USC YouTube Technical Specifications
YouTube accepts both HD (high definition) and SD (standard definition) videos, but with that in mind all of YouTube’s video players are set at the HD format of 16:9 aspect ratio (think rectangle like a movie screen or HD TV) so your SD video will have black boxes around it. University Communications recommends shooting in HD.
YouTube Supported Resolutions:
| 1080p: | 1920×1080 |
| 720p: | 1280×720 |
| 480p: | 854×480 |
| 360p: | 640×360 |
| 240p: | 426×240 |
University Communications highly encourages the use of both 1080p and 720p HD resolution for all of your videos. And YouTube prefers progressive scan (the P on 1080p) and asks if it is interlaced for you to de-interlace the files (i.e. 1080i )
YouTube provides some easy steps on encoding your video for their site. For encoding in iMovie, Final Cut Pro, and QuickTime Pro see here.
For encoding in Windows Movie Maker see here.
YouTube supports the following file formats:
- WebM files – Vp8 vieo codec and Vorbis Audio codecs
- .MPEG4, 3GPP and MOV files – Typically supporting h264, mpeg4 video codec’s, and AAC audio code
- .AVI – Many cameras output this format – typically the video codec is MJPEG and audio is PCM
- .MPEGPS – Typically supporting MPEG2 vodep cpdec amd MP2 audio
- .WMV
- .FLV – Adobe-FLV1 video codec, MP3 audio
For other information on YouTube’s technical requirements, please click here.