cast: See it in:
Classic Quality: 320×240 Flash 7 video @ 900Kbps; audio @ 44.1KHz 96Kbps Mono CBR
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=vMtPhJhFHR0
Normal (better than classic) Quality: 448×336, Flash 7 video @ 900Kbps; audio @ 44.1KHz 96Kbps Mono CBR
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=vMtPhJhFHR0&fmt=6
“High Quality”: 480×360, H.264 video @ 512Kbps; audio @ 44.1KHz 128Kbps Stereo
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=vMtPhJhFHR0&fmt=18
“HD Quality”: 1280×720 (720p), H.264 video @ 1024Kbps; audio @ 44.1KHz 232Kbps Stereo
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=vMtPhJhFHR0&fmt=22
**You can do this with any video, just add &fmt=6 for “Normal”, &fmt=18 for “High Quality”, or &fmt=22 for “HD Quality” ( depending on availability) to the end of the url, as I have**
Here is a great example of a HD movie from the EOS 5 D Mark II in Youtube HD.