Feedback needed on uploading videos longer than 30 minutes

I am still having massive, day-long uploads to Youtube of footage originally captured in the .MTS format. Doesn't matter if I share directly to Youtube (which gives me a warning that videos longer than 15 minutes may fail, even though my account is verified for videos longer than 15 minutes) or if I export out the video as an .H264 .mov file. It just took more than 6 hours to upload an 19 minute video.

For those of you who regularly upload videos longer than 30 minutes, what are your upload times and is there a way to reduce them by the kind of file your camera is shooting? Should I tell these folks who handed off these .MTS files to me to instead get a camera that shoots .mov files? Or what? Thoughts appreciated.

Douglaseye

I understand the 15 minute warning... FCPX doesn't know that you have permission from youtube to upload longer videos. That wouldn't be an issue for me as I'd never consider uploading directly from FCPX. I'd always create and check my master file before uploading to youtube. Part of the reason is that I often send the same output to multiple places.

I don't understant what the original video format has to do with upload time, though. What is the format of your timeline? What export settings are you using. How fast is your upstream internet connection? Upload time should be a function of video bandwidth and network bandwidth. How long does it take to export to a local hard disk? Maybe the issue is exporting, not uploading.

I didn't think the original video format was an issue, but can't figure this long upload question out. When I exported a master file of this 18-minute video, using the H.264 codec, it produced a file 2.59 GB big, which didn't take long to export to my desktop. The timeline resolution was 1440 X 1080 | 29.97 fps. It took more than 6 hours to upload that to Youtube on my company's network. Not sure what the bandwith is, but 6 hours for an 18-minute video still seems excessive.

Thanks for explaining the 15-minute warning.

So the sharing to vimeo or youtube does two things, it transcodes your timeline, and then up it goes to youtube from there. Here is the rub:

- Even if your project was BG rendered, it will be in Prores, not HQ, not LT, just standard.

- Even if you use optimized media, that is not used for the final render, it uses the original media for the transcode, which in your case is going to take extra extra long. Why?

- Transcoding to h.264 is a very complex conversion from certain formats, in your case is probably AVCHD. .MTS files are containers, they can have different codecs inside.

If your project was background rendered, you can speed up the export process by doing "share, master file" this will use the background renders instead of having to retranscode effect, filter, plugin from the stubborn codec your original files are.

Then bring in that file to a new project in FCP X, and then share to youtube, going from ProRes to h.254 is many times faster.

Darren: Sorry for my ignorance. I did not use optimized media but proxy media when I imported these .MTS files. So, should I share the files out as master files with the .H264 codec or ProRes 444 and then reimport that file as a new project? And then try the YouTube upload?

The confusing part is if you are in proxy mode, it will use the proxies when you share, if you are in original/optimized, I believe it uses the original camera media to transcode the final master. So you need to switch back to original/optimized.

From tests I have done in the past with Red Raw, if I export out a Prores master first, it goes much faster than if I try to go to H.264 right away if background rendering was on. AFAIK, it doesn't have to retranscode the ProRes if your settings are the same for your sharing as your project.

Don't make a Prores 4444, that's not what background rendering is set to, if you do it will have to retranscode the whole thing again. Share it as whatever resolution your project is, and then just standard Prores. It should be much faster.

Then take that Prores file back into FCP X and go to youtube that way. Let me know if that is noticeably different.

Darren: Not to be obtuse (but yes, to be obtuse) should I set my preferences to import the .MTS files initially as 'optimized media'? How do I switch back to original/optimized media if I imported them initially as proxy files? Is 'standard' ProRes the 422 variant? That's what it says for 'Source" when I look at the settings for exporting out my file as a master file.

Douglaseye wrote: I didn't think the original video format was an issue, but can't figure this long upload question out. When I exported a master file of this 18-minute video, using the H.264 codec, it produced a file 2.59 GB big, which didn't take long to export to my desktop.

Ask your network folks about the company upload speed. It sounds like you're only getting about 1.2 Mbit/sec (upload size is about 24.9 Gbit when you add in network overhead divided by 21600 -- the number of seconds in 6b hours). If that is what it is there is nothing you can do other than reduce the size of the upload. Using the HD 720p export will crate a file that is half the size of the HD 1080p setting that it looks like you are using.

I'm so embarrassed, reread the OP and I now understand. My mistake.

Apologies.

Dear Darren: I am not sure what you are embarrassed about. What was your mistake?

I missed the part about this was only having to do with the upload speed to Youtube. Not the creation of the file.

DARREN: I wonder if I had the full SD card structure and not just orphaned .MTS files if I might not be having these upload problems? Or if I should bring in the .MTS files as original media and not proxy files and then do as you suggested -- export them as standard Pro Res files and then reimport them back into FCPX and then on to Youtube.

MARCHYMAN: When I try to do the HD 720P export it creates an .m4v file, not an .mp4, which Youtube doesn't seem to like. It says there's a 675-minute upload for a 14-minute .m4v file and then warns it may have audio/video sync issues. I am ready to give up and move to Adobe Premiere.

You can change the m4v to mp4 with no issue. M4V is a file extension to flag files to open in iTunes.

So I am confused, if you render out a file, and upload to youtube through the website, how long does that take?

The share progress bar has both the rendering of the file combined with the upload time.

So I can just rename the .m4v file to an .mp4 then?

When I just tried to share a 14-minute video to Youtube through FCXP it got to 50 percent fairly quickly and just stalled out there at 50 percent.

I upload 30+ minute videos all the time. I export to a ProRes 422HQ Quicktime file. Then I encode a 1080p file to MP4 with MPEG Streamclip at 25mbps. The file is usually around 4 or 5 GB. I upload the MP4 file to Youtube and it takes maybe an hour or so, often less. Youtube must then process it. HD video quality is not ready right away. I keep all of my videos on private until they are completely processed and whatnot.