6-28-07 YouTube and Google Video
Despite the fact that Google bought YouTube several months ago, there are big differences between Google's video server and YouTube's video server.
The most frustrating thing about YouTube is the restricted frame size (352 x 240) which demands a lot of compression. In addition, the filesize to be uploaded to YouTube has to be under 100 megabytes, and the clip can't be over 10 minutes long. This means that, starting with the DV video file format I use for my source videos, I have to compress a four or five minute clip over 90% before I can even upload the material. Then, to make matters even worse, YouTube then further compresses the material by converting the uploaded file to Flash format, stripping out even more video information AND changing the audio to mono. And it gets even worse... this conversion is done "on the fly" while the clip is being uploaded.
But I could still live with all of that if uploading to YouTube's server wasn't so problematic.
It's a very popular website, and there's an almost 100% chance that any upload that takes more than a minute will get interrupted before it's done. I'm sure that one of the reasons is this "on the fly" conversion during the upload. For whatever reasons, though, an interrupted upload to YouTube (for me, anyway) will never resume. It has to be re-started from scratch, no matter how far along it might have gotten.
Each of the clips I've uploaded to YouTube since January has taken multiple re-starts. This usually makes the process of doing a 20 minute to half hour upload spread out over more than a day. All but one clip (magically only took two re-starts) have gone through this arduous process.
Yesterday, I gave Google Video a shot, and uploaded a clip. The upload got interrupted four times before it was done, but always resumed after as short as a few seconds to as long as five minutes. All this means is that I can start an upload and go do something else rather than "babysit" it.
I also discovered that uploaded clips have no size or duration limitations, which means I can upload better quality. The final nail in the YouTube coffin for me, though, was the video frame size standard, which is 640 x 480. This frame size is the resolution of NTSC video, the same resolution as regular television. It's the same resolution that my source video is done in.
Consequently, I'm experimenting to find the level of compression for upload files that'll yield the best video quality (without taking forever to upload) in the video that's ultimately served off Google Video. If this doesn't ALSO become problematic in some manner, I think I'll be migrating everything over there.
Yes, it's somewhat of a pop/celeb/15-minutes-of-fame sort of thing to have material up on YouTube these days, and it's a real hook to have people from around the world making comments and ratcheting up the number of views. But in the end, I'm not looking for fame, I just want to have a site that my favorite clips can get served from. This is one of the main reasons I started the Wormtown Taxi blog. Sharing the video that I've been able to capture, clips of my friends playing music... this is all it's about for me. If I can do that more efficiently on Google Video AND end up with better quality, then this is a no-brainer.
The most frustrating thing about YouTube is the restricted frame size (352 x 240) which demands a lot of compression. In addition, the filesize to be uploaded to YouTube has to be under 100 megabytes, and the clip can't be over 10 minutes long. This means that, starting with the DV video file format I use for my source videos, I have to compress a four or five minute clip over 90% before I can even upload the material. Then, to make matters even worse, YouTube then further compresses the material by converting the uploaded file to Flash format, stripping out even more video information AND changing the audio to mono. And it gets even worse... this conversion is done "on the fly" while the clip is being uploaded.
But I could still live with all of that if uploading to YouTube's server wasn't so problematic.
It's a very popular website, and there's an almost 100% chance that any upload that takes more than a minute will get interrupted before it's done. I'm sure that one of the reasons is this "on the fly" conversion during the upload. For whatever reasons, though, an interrupted upload to YouTube (for me, anyway) will never resume. It has to be re-started from scratch, no matter how far along it might have gotten.
Each of the clips I've uploaded to YouTube since January has taken multiple re-starts. This usually makes the process of doing a 20 minute to half hour upload spread out over more than a day. All but one clip (magically only took two re-starts) have gone through this arduous process.
Yesterday, I gave Google Video a shot, and uploaded a clip. The upload got interrupted four times before it was done, but always resumed after as short as a few seconds to as long as five minutes. All this means is that I can start an upload and go do something else rather than "babysit" it.
I also discovered that uploaded clips have no size or duration limitations, which means I can upload better quality. The final nail in the YouTube coffin for me, though, was the video frame size standard, which is 640 x 480. This frame size is the resolution of NTSC video, the same resolution as regular television. It's the same resolution that my source video is done in.
Consequently, I'm experimenting to find the level of compression for upload files that'll yield the best video quality (without taking forever to upload) in the video that's ultimately served off Google Video. If this doesn't ALSO become problematic in some manner, I think I'll be migrating everything over there.
Yes, it's somewhat of a pop/celeb/15-minutes-of-fame sort of thing to have material up on YouTube these days, and it's a real hook to have people from around the world making comments and ratcheting up the number of views. But in the end, I'm not looking for fame, I just want to have a site that my favorite clips can get served from. This is one of the main reasons I started the Wormtown Taxi blog. Sharing the video that I've been able to capture, clips of my friends playing music... this is all it's about for me. If I can do that more efficiently on Google Video AND end up with better quality, then this is a no-brainer.
posted by Jeff Barnard at 5:37 AM
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