from Movie Maker and Photo Story
PapaJohn's Guide to YouTube
From the group of 'free' video hosting services, YouTube emerged as the leader... uploading is free and easy... I have over 100 videos there. Send a link to a single video or a page with all of them, as I do with this link...
...and an embedded player for others
This page is more than a general guide to uploading your movies from Movie Maker, and stories from Photo Story 3. It provides custom profiles and other tools to do it the easiest and best way.
PapaJohn's Products and Services
Newsletter #101 was about five of the free host services: Google Video, YouTube, Putfile, VideoEgg, and AddictingClips. Click the image to read it.
I wrote it before YouTube was the clear leader, and before vimeo gained in popularity.
YouTube converts your uploaded wmv files to Flash and MPEG-4 formats. Conversion of uploaded movies is pretty solid, but as of April 2008 conversion of stories is hit and miss... mostly miss... without a clear understanding of why many or most fail the conversion to Flash step.
If you really want your story on YouTube and can't make it directly, run it through Movie Maker and upload it as a movie.
YouTube Playlists
The playlist feature is perhaps what I love the most about the service. Make one, copy any of your uploaded videos and stories to it, give the link to the playlist to others, or embed it in a web page. Copy the code provided by YouTube and paste it into your website page, and you'll have this great looking and working playlist. Start with the big play button and check it out from there.
The link (URL) to the playlist stays fixed, as the movies and stories in it come and go. I'm always changing my videos and it's a royal pain to have to remember all the places you put the link to the originals... put a movie or story in a playlist and pass out the link to the playlist rather than the video, and you'll never have a broken link to an online movie again.
This playlist is the online home for my video doodles after they are replaced by the newest one, which is on my website.
The Movie Maker and Photo Story Guide to YouTube
Step 1 - Get an Account
Press the button and join...
as the signup page says, it's free and easy.
Step 2 - Make Movies and Stories
Keep your movie and story projects to less than 10 minutes... the maximum for YouTube. With MM2 and PS3, you don't usually need to think about the other constraint of it being less than 100 MB in file size.
On the subject of YouTube not saying it accepts WMV files... I've never had it not accept a movie or a story in WMV format.
Here are copies of the custom profiles I use (revised 12/26/06) to save movies and stories. For Movie Maker, download them, put them in your c:\Program Files\Movie Maker\Shared\Profiles folder, and look for them the next time you open Movie Maker. They'll be in your drop down list of 'Other Settings' choices when you save a movie.
Custom Standard Profile for Movies Heading to YouTube
Custom Widescreen Profile for Movies Heading to YouTube
As a 'before and after' example of what you can expect with these profiles, here are links to a 10 minute Civil War reenactment video rendered with the widescreen profile. The WMV file uploaded to YouTube... and the the Flash video playing on YouTube.
For Photo Story 3, download these custom profiles, put them in your c:\Program Files\Photo Story 3 for Windows\Profiles\1033 folder, and look for them the next time you open Photo Story 3. They'll be in your drop down list of Quality 'Settings' choices when you save a story.
Custom Standard Profile for Stories Heading to YouTube
Custom Widescreen Profile for Stories Heading to YouTube
Don't forget to distort the images for a widescreen story... see the Photo Story 3 > Import Pictures page for details.
Step 3 - Upload to YouTube
After you have your account and a movie or story to upload, use the same button as in 1 above... then the 'Upload Videos' link at the upper right.
Fill in all the fields and go on to the 'Go upload a file' page... browse to your movie or story, select it, and then hit the 'Upload Video' button at the bottom left of the page...
The progress meter will show you.... yes, % progress for the file uploading... when it reaches 100%, resist the temptation to do something else. Wait for it to automatically switch back to the first page, where you filled in the blanks. By returning there, it's giving you a chance to change your mind about any of the entries.
If you have more to upload, repeat the process... if not, move on by selecting the 'My Account' link at the top.
Then use the link 'My Uploaded Videos' at the upper left... to go to a working window that shows all of your uploaded files, and your created playlists.
Step 4 - Make a YouTube Playlist and Copy Your Uploaded Videos to It
Use the 'Create Playlist' button to make one... I recommend getting in the habit of creating a playlist as soon as you finish uploading the first video that goes into it... and always have a playlist to put each upload into, even if it's just a playlist with one item in it.
This picture shows my new playlist for 'Test Files', with zero files in it. I've checked the two latest uploads (which appear at the top of the list untile you upload more and they move down), and then use the pull down list to pick the Test Files playlist to copy them to.
Remember that YouTube is doing its processing on a server far from your computer... resist the temptation to do something again just because it didn't happen fast enough to suit you. I've learned by experience to let things like copying these two files to the Test Files playlist finish, regardless of how long it takes. If you're impatient, think it didn't do what you said, and do it again... you'll have two copies of each in the playlist, or 3 or 4 or whatever, depending on how impatient you are.
Step 5 - Get and Use the Links (URLs) to Your Videos and Playlists
The link to go directly to a video, and the html snippet to embed a player in a web page for it, are found in the full list of 'My Videos'... but only after YouTube has fully processed your uploaded file. It needs time to convert it to a Flash format, assign the link, and create a thumbnail image... or if you upload a Flash file, it needs time to add some info to it. Depending on the file and YouTube's workload, it can take minutes to an hour or more for this processing. Give it time and check again later.
The link to a playlist, and the html snippet to embed it, are found at the upper right of the selected playlist, as shown in this image. It's that embed option that I used for my playlist of video doodles at the top of this page that I find so handly.
I used the individual file URLs above for the two test files... ones I'll have to remember to revise if I put revised or different files at YouTube. But the embedded code for the video doodles playlist won't need changing unless I create a different playlist for them.
Step 6 - View Videos and Stories at YouTube
Put the links to either the videos or the playlists into your emails or on your websites.... tell everyone to enjoy them!!!
If you have a website page to embed the players into, the space needed to do it is minimal as the space for the video is being provided by YouTube. There's hardly a reason not to do it.
Other Info...
6/15/07 - I've been hearing about YouTube downgrading the higher quality uploaded Flash files... I checked by uploading a 4.7 MB flash file, and getting back a 0.9 MB flash file for viewing, a significant downgrade. If your YouTube videos look less in quality than the ones you upload.... there's nothing you did wrong.
3/17/08 - There's a link under the player at YouTube, inviting you to view the video at a higher quality... use it if your system and internet connection is sufficient.
The standard quality videos are Flash files of 320x240 pixels, 24 frames per second, with mono sound. The higher quality are MPEG-4 file of 428x240 pixels, 29.97 frames per second, with stereo sound.
Newsletter #127 explored YouTube in more depth than previous newsletters. Click the image to read it.
It covers file rendering, uploading types and quality settings, creation of playlists, and viewing options.
When you upload a movie or story, YouTube converts the uploaded file to the Flash format. Newsletter #102 is about doing the conversion yourself before uploading, using the Riva FLV Encoder.
HitTheBongo's Converting to Flash Video & Embedding
