I have a few ideas, but keep in mind my expertise is more based on North American NTSC formats more than the European PAL system.
When it comes to music videos, there are several factors that come in to play, but the 3 main ones are:
1 - Video Quality
2 - Audio Quality
3 - File format Choice
Video Quality:
Now, there are tons of video formats out there, and let me share with you my OPINIONS on which are ok and which are not.
1. 240p: 426x240 - IMHO, too small for anything
2. 360p: 640x360 - IMHO, too small for anything
3. 480p: 854x480 - IMHO, getting close, but still a bit too small for todays works
4. 720p: 1280x720 - First usable format, pretty good for 75% of all videos
5. 1080p: 1920x1080 - Very good format for high quality video formats
6. 1440p (2k): 2560x1440 - Excellent format if your editing equipment *and* viewing equipment support it.
7. 2160p (4k): 3840 x 2160 - Excellent format if your editing equipment *and* viewing equipment support it.
For us here, I mostly prefer #4 and #5 for Youtube and even current standard HD DVD formats. 2K and 4K are still pretty new and even though I have the hardware and software that supports it, I dont own a 4K TV (though there are lots of good ones out there), but the issue with those files is... they are HUGE. What we are focusing on are YouTube videos in this conversation, so the #4 and #5 are my preferences, pushing more towards the #4 sizes.
Audio Quality:
Depends on how you do things... do you record straight to your video camera via its built-in mic? Use the best it can give you (usually pretty crappy results).
A good trick is to set your video camera to manual audio levels, use a good quality mic or two and set them so they are *just* under the red of the meter at your loudest playing (again, better, but not great results). Do you capture to a better quality sound recorder or record separately to a digital format to your computer via a mixer (or straight to a USB stick like on a Roland V-accordion)? This gives highest level of control and best results.
This gives best quality and then you simply sync the audio with the video and have both great video and audio. 44Khz 16-bit stereo is more than adequate for 99% of the uses of anyone here and adequate for even most pro recordings..
File format Choice:
Now, Youtube supports a LOT of file formats (MOV, 3GP, .3g2, MPEG-4, FLV, AVI, MPEGS, WMV, WebM, MP4, etc...). Ill make this one easier. DivX or Matroska (.mkv) can take a high quality file and with the right compression make it REALLY tiny with only a little loss in quality, however, YouTube does something weird in that it accepts the upload then converts it to either MOV or MP4 (I am not sure what circumstances prompt it to choose one version over another), but MP4 covers most of the advantages with small file size, high compression rate and popularity.
MP4 includes two video Codecs, namely, MPEG4 and H.264, which are both widely supported in video cameras and more importantly, video editing software, together with AAC (2 Channel to 8 Channel support) and MP3 as an audio Codec. So it is the most recommended format for use on YouTube, and when uploaded, doesnt get as butchered as other file formats are.
To summarize:
Record in higher quality than what you will output in. For upload to Vimeo/YouTube, use an MP4 format file of 720p or 1080p sizes (720p preferred as a size saver, youd need a really good monitor to even see the differences between the two at full screen views on most average sized computer monitors watching the videos on YouTube) and select a 44Khz 16-bit stereo audio bitrate for CD/DVD quality sound. You could go higher, but it just adds file size without adding much sound quality increase.
A couple hints:
Now, when making videos for YouTube, you want to use some kind of video editor (I use Pinnacle Studio 20.6, it has some new and interesting features that I really like) and use the highest quality files that your camera can put out (within reason. If you take a 4K file and make it into a 720P file, you remove so much and you make rendering and editing files much slower).
When I make my videos with YouTube in mind, , I set my cameras to 1080P in 30 (actually 29.95) frames per minute, edit in full 1080P format and OUTPUT in 720P format MP4 files with 44Khz 16-bit stereo audio. This gave my
Adieu-Adieu video a 187mb file size.
Finally, 100, 200 or even 300mb file sizes are nothing for 3-4 minute video of decent quality. You dont want to make it too small, as audio and video quality starts to suffer, and the last thing you want to do is let YouTube screw around with your video any more than they already do. Which brings up a small point... EVERY video I have ever uploaded to YouTube is never as good as the video I am uploading when looked at locally. Expect small variances in quality when viewing online... this is normal.
Hope that helps some.
