how to post videos questions

[Creekside]

I got a new helmet cam. I've been recording in 1080/60fps. I can edit and make (apparently) mp4's in OpenShot. I exported the project to 1290x720/59.99fps mp4 and it looks great. Well good enough for this guy with 0 social media skills running on my desktop. I can share that on google drive and it's fine.

however

So I tried to upload to youtube before posting it here. Well it looks really bad up there. Distorted, grainy. Looks like 320x200 6bit. I am thinking I need to export differently? I saw YT 720/25fps format? Really?

And how do you get that 'Youtube box' with the play button on here with a post? All I get is some link when using the {url}

[troy]

It is all a hassle and confusing and the "rules" change all the time. Also I am not a guru--I don't mess with creating video for all these hassle factors (and time and expense).

BUT, there are tricks to getting your video to look great on Youtube, and as I understand, it is around creating them in a few compatible formats. You'll have to Google to understand what those specific formats are.

Here on Rideforum, you can simply paste a Youtube URL--don't use any of the posting tools--just paste the URL and the Forum will turn it into an embedded video player. I know that is not exactly intuitive. Sorry!

[Creekside]

Troy, you are so right. I spent a few hours last night, and they all looked like crap regardless of the horizontal-vertical size or frame rate (fps). Then I realized if I forced the youtube window to set HD settings to what I uploaded, presto, it actually looks nice. Their auto HD format just sucks for these videos. Not sure why.

And like you said, once you start reading about the new ACV vs VC9 tools they use and how many hits your channel has (gets you better resolution and through put) my head starts spinning. Some guys had run the vids thru sharpening software and then up-encoded them to 1440 from 1080p and those looked really nice. I'd do that if its like 'one click done' stuff with some freeware tool. But you need gimp tools (I guess for linux or a windows & cigwin version) and spend some time on that stuff running command line things like ffmeg - omg - I'm out. This is day job stuff.