Once you've finished editing your video, made sure it's less than 10 minutes, smaller than 2GB in size, and in an acceptable format, you're ready to upload it.
--Click the Upload button in the upper-right-hand corner of any YouTube page.
--Click the "Browse" button to browse for the video file you'd like to upload to our site. Select the file you want to upload.
--Click the 'Upload Video' button to start the uploading process.
--As the video file is uploading, enter as much information about your video as possible in the relevant fields (including Title, Description, Tags, and Category). You're not required to provide specific information, but the more information you include, the easier it is for users to find your video!
--Click the 'Save changes' button to save the updates you've made to the video file.
It can take from a couple minutes to an hour for your video to upload to YouTube. If you're receiving an error with your Upload, you might want to make sure you're attempting to upload a file that's recognized by YouTube. YouTube accepts video files from most digital cameras and camcorders, and cell phones in the .AVI, .MOV, .WMV, and .MPG file formats.
Please note: your video must meet our uploading requirements: no larger than 2GB and no more than 10 minutes in length. If your video does not meet these requirements you will need to re-edit the video file on your computer then upload the new file to our site.
Have more than one video file to upload?
Not a problem! You can upload up to 10 video files in a single uploading session.
Here's a summary of the audio and video specifications you need for the best results on YouTube. For further details, please read the information listed directly below this summary.
_Video_
Resolution: Recommended: Original resolution of your video - for HD it is 1920x1080 (1080p) or 1280 x 720.
Bit rate: Because bit-rate is highly dependent on codec there is no recommended or minimum value. Videos should be optimized for resolution, aspect ratio and frame rate rather than bit rate.
Frame rate: The frame rate of the original video should be maintained without re-sampling. In particular pulldown and other frame rate re-sampling techniques are strongly discouraged.
Codec: H.264 or MPEG-2 preferred.
Preferred containers: FLV, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4
_Audio_
Codec: MP3 or AAC preferred
Preferred containers: FLV, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4
Sampling rate: 44.1kHz
Channels: 2 (stereo)
YouTube recently began offering users an option to view content in high definition- 1080p resolution (when the source upload supports it). Please note, we are currently experimenting with this feature and optimizing it accordingly, so we can't guarantee that your videos will always be transcoded into this format with this user option present.
For an example of a video being streamed in 1080p resolution, please click this link and then click on the text toggle "watch in HD" located beneath the right hand corner of the player.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6boDfu_abzg
For best results, ensure your video and audio lengths are the same. If you're using an editing package, make sure that the file you upload to YouTube does not have edit lists. Take a look at this Help Center article to learn more.
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?&answer=165543
How to best upload widescreen videos:
-- Originals Please!
The less a video is re-encoded prior to uploading, the better the resulting YouTube video quality. We encourage you to upload your videos as close to the original source format as possible, with a minimum of intermediate re-encoding steps. Each re-encoding can generally degrade the quality of your video and create some specific problems too, which we'll address below.
-- Aspect Ratio
The aspect ratio of the original source video should always be maintained when it's uploaded: Uploaded videos should never include letterboxing or pillarboxing bars.
The YouTube player automatically adds black bars so that videos are displayed correctly without cropping or stretching, whatever the size of the video or the player. For example, the player will automatically add vertical bars (pillarboxing) to 4:3 videos in the new 16:9 widescreen player size. If the player is re-sized (when embedded on another website for example) the same process takes place, so that 16:9 videos are letterboxed (black bars top and bottom) when the player is sized to 4:3, for example. Similarly, anamorphic videos will be automatically letterboxed when shown in either 16:9 or 4:3 sized players. The player can only do this if the native aspect ratio of the video is maintained.
If letterboxing is added to a video before it is uploaded (to create a 4:3 video from a 16:9 master for example), the widescreen player will add pillarbox bars too, resulting in black bars all around the video (windowboxing) and a bad viewing experience. (see diagram through link):
http://www.google.com/help/hc/images/correct16x9.png
http://www.google.com/help/hc/images/incorrect.png
-- Frame Rate
The video frame-rate should be the same as the original where possible - up-sampling from a 24fps original can cause judder artifacts for example. For film sources a 24 fps or 25 fps progressive master yields the best results while videos that have had a re-sampling transfer process applied - such as Telecine pulldown - often result in a lower quality video.
-- Resolution
High-definition videos are the preferred format for ingestion which result YouTube videos of the highest quality currently available. It also means your video can be upgraded as new formats are developed on the site.
-- Testing
Since there is no facility to re-upload videos, it's important to test your audio and video quality are satisfactory before you release your video publicly onto YouTube. Once a video becomes popular, the number of views, user ratings, user comments and other community data, cannot be transferred if another, higher quality version of the same video is uploaded. Make sure you get it right!