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I've uploaded some videos to YouTube with a resolution of 1280x720. After uploading the videos, I began to wonder what compression codec results in the best quality when uploaded to YouTube. In my case, the "best" codec refers to the one that most accurately reproduces the source video.

I have been using AVI files encoded with Intel's Indeo 5.10 codec and the results have been pretty good. Is there a better codec that I could be using that would result in a better quality video on YouTube?

Edit: also, a codec that produces small files for uploading would be nice too - but quality is the first and most important criterion.

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I cannot say with experience and data, but I would like to assume it to be VP8 based on the following line from Google's blog post

To that end, all new videos uploaded to YouTube are now transcoded into WebM. [...] Transcoding all new video uploads into WebM is an important first step, and we’re also working to transcode our entire video catalog to WebM.

So seeing that, say your video you linked is encoded with Indeo in the end it will end up in WebM.

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  • If I uploaded a WebM encoded video at 720p, would YouTube convert it at all or would it simply use the file as-is?
    – Nathan Osman
    Jan 26, 2012 at 1:35
  • I will have to test it. Going to record some videos later and try it out.
    – phwd
    Jan 26, 2012 at 2:18

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